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Pens/Wild Recap: Minnesota stomps Pittsburgh 6-2

Pittsburgh gives up 3 goals on the penalty kill and loses 6-2 to the Minnesota Wild

By Hooks Orpik
Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports

1st period

Just 40 seconds into the game the Wild strike. Nick Bonino wins a d-zone draw but Brian Dumoulin's clearing effort is held in the zone and then Zach Parise outmuscles Dumoulin in front of the net and gets a shot off. The loose puck rolls behind Marc-Andre Fleury and then Charlie Coyle beats Trevor Daley to slam it home for a goal.

Wild keep it up and make it 2-0 on a power play when Jonas Brodin blows a shot from the point by Fleury.

Jake Guentzel starts a great play on Ryan Suter to help the puck along to Evgeni Malkin. Malkin makes a sweet cross-ice pass over to Phil Kessel who quickly fires it in the net.

Late in the period, Kris Letang chips a puck to the middle of the ice and right to Coyle, who scores his second goal of the game with the gift. 3-1

2nd period

Zach Parise scores glove-high on Fleury on the power play to push it to 4-1.

It gets worse when Ian Cole goes for a ride trying to block Mikael Granlund's effort and Cole is....um let's just say unsuccessful.

Shots at the end of 2 are just 27-24 Minny. Goals a much more commanding 5-1.

3rd period

Bryan Rust with a slick behind the back tip on a Scott Wilson centering effort that eludes Dubnyk to make it 5-2 5:50 in. The Pens aren't really in the game, but a small sliver of hope it won't be ugly.

But nope, Nino Niederreiter tips a Granlund centering pass past a hapless Fleury for a 3rd MN power play goal to extend the lead to 6-2.

Some Thoughts

  • First period alone, a few defensive miscues and no goalie bailouts makes it 3-1 in a hurry. Meanwhile at the other end, every time the Pens get a puck at Devan Dubnyk, he hoover's it up and holds for a freeze.
  • Nice job in the second period by Olli Maatta to break up a 2-on-1 without giving up a shot. Hey, stretching for positives here.
  • The coaches have been wanting Kessel to shoot more, his 5 SOG were tied for most on the team and 8 total shot attempts. That also was a little bit of good in a big sea of bad.
  • Penalty kill was bad with 3 goals against in 4 chances. The power play was as bad with 0 goals in 3 attempts.

One game good, one game bad. Story of the season for the Pens so far. Maybe that means good things for tomorrow night against NJD.

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