The Penguins went past regulation with the defending Stanley Cup Champions for the second time this season on Jan. 3 at Amerant Bank Arena.
After Pittsburgh won in overtime back on Dec. 3, the Panthers won in a shootout by a score of 3-2 exactly one month later.
With an assist in his 600th career game, Bryan Rust became the ninth player in Penguins history to record his first 400 points with the team. He set up Sidney Crosby for a second-period power-play goal that evened the score at 1-1 after neither team found the back of the net in the first period.
"Any time you can get a milestone - obviously it's not Sid's 9,000th assist [laughs] - but it's something for me, which is nice,” Rust said. "Hell, it means a lot to me. Any time you can play for one team for a long time and be able to stick with an organization, that says a lot. I have a lot of pride in that... obviously, I love this organization. It’s done a lot of really good things for me, if you can tell – 600 games and 400 points is pretty cool."
There were a lot of special teams in the game, with Matthew Tkachuk putting Florida back in front on the man-advantage at the 8:38 mark of the third. The Penguins, who received two four-minute power plays with a pair of Panthers drawing blood on high sticks, ended up going 2-for-7 on the night after Rickard Rakell forced extra time when he scored with 39.9 seconds remaining in regulation.
Lineup notes: Veteran forward Kevin Hayes slotted in for Anthony Beauvillier after nine games as a healthy scratch, and finished tied for the team lead with five shots on goal. Rookie defenseman Owen Pickering returned to the lineup after missing four games with a concussion, replacing Ryan Shea.
Injury note: Phil Tomasino went feet-first into the end boards in the third period, and needed some help getting off the ice, as he couldn’t put weight on his right leg. The forward did not return to the game.
Here’s what Head Coach Mike Sullivan had to say after the game.
I know you would have preferred the two points, but all things considered, pretty pleased with how your team played tonight? “I thought we played extremely hard. I thought it was another really good hockey game. We had a lot of good opportunities to score. I loved our compete level down the stretch. We get one with the goalie pulled on the power play at the end. I just love the compete of this group right now, and I love the intentions. I think we're trying to play the game the right way. We're not perfect out there, but we're competing hard, and our intentions are in the right spot.”
What can you say about how sharp Tristan Jarry was, especially down the stretch there, helping the guys get to OT? “Yeah, I thought Jars made some good saves. I thought both goalies did at both ends. They had a few good looks. They had some momentum. We had some momentum. It was a real good NHL hockey game. That’s a good team they played. I thought Jars made some good saves.”
How do you feel like Kevin Hayes played in his return? “I liked Hayesy’s game. I thought he was good. He was good on the power play. Especially against a team like this, he's big and strong. So, he can hang onto pucks, and he has great poise with the puck in the offensive zone. I thought he competed hard. He skated more tonight.”
You mentioned before the game how good they are on the forecheck, that they like to dump the puck in and use those big power forwards. How do you feel like your defense held up against that? “I thought we handled it better in this game than we did the last time we played them. Obviously, it's one of the strengths of their game. To their credit, they've bought into playing a north-south game and putting a lot of pucks in. So, we knew that was going to be one of the challenges. It's always one of the challenges when you play against this team. I thought we did a better job tonight.”
What do you think about the way the penalty kill played tonight? “I thought they were solid most of the night. We give up one, but I thought we did a good job disrupting their breakout. I think they’ve scored 30 power-play goals this year, 12 of them are off the rush. So, almost 40% of their goals, they’ve scored off the rush. They're a pretty dangerous team off the rush. I thought our guys did a pretty good job disrupting timing, disrupting flow, made the entries difficult, and that was a big part of game planning against it. They score a goal off the side of the net. It goes off the body and in. But like I said, I thought for the most part, the kill was pretty good.”
