“What a difference a day makes.”
That line from Mike Sullivan – who became the 21st head coach in NHL history to coach 700 games with one team on Saturday – perfectly summed up Pittsburgh’s 5-2 win over Toronto at PPG Paints Arena.
He wasn’t pleased with his team’s effort in their loss to the Rangers on Friday in New York, and to the players’ credit, they responded with what Sullivan felt was their most complete game of the year.
“Nobody was happy with how the game went last night. We were all coming into the room and (saying) we’ve got to be a lot better. I thought we were,” Bryan Rust said.
“We just played harder. Came out from the drop of the puck. That team was physical, they played hard, they played in your face. For the most part, we matched that. Played really hard. (Tristan Jarry) was great. Special teams were pretty good. Overall, it was a good win.”
Jarry made 25 stops for his fourth win in a row, putting his tough start to the season further and further behind him with his mindset of just trying to get better every day.
“You see he’s got confidence. But Jars is Jars,” Rust said with a smile. “It doesn’t matter what’s been going on this year. He’s been coming to the rink, he’s been working hard. Obviously, it’s not been a great year mentally for him. He’s come back and he’s shown a lot of resilience. That’s huge. Our team notices that. Our room notices that. When he’s at his game, that just kind of helps rally our team.”
Michael Bunting scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period to put Pittsburgh up 3-2. Jarry and the penalty killers then had a tough task late in regulation with Rust going to the box for high sticking.
Not only did the Penguins preserve the lead – they built on it. Blake Lizotte scored a shorthanded empty-netter during 6-on-4 play, his fourth goal in the past six games.
Despite dealing with some tough breaks injury-wise in the first season of a two-year deal signed in free agency, the 26-year-old forward has been such an asset when healthy, as the Penguins now have points in 10 of 13 games when Lizotte is in the lineup.
"Lizzo's been great. He's a buzzsaw, he's a stop out there,” Bunting said. “So, he's been fun to play with and he's been a great addition to this team. That was a great effort for that empty-net goal, even though it was an empty-net goal. That was unreal that he was able to win that battle and shoot it down the ice."
Kris Letang followed that up with another shorthanded empty-netter to seal the win. In addition to those two tallies, the Penguins opened the scoring with a power-play goal less than five minutes into play.
The coaching staff tinkered with the units after going 0-for-4 against the Rangers, and the changes paid off. The first goal was credited to Rickard Rakell, who got a piece of Matt Grzelyck’s shot.
