PITTSBURGH — Mike Sullivan has spent the past five months praising his team’s resilience, so the longtime Pittsburgh Penguins coach expected a “spirited” reaction after watching his club get pushed around by the New York Rangers on Friday night .
What Sullivan got against Detroit on Sunday wasn’t so much resilience as dominance — the kind that served as a reminder that when the Penguins are healthy and in full swing, they remain as dangerous as ever.
Evgeni Malkin scored three goals to take his career hat-trick to 13 – the second highest among active players – as Pittsburgh overwhelmed the faltering Red Wings 11-2.
Sidney Crosby, Kasperi Kapanen, Jeff Carter, Teddy Blueger, Danton Heinen, Brian Boyle, Bryan Rust and recently acquired Rickard Rakell also scored for the Penguins, who took less than 30 minutes to go 6-0 en route to their premiere to take the lead 11-goal game in nearly 30 years.
“Today was a lot more fun than last night,” said Rust, who added two assists after his 22nd goal of the season. “It was also a lot of fun playing on our tiptoes and not being on our heels at home. I think we just have to take what we did well in that game and build on that.”
Tristan Jarry made 33 saves to win for the sixth time in his last seven starts as Pittsburgh recovered from an unusually listless performance at Madison Square Garden to set the franchise’s first 11-goal game since an 11-5 win over Philadelphia on November 16, 1993.
“I can’t remember the last time a team I played for scored that many goals,” Rust said. “These games are fun. Like I said, it’s just one night. I have to learn from the good guys and move forward.”
2 relatives
The Penguins also stayed a point ahead of Rangers in second place in the tight Metropolitan Division. New York visits the PPG Paints Arena Tuesday night. If the season ended on Sunday, the two rivals would face each other in the first round. And with the first-placed Carolina Hurricanes leading by 93 points, a 2-3 opener against the Penguins and Rangers seems likely.
Dylan Larkin scored his 28th goal for Detroit and Jakub Vrana added his sixth, but it wasn’t nearly enough as the Red Wings lost for the ninth time in 11 games. Alex Nedeljkovic absorbed most of Pittsburgh’s early attack and gave up four goals before being replaced by Calvin Pickard after Carter’s brief 3-18 goal made it 4-0.
Pickard fared no better, giving up four goals on 13 shots before retiring in the third period after colliding with Rakell, forcing Nedeljkovic to come back. He did no better the second time than the first, eventually allowing seven goals to face from 22 total shots.
“We’ve been in the mix of things for a long time all season,” said Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill. “We were happy about that. Now we are not. I’m not sure we feel sorry for ourselves, whatever. Nobody will feel sorry for us. We have to find a way to go out and play a lot better. “
Two days after Pittsburgh was outplayed by the Rangers from the start, Pittsburgh responded by showing the kind of depth they need if they want to make a deep playoff run.
The Penguins added Rakell to deadline last week in hopes of taking some of the scoring pressure off Crosby and Malkin. While the two Superstars had no trouble finding the net against Detroit, they had plenty of help. Five of Pittsburgh’s goals came from players in the bottom six: Carter, Heinen, Kapanen, Blueger and Boyle.
Kapanen scored his second goal in six games by starting the deluge with a pretty move that left him alone with Nedeljkovic. Ein Deke and Kapanen had little trouble tapping the puck into the empty goal for his 11th goal after just 4:16.
The ease with which Kapanen scored was a sign of things to come. Blueger doubled the 14:23 lead in the first with a shot from the rush. Malkin’s first goal – a slap shot on the power play right after a faceoff – made it 3-0 in the second in under 2 minutes. Carter’s shorthanded goal – just the third of the season by Pittsburgh – put it 4-0 and chased Nedeljkovic.
Rust’s goal after Pickard’s entry also gave Malkin 696 career assists, level on points with Hall of Famer Sergei Fedorov for the most by a Russian-born player. Malkin’s hat-trick has given him 16 goals in 30 games since returning from off-season knee surgery.
“When he’s at his best, he’s one of the few players who can take over a game and we’re lucky to have a couple of them on our team,” Sullivan said. “He is a generational talent, he and [Crosby]. In my eyes, Geno is one of the greatest players of all time.”
Goals late in the second second from Larkin and Vrana revived the Red Wings, but only briefly. Crosby’s 24th goal of the season after a nice cross-ice feed from Evan Rodrigues just 77 seconds after Vrana’s strike added even more fuel to an already blazing fire.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.