Jeff Carter scored twice, Sidney Crosby scored a beautiful goal, and the Pittsburgh Penguins outscored the Colorado Avalanche to win 5-2 on Wednesday at Ball Arena.
The Penguins (35-26-10) responded in superb fashion following suffering four straight losses, a streak during which they scored just seven goals.
They showed very little confidence in Monday’s loss at home to the Ottawa Senators.
It was quite the opposite this time, when the Pittsburgh players played with robustness, blocked many shots, and fired 45 shots themselves on the cage of Alexander Georgiev.
We can therefore speak of a crucial gain for Mike Sullivan’s men, who are one point ahead of the Florida Panthers in the race for draft teams, with eleven games to play on either side.
Conversely, the Avalanche (41-23-6) saw their six-game winning streak – tied for their longest winning streak of the season – cut short.
After a scoreless first period, Crosby set the tone for the second period with a typical No. 87 goal.
The Pittsburgh captain pulled down Samuel Girard on the offensive blue line, before serving Georgiev a backhand shot into the top corner that only “Sid” has the recipe for.
That’s how Crosby tied the legendary Mario Lemieux for the most 30-goal seasons in Penguins history, eleven.
Crosby is also the first player in NHL history to record a 30-goal season at age 18 and then 35.
“The first year, we want to prove that we have our place. Even at 35, I think you still want to prove that you belong, because it’s a younger league. You just want to keep making sure your game is performing as it should be. That’s what I’m trying to do,” the Penguins captain said following the game.
That goal seemed to whip the visitors, who added a goal 2:55 later, courtesy of Jake Guentzel, who showed his tennis skills to beat the Colorado keeper on the volley.
JT Compher narrowed the gap to one goal shortly following Guentzel’s net, but the Penguins’ power play struck once once more, this time through Jeff Carter.
That same Carter dealt the Avalanche a hard blow by deflecting a shot past Georgiev to make it 4-2 at 12:51 of the final period.
Carter’s first goal—which turned out to be the game-winning goal—was the 88th game-winning goal of his career. Only Alex Ovechkin (124) has more game-winning goals among active players.
After two unsuccessful attempts by Tristan Jarry for the empty net, Bryan Rust made the insurance goal with 18.5 seconds to go.
Jarry made 28 saves, five of them at the expense of Nathan MacKinnon.
“I thought it was a solid effort from start to finish. I found the guys fought hard. We paid the price to win,” head coach Mike Sullivan said of his men’s effort.
Avalanche star defenseman Cale Makar missed a second straight game following suffering an injury in practice earlier in the week.
