Penguins defeat Sharks for eighth straight win after 13-day break

PITTSBURGH --Evan Rodrigues and Bryan Rust each had a hat trick, and the Pittsburgh Penguins extended their win streak to eight in their first game in 14 days with an 8-5 victory against the San Jose Sharks at PPG Paints Arena on Sunday.

Rust scored five points (three goals, two assists) after missing 11 games with a lower-body injury, and Jake Guentzel extended his personal point streak to 14 for the Penguins (18-8-5), who last played since Dec. 19, a 3-2 win at the New Jersey Devils, before having five games postponed due to COVID-19 concerns. Casey DeSmith made 22 saves.
Rust had two goals in 12 games before Sunday.
"I was just happy to be back in the lineup out there," Rust said. "Playing again and being around the guys, doing all that. To have the night I did is just kind of the cherry on top."
Logan Couture scored in his 800th NHL game, Timo Meier had three assists and Zach Sawchenko made 20 saves in his NHL debut for the Sharks (17-15-1), who scored four straight goals after falling behind 6-1. Sawchenko entered at the start of the second period after James Reimer allowed six goals on 17 shots in the first.
"Obviously, it wasn't how you draw it up," Sawchenko said. "But at the end of the day, you're kind of tapped on your shoulder. … We're professionals here, we have a job to do. I understood the situation we were in. I was trying to give the team a spark. Luckily enough, we made a comeback and just fell a little short there."

The Penguins scored on four of their first six shots.
Rodrigues made it 1-0 on Pittsburgh's first shot at 1:03 of the first. He deked above San Jose defenseman Radim Simek to the slot for a wrist shot.
Guentzel, who missed five games with an upper-body injury, took a pass from Rust for a one-timer that made it 2-0 at 3:12.
Rodrigues scored on a backhand, extending the lead to 3-0 at 4:11, and Rust made it 4-0 with a wrist shot from the slot at 6:09.
Alexander Barabanov cut it to 4-1 at 15:33 of the first, knocking down a pass from Meier for a tap-in.
Kasper Bjorkqvist scored in his NHL debut, pushing the lead to 5-1 at 16:29 of the first, and Rust made it 6-1 on a one-timer with 28 seconds remaining in the period.
"We couldn't stop it," Sharks coach Bob Boughner said. "We tried to call a timeout. We tried switching things up. It was ugly."
Brent Burns cut it to 6-2 with a power-play goal at 14:27 of the second.
Matt Nieto dumped the puck off the end boards before it bounced back and went off DeSmith 20 seconds into the third period to make it 6-3.

Erik Karlsson cut it to 6-4 with a slap shot at 3:01 before Couture tapped in a pass from Meier to make it 6-5 at 4:09.
"You never know what's going to happen," Karlsson said. "If you would've told us that it would be a one-goal game with two and a half, three minutes left in the third, I don't think anyone would believe you. But I think once that first period was over with, we just kept a short memory and we tried to do everything we could to establish our game moving forward."
Rodrigues completed his first NHL hat trick on a power play to make it 7-5 with 2:01 remaining before Rust scored his third of the game for his fifth NHL hat trick on an empty-net goal with 11 seconds left for the 8-5 final.
"We obviously got off to that hot start," Rodrigues said. "Everyone was kind of feeling good, then we got up 6-1. It's kind of a mental battle, trying to stay engaged. In your head, you know you have to. But sometimes, it's just natural to let your foot off the gas a little bit."
NOTES: Rodrigues and Rust are the second set of teammates in the past 10 years to have a hat trick in the same game (Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Leon Draisaitl in the Edmonton Oilers' 8-4 win against the Los Angeles Kings on March 26, 2019). … The Penguins' six first-period goals are tied for the most in their history (Feb. 21, 1976, against the Chicago Blackhawks). … Guentzel became the second Penguins player in the past 10 years to have at least one point in 14 straight appearances (Pascal Dupuis, 17 games in 2011-12). Guentzel scored 19 points (12 goals, seven assists) on an NHL career-long 13-game point streak before being injured in a 6-1 win against the Seattle Kraken on Dec. 6. … Pittsburgh forwards Sidney Crosby and Danton Heinen, and defensemen Kris Letang and Marcus Pettersson each had two assists. … Sharks forward Rudolfs Balcers (lower body) will likely miss at least another week, Boughner said. He has been out since Dec. 3.