Penguins come through in the clutch, beat Maple Leafs on Michael Bunting's game winner

Matt Vensel, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Dec 7, 2024

Published in Hockey

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PITTSBURGH — The Penguins, by most measures, have been a lousy third-period team all season.

They have blown a bunch of leads. They had allowed the most goals in the NHL in the final frame entering Saturday’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs at PPG Paints Arena. And only the New York Islanders had a worse goal differential in that period than the Penguins, who had been outscored by 15 goals during the third.

Saturday’s matchup against a first-place Leafs team was tied after two periods. But the Penguins pulled together and confidently skated away with a big 5-2 victory.

Pittsburgh grabbed the lead for the third and final time with 14:26 remaining in regulation. Michael Bunting buried the go-ahead goal on the power play. It was a busted play. The puck pinballed right to him, and he slammed it into an open net.

Bunting, who is from Toronto and spent two seasons with the Leafs, made sure to take a quick glance at his former teammates before fist pumping down his bench.

Blake Lizotte gave them some breathing room by hitting an empty net in a 6-on-4 situation. Kris Letang added another to make a tight game look a little lopsided.

Saturday’s result made it five wins in the last six games for the surging Penguins.

Despite the hundreds of empty seats that have been the norm at PPG Paints Arena this fall, there was a lively atmosphere for this border battle. There was a bunch of blue sweaters in the building. And on at least one occasion, the hometown crowd had to shout to drown out a “Go Leafs Go!” chant from our friends from Canada.

Pittsburgh was coming off a sloppy loss to the New York Rangers on Friday, and it was more of the same in Saturday’s first period. Good thing Tristan Jarry came to play. He made 10 saves, seven on shots from the slot, during the opening period.

The Penguins grabbed the lead 4:39 into the game on a power-play tally by leading goalscorer Rickard Rakell. But they relinquished it just under two minutes later, when Marcus Pettersson lost a battle to Mitch Marner, who tucked in a rebound.

The Leafs pushed for a go-ahead goal and nearly got it when Simon Benoit hit the post. Moments later, Bryan Rust beat Joseph Woll to put the Penguins back in front. Rust capitalized after a Sidney Crosby miss catapulted to him off the back boards.

It again looked like the Penguins would give up a lead in short order when William Nylander barged in on a breakaway. But Jarry turned aside the All-Star forward.

The second period was less eventful, with the best scoring chances for each team coming while on the power play. The visitors converted one 2:32 into that period. Nylander ripped a one-timer from the left circle past Jarry to make it a 2-2 game.

The penalty kill has quietly been a problem for the Penguins for a few weeks now. They have surrendered at least one power-play goal in eight of their last 13 games while allowing the opposition to score on 11 of 39 opportunities over that span.

Jarry made 11 of his 26 saves in the third period to extend his win streak to four.

Ice chips

— Philip Tomasino, who scored three goals in his first five games with the Penguins, sat out the game with an upper-body injury that he suffered Friday in New York.

— Cody Glass replaced Tomasino on the second line for the start of Saturday’s game. That was one of several lineup changes from Penguins coach Mike Sullivan, who on Friday was furious about how his team played in its loss against the Rangers. Sullivan also shook up the power play, splitting his stars up within the two units.

— Both Ryan Graves and Jesse Puljujarvi got back into the lineup after being healthy scratches in recent games. Matt Nieto and Ryan Shea were Saturday’s scratches.

— Rookie defenseman Owen Pickering played next to Letang on the top pair.

Coming up

Penguins players will have a scheduled off day Sunday. They will practice Monday ahead of Tuesday’s matchup against the Los Angeles Kings at PPG Paints Arena.

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