Tim Benz: Penguins beat Kings 'at their own game' — who would have thought it 3 weeks ago?

Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic summed up the team’s 3-2 overtime victory against the Los Angeles Kings in the most succinct way possible.

“I thought we did a great job of staying with it and beating them at their own game in a way,” Nedeljkovic said.

The final score, the opponent and much of the game flow certainly backed up Nedeljkovic’s assessment.

The Kings entered PPG Paints Arena on Tuesday night winners in seven of their past eight games. None of those games featured Los Angeles’ opposition scoring more than three goals. During that stretch, the Kings were yielding a minuscule 1.50 goals per game. Their season-long goals-against average of 2.50 to start the night was tied with the Dallas Stars for the best mark in hockey.

That’s why they came to Pittsburgh with 39 points, which is good for second-best in the Pacific Division.

“They play a certain brand of hockey that sets them up for success, and they have for a while. They are a good team. They are hard to play against. Their defensive metrics are as good as any team in the league,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said after the win. “Their DNA has always been on the defensive side. They have always played the game with structure.”

Yet the frequently careless, far too loosey-goosey, questionable puck-managing Penguins were hanging with the Kings in a very L.A. style of game, down just 2-1 in the third period before Matt Grzelcyk scored his first goal of the season with 5:35 left.

MATT GRZELCYK'S FIRST GOAL AS A PENGUIN TIES THE GAME! ☝️

????: Sportsnet pic.twitter.com/lWn2Ei2CtM

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) December 18, 2024

“They kind of sit back and pounce when you are least expecting it,” Grzelcyk said. “I thought they got the better of us early. But as the game went along, we persevered. That should give us some confidence going forward that we can win in these tight games.”

Grzelcyk was right about the Penguins’ poor start. They continued an all too frequent trend of allowing a goal in the opening moments of the first period as Nedeljkovic was beaten by Adrian Kempe 33 seconds into the game.

WHO ELSE BUT ADRIAN KEMPE pic.twitter.com/5MT1ktDx1Z

— LA Kings (@LAKings) December 18, 2024

But credit the Pens for not chasing, continuing to play with Kings-esque structure and largely locking things down from there. Los Angeles scored just once more over the next 63 minutes of game action.

Kudos to Nedeljkovic as well for stopping 28 of the next 29 shots he saw, knowing that the margin for error was extremely slim against the stingy Kings after spotting them an immediate 1-0 lead.

“He played really good for us,” Pens winger Rickard Rakell said of his goalie. “They have some really dangerous players on that team. He has to feel really good being a huge part of our win.”

It was Rakell who paid off the dogged, consistent effort by the Penguins in regulation with an overtime goal to win it.

Stylin’ Profilin’ Rickard Rakell. pic.twitter.com/TH1sTZZHrW

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) December 18, 2024

“We were just trying to make the play that was there. The simple play,” Nedeljkovic said. “And if it wasn’t there, we were living to fight another day and getting pucks deep. They were doing the same thing. That’s the identity of that team — a very disciplined type of game. They don’t force a lot of things. They prey on turnovers and try to out-discipline the other team.”

Yet, to Nedeljkovic’s opening point, it could be argued that the Pens “out-disciplined” L.A. on Tuesday night.

That’s not a description you would’ve used to characterize many Penguins games leading up to Thanksgiving when the franchise was 7-12-4.

We have been able to do that a bit more of late, though. The Pens have won seven of their past 10 games and are now within a point of a wild card spot with 33 points. That seemed like a pipe dream as recently as the 6-1 loss to Utah on home ice back on Nov. 23.

The next step for Sullivan’s team is to go from beating teams like L.A. at their own game to making his own team realize that it should be their game every night.

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