Tim Benz: Penguins put a lot of pieces together in a 'go figure' type of win in Colorado

Heading into Wednesday night’s game in Denver, the Pittsburgh Penguins needed all the stars to align to get a win. It would have to be the ultimate, “Hey, go figure! That’s hockey, eh?” kind of victory.

Sure enough, that’s what happened.

The Penguins, losers of four in a row, were just coming off a mind-numbing 2-1 home loss to the sub-mediocre Ottawa Senators. They lost their hold on the final Eastern Conference playoff spot. They had scored three goals in their past three games.

They were spiraling.

Meanwhile, the defending Stanley Cup Champion Colorado Avalanche had won six in a row and had outscored their last three opponents 15-5.

So, naturally, the Penguins won 5-2.

It may be tempting to chalk up Wednesday’s result to the Penguins just being “due” or playing with necessary desperation. You could fall back on “hidden vigorish,” or the notion of “always bet the other way” from public opinion, or simply that all good and bad streaks must come to an end.

But the truth is the Penguins did a lot right against a quality opponent, and the team rediscovered some missing attributes to their game to sync up with a special night from some stars.

Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel got the scoring started in the second period. Nothing surprising there as they are the top goal-scorers on the team with 30 and 31 respectively.

How they did it was the story, though.

Crosby scored a turn-back-the-clock, prototype Crosby goal by thundering into the offensive zone, undressing defenseman Sam Girard and lasering a backhander past Alexandar Georgriev.

Then Guentzel scored a prototype Crosby goal too, by batting a fluttering puck out of mid-air to give the Penguins a two-goal lead.

Simply Sidsational.

With this goal, Sidney Crosby hits the 30-goal milestone for his 11th season. Only 19 other players in NHL history have accomplished this feat. He also ties Mario Lemieux for the most 30-goal campaigns in team history. pic.twitter.com/rBOw83V7wQ

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) March 23, 2023

Jake Guentzel has seven goals in his last nine games ???? pic.twitter.com/adY4p0iXXZ

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) March 23, 2023

But beyond their leading scorers finding the back of the net, a number of others things coalesced for the Penguins as they finally snapped an ill-timed losing streak.

• Struggling forward Jeff Carter scored twice. He hadn’t done so since Feb. 26.

• Depth forwards Drew O’Connor and Josh Archibald were impactful. O’Connor had an assist and five shots. Archibald had four hits and was disruptive to the Avalanche, particularly in some tone-setting moments early in the game.

• Much as was the case Monday in the loss against Ottawa, goaltender Tristan Jarry wasn’t tested as much as the goaltender in the opposing net. Georgriev saw 48 shots, Jarry only faced 32. But some of the looks were high quality against a Colorado team that scored 24 goals in its previous five games. Yet he yielded just two goals.

• A power play that was dormant for three games scored twice.

• The Penguins were able to protect a two-goal lead and a third-period lead. Those have been bugaboos for much of the season for coach Mike Sullivan’s team. However, on Wednesday, Carter scored the fourth goal of the game after the Avs trimmed a 2-0 deficit to 2-1 in the second period. And when Colorado closed the margin to 3-2 in the third, Carter scored again and Bryan Rust added an empty-netter for the 5-2 final.

• Brian Dumoulin had an assist, was plus-2 and generated four shots. During the four-game losing streak, he had no points and was a minus-6.

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Many things came together for the Penguins at exactly the right time against exactly the right opponent. The win put the team back in the Eastern Conference’s last playoff spot, at least for today.

Now they just have to turn around and replicate those results Thursday night against the Central Division-leading Stars in Dallas.

With 11 games left and the playoff race as tight as it is, the Penguins have skated themselves into a position where an outcome such as the one they authored in Colorado has to be the rule, rather than the exception.