Penguins Get a Much-Needed Two Points in Confidence-Boosting 10-2 Win over San Jose

Where to even begin with Pittsburgh’s 10-2 win over San Jose on Saturday at SAP Center?

It was one of those nights where so many players had strong individual efforts as part of the much-needed victory, which snapped a three-game losing streak.

“It’s huge for us, just mentally and confidence-wise for a lot of people,” Jake Guentzel said. “Whenever you can score or get some points, it's nice. For us, hopefully it kind of gives us a lot of confidence going forward.”

Here are a few of the highlights:

- Guentzel became the fastest player from his 2013 draft class – where the Penguins selected him in the third round – to record 200 goals, reaching the mark in 463 games and beating the likes of Nathan MacKinnon and Aleksander Barkov. “Fortunate to play with good players. Obviously, nice play by Rusty on that one,” he said before adding with a smile, “a lot have been tap-ins and nice plays. But I'm just fortunate to play in this league and to be able to score goals.”

Guentzel had two goals and two assists to make him one of three Penguins who registered four-point nights, along with Bryan Rust (1G-3A) and Reilly Smith (2G-2A). Evgeni Malkin also tallied twice.

- Sidney Crosby played in his 1,200^th NHL game, making the filthiest pass to set up Kris Letang for Pittsburgh’s sixth goal of the night.

- Matt Nieto recorded his first point as a Penguin – his 200^th in the NHL – with a goal in his return to San Jose, where he and Erik Karlsson received a warm welcome back.

- Vinnie Hinostroza scored in his Penguins debut after slotting in on the fourth line for Jeff Carter, with the veteran a healthy scratch. “Obviously, this is where you want to be, helping the team win,” he said. “Feels great to contribute but it's only one game, so I think definitely not satisfied, and I want to keep getting better every day.”

- P.O Joseph, back in the lineup for the first time since Oct. 18 at Detroit, played in his 100^th NHL game and collected an assist.

“It felt good to get a win, but first and foremost, it felt good to see some pucks go in the net,” Rust said. “For a lot of guys in here, it was nice to get some goals and get some confidence offensively.”

That being said, of course, the result was the most important takeaway. It’s been a tough stretch for the Penguins in that regard, after dropping five of their last six to put them at the bottom of the Eastern Conference. 

“We know where we are in the standings,” Guentzel said. “We needed to be desperate, we needed the win, the two points.”

“I don’t think we like where we are this early in the season,” Rust agreed. “Don’t like our record, don’t like some of the results. So, we knew we had to come out here tonight and try to get the win.”

It was a resilient win in the sense that in addition to feeling that pressure, the Penguins were surrounded by some additional tough circumstances coming in. Like coming off a four-day break that included a cross-country flight and a three-hour time change; and expecting a response from the winless Sharks (now 0-10-1) after their 10-1 loss to Vancouver on Thursday. And to their credit, the Penguins responded with a strong effort like this.

“I've said on a number of occasions here in the last little while that we felt like we've put stretches of games together where we think we've played well, and we haven't got rewarded for it,” Head Coach Mike Sullivan said. “Tonight, we did. It should be one that we can build on. I hope it'll be a boost of confidence for a lot of guys.”

It took Pittsburgh all of 90 seconds to begin their onslaught of goals in the victory. Smith’s first of the night came on the power play, while his second gave Pittsburgh a 2-0 lead entering the first intermission. In that opening 20 minutes, Tristan Jarry was the Penguins’ best player as his teammates got their feet under them.

“Jars made some key saves and was able to kind of tilt the ice our way a little bit. I think both teams were giving up too many chances and we were capitalizing on them early, obviously,” Smith said. “Then when the game gets out of hand like that, it's obviously tough to play just your regular system.

“So, I think we did a good job overall, but there are things we need to work on. But just try to keep that positive momentum. Obviously, there's a lot of confidence that can be gained from scoring 10 goals.”

Five of those came in second period. Guentzel and Hinostroza scored just over a minute apart, with the Sharks using their timeout to try and settle the game down – and to their credit, San Jose did get a power-play goal. But the Penguins remained relentless.

Malkin lined up a pass from Smith and buried it. Letang finished off a no-look, between-the-legs drop pass from the captain. Nieto banged home a rebound off the rush to end Mackenzie Blackwood’s night. In the final frame, Rust, Malkin, and Guentzel kept it going to help the Penguins hit double digits.

Tonight was a tremendous start to their three-game road trip through California. Now, they just need to keep it going in their Tuesday rematch with the Ducks, who handed Pittsburgh a discouraging loss in Pittsburgh on Monday.

“Obviously, we got to learn from the good things that went on here, and we got to park it, reset. Got a big game coming up,” Rust said.