PITTSBURGH (AP) — The coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Mike Sullivan is not thrilled with what he sees on the ice these days.
The dashboard is another matter.
Kasperi Kapanen and Jeff Carter scored nine seconds apart in the third period to eliminate a two-goal deficit, and Sidney Crosby scored the only goal in the penalty shootout, while the Penguins rallied Winnipeg 3-2, tired of the road, on Sunday to win their fifth consecutive victory.
Pittsburgh traipsed around for more than 40 minutes and spent way too much time chasing the jets around the PPG Paints battleground. This is not an ideal recipe for a team that wants to make a playoff race.
But Sullivan’s team is competing in the midst of mistakes. For now, he will take it.
“I thought it was a top game on both sides and luckily we found a way to win,” he said. “But I don’t think this is the game we want to play most nights.”
Another spectacular performance by star keeper Tristan Jarry, a lucky bounce on Kapanen’s skate and a mistake by Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck let the Penguins escape anyway.
Kapanen began the climb by redirecting a pass from Evgeni Malkin to put Pittsburgh back on a 6:55 goal in the third period. The noise had barely fallen when Carter created the tie after overturning the hellebuyck clearance attempt and blocking a shot in the open net before Helleybuyck was able to return to position.
“We know we didn’t play right in the first two periods,” Penguins defenseman Kris Letang said. “We returned to work. If we play a 60-minute game, as we did at the end, we will be on the safe side.”
Jarry, a star for the second time, made 27 stops. He pushed back several bizarre tricks in the first two periods and then made a sprawling stop on Blake Wheeler in extra time.
Eight months after the collapse of the playoffs against the New York Islanders, Jarry is one of the reasons why Pittsburgh is in the middle of a tight race at the top of the Metropolitan division at the halfway point of the season.
“He’s a guy who lives in the present,” Letang said of Jarry. “He will focus on the right thing to do in the present moment.”
The win was perhaps the most improbable in the Penguins’ current seven-game series at home, which began after a loss in Montreal on Nov. 27.
Kyle Connor scored his 22nd goal of the season for the Jets. Wheeler scored in his second home game from a lower-body wounds that forced him to miss more than a month.
Hellebuyck made 36 stops, but Winnipeg finished 3-3-2 during a three-week trip that began on January 1. 2 and included competitions in three different time zones.
“We played a very good game today,” Jets interim coach Dave Lowry said. “I like the resilience of our group.”
Despite playing their second game in less than 24 hours, the Jets hardly seemed tired. Not so much for the Penguins, who, despite their dismissal on Saturday after a win in Columbus on Friday night, sometimes a little slow in front of a team that has not played in its own battleground for five weeks due to recent time .
Wheeler has lost little time to take the lead on the Jets, taking a pass from Mark Scheifele and disabling it is a setback over the glove-Jarry 3:28 into the first period.
Winnipeg had the opportunity to double its advantage twice in the final period, but Jarry pushed Connor and Wheeler outliers back.
Connor got some revenge in 8 min 11 s of the second twenty when he retrieved a cross net from Paul Stastny and buried a laser from the right circle to give a 2-0 lead.
Hellebuyck kept Pittsburgh at bay until midway through the third, when Kapanen’s skate scored his ninth goal. Carter added his 12th on a shot from the corner just over the goal line.
“I just had a after decision because it looked like it was going to be frosty for a second,” Hellebuyck said after falling to 1-3-2 in his last six starts. “Then when I decided, my only game was to put it behind the net and they only have one guy side open right there. It looks like I’m in luck right now.”
NOTES: Letang appeared at his 900th birthday party. Play with the Penguins and joined Crosby, Malkin and Hall of Fame member Mario Lemieux as the only players to have reached this milestone in the franchise’s history. … The best 10-point sequence in Letang’s career ended. … Pittsburgh lost C Teddy Blueger in the first period after a shot by Winnipeg defenseman Brendan Dillon against the glass left Blueger bloodied.
Tags: Penguins, shootout, weary