“Watching it from the bench, the pace of the game was extremely high,” Mike Sullivan said. “Both teams were defending hard. There’s a lot of skill on both sides, so they end up getting opportunities because of the talent level on both sides. That’s what I felt.”
The only thing the Penguins head coach would change ahead of Tuesday’s rematch in Pittsburgh to close out this home-and-home series?
“The result.”
Despite tying the game on a goal from Mike Matheson with just over five minutes left to play, the Avalanche answered back mere 27 seconds later to regain a 3-2 lead, which stood as the final score. It was the second time in the contest Pittsburgh gave up a quick-response goal.
“Definitely something to learn from,” the Penguins defenseman said. “Those are important shifts coming off a goal. Whether it’s a goal against or a goal for, you want to follow it up with a strong shift. So definitely something to think about and get better at.“
And even though the Penguins got the game’s first power play just 16 seconds after that, they weren’t able to find a way to get another one.
“I think in a close game like that, we’ve got to be able to focus and find a way to generate more than we did,” Crosby said. “We got a shot on net in that one, get a bad break with (Jake Guentzel)’s stick there. I think for the most part though, it’s not something you see very often. Hopefully we can take advantage of it if we’re in that position again.”
But the good far outweighed the bad in this one, even though the Penguins weren’t able to grab at least a point. Sullivan doesn’t love calling matchups like these “measuring stick games,” as ultimately, he feels the only one the Penguins hold up should be to themselves. But the way that the Penguins went toe-to-toe with the best team in the league for most of the night was definitely a huge positive.
“I don’t really know the stats, but just off feeling, it felt like we were in their zone a lot more than they were in ours and felt like we had more chances than they did,” Matheson said. “I think we probably deserve to win that one. Right now, they’re looking like the best team in the league in terms of points, so I think it’s a good step in the right direction for us.”
Everyone was moving their feet from the drop of the puck, which led to a ton of flow, but neither one could break through in the first period. Avalanche goalie Darcy Kuemper was especially good early, but at the same time, the Penguins had some chances that they normally would have converted on.
It led to a decent amount of head-shaking on the bench as the players fired up the iPads, especially after Guentzel couldn’t finish after beating Kuemper with a forehand-backhand deke in the second period after Mikko Rantanen opened the scoring.
“There’s probably some pucks laying around we would’ve liked to bury,” said Crosby, who scored Pittsburgh’s other goal. “Guentz has one really good look there in the second period, it rolls off his stick. They had some big blocks, but he was solid. I mean, give him credit. He made some big saves; Jars made some big saves. Both the goalies did their part to keep their team in the game. It was close. I think that with the quality of looks we had, we’d like to put a few more in.”
But the Avs got what Tristan Jarry termed “a good home team bounce,” and defenseman Devon Toews buried it. They’re a dangerous team who doesn’t need much, and that was basically the difference today. But looking back at this two-game road trip as a whole that started with a 4-3 overtime win over Minnesota, Crosby felt like they performed really well against two good teams who have been playing some great hockey as of late.
“I thought for the most part, our game was pretty solid on both sides of the puck,” Crosby said. “So today’s a tight hockey game, similar to Minnesota, where it’s not going to take much either way to change the outcome. We’ve just got to make sure that we keep playing the same way, and find a way to tilt it our way when we’re in close games like that.”
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