ST. PAUL, Minn. -- This game was not supposed to be anything special.
Sure, it featured a couple of pretty fair clubs -- the Penguins and Wild -- sharing a slab of ice, but it wasn't billed as anything more compelling than, well, NHL Regular Season Game No. 1,079.
And understandably so.
These teams don't have a historical rivalry of which to speak. They don't operate out of the same division. Or even the same conference, for that matter.
But on this night, they co-existed like a couple of scorpions sharing a bottle.
A very small bottle.
"It was an intense game all around," Jake Guentzel said.
Intense.
That's one word for it.
One word that seems terribly inadequate to capture the ferocity of what was transpiring at Xcel Energy Center.
The Penguins didn't just compete during what would become a 4-3 overtime victory when Evgeni Malkin, on the third try, punched a puck past Minnesota goalie Cam Talbot at the right post with 63 seconds remaining in the extra period.
They battled.
Enough to earn them two points, or roughly one for every 100 contusions and abrasions with which they exited the building.
It was playoff-intensity hockey, occasionally infused with tenderness of a barroom brawl.
The Penguins came out of it somewhat battered and bruised -- the best evidence of that came a few hours after the game, when they called off the practice scheduled for Friday in Denver -- but definitely not beaten.
"It had a playoff feel to it, in so many ways," Mike Sullivan said. "It was physical. There were great plays made on both sides."
Jake Guentzel said it was "as good of an effort as we could have," and while that might have been a bit of an overstatement, it's no accident that Minnesota sits third in the Western Conference.
For beyond the obvious offensive talents of players like Kirill Kaprizov and Mats Zuccarello, the Wild can play an extremely physical game.
If the Penguins packed extra ice for their postgame flight to Colorado, it wasn't because they were concerned about keeping their beverages cold.
That the Wild were credited with just 12 hits was comical, unless the statisticians only counted the ones that registered on seismographs. Or if they stopped keeping track a few shifts into the opening period.
"It was definitely one of the more physical games we've been in," John Marino said. "We knew that going into it. They have a heavy team. We knew what to expect from them."
Although the game did not have the goaltending matchup -- Tristan Jarry vs. Marc-Andre Fleury -- that many wanted, Casey DeSmith and Talbot acquitted themselves well.
DeSmith finished with 28 saves, Talbot with 35. Both totals included several shots that seemed all but certain to reach the back of the net.
"I thought both goalies played well," Sullivan said. "They made big saves."
DeSmith acknowledged that "I'm happy with how I played," and Sullivan was considerably less restrained when discussing his goaltender.
"I'm real happy for Casey," he said. "He's working hard, trying to keep his game at the top level. He gets a start like this -- an important game against a real good team that's won an awful lot of games lately -- and I thought he made some real big saves."
DeSmith didn't have to come up with many of those after Kaprizov tied the game, 3-3, at 1:02 of the third period, completing the Wild's comeback from a 3-1 deficit.
The game certainly could have gotten away from the Penguins at that point, but they maintained their composure and fought Minnesota on even terms through the end of regulation.
"I thought we did a great job bouncing back, not letting the momentum get away from us," DeSmith said.
That had happened to them during the first period. They dominated the early minutes of play, and Rickard Rakell deflected in a Marino shot to stake them to a lead 66 seconds into the game.
The Wild eventually rebounded, however, and pulled even on a Matt Dumba goal at 10:51.
Jake Guentzel, off a Kris Letang setup, put the Penguins back in front during a power play at 1:54 of the second, and Rakell converted a Sidney Crosby feed during a 2-on-1 break at 9:49.
But Minnesota pared their lead to 3-2 before the second intermission, and pulled even when Kaprizov scored.
The Wild could have seized control of the game at that point, but didn't. Mostly because the Penguins wouldn't allow it.
"I loved our resilience," Sullivan said. "We didn't get deflated when we got scored against. We just kept playing the game."
Good idea. And even better execution, as the Wild managed to generate just four shots through the rest of regulation.
"The building was loud and we just had to stick with it," Guentzel said. "Stay with what we were doing."
They did just that, until Malkin brought an abrupt end to the proceedings by swatting the Penguins' seventh shot of overtime past Talbot.
That goal gave the Penguins a tangible payoff for a performance that had few significant flaws.
"I loved it," Sullivan said. "I thought it was a complete effort, top to bottom."
It was the kind his team will need to replicate on a regular basis when the Stanley Cup playoffs begin next month, because the Wild game was a reasonable template of what they can expect to deal with then.
"It was a playoff hockey feel out there," DeSmith said. "A lot of shots at the net, a lot of net traffic, physicality."
And, ultimately, a lot of satisfaction with how the Penguins handled a quality opponent in a challenging set of circumstances.
"I thought it was a great hockey game, on both sides," Sullivan said. "That's a really good team."
Just not the best one in the building -- or in the bottle -- on this night.
MORE FROM THE GAME
• Malkin's goal was his seventh in the past six games and his 78th career game-winner, tying Jaromir Jagr's franchise record.
• Officiating an NHL game has to be incredibly difficult, but for referees Reid Anderson and Graham Skilliter to call so many marginal penalties (on both teams) during the first period, then ignore so many obvious infractions later -- the Kevin Fiala cross-check that led to Jason Zucker's injury was particularly obvious and egregious -- is hard to understand. Sullivan, though, responded diplomatically when asked about the officiating after the game. "They're going to call it as they see it," he said.
• Kris Letang's assist on Guentzel's goal was the 500th of his career.
• Minnesota's first goal, by Dumba, was awarded after the NHL's Situation Room notified the on-ice officials that his shot had crossed the goal line before Letang could sweep it away. "I wasn't sure, until I saw the replay, that it was over," DeSmith said. "Obviously, it was really close."
• Fourteen seconds before former Penguins forward Frederik Gaudreau scored Minnesota's second goal at 17:48 of the second, the Penguins succeeded in having a Jordan Greenway goal taken off the board when the video review they requested confirmed that the play had been offside. The Penguins are 5-for-5 on such challenges this season.
• Brian Dumoulin, who has struggled at times this season, had a strong game, including a gutsy sequence during a penalty-kill in the second period, when Dumoulin appeared to be injured by a hit, but stayed on the ice and helped the Penguins protect what was then a two-goal lead.
• Danton Heinen seemed like a logical candidate to move from the fourth line to the second when Zucker was hurt, but took only six shifts for a total of four minutes, 58 seconds during the game.
• The Penguins' victory snapped a couple of impressive streaks by the Wild. Minnesota had won its previous seven games, and had been 7-0 in overtime.
• Crosby had a strong night on faceoffs, winning 17 of 28.
• When the Penguins activated Zucker from injured-reserve, they placed Brock McGinn on the Long-Term Injured list, retroactive to March 11. Players there must sit out at least 10 games and 24 days before they can get back on active duty.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
THE THREE STARS
As selected at Xcel Energy Center:
1. Evgeni Malkin, Penguins C
2. Rickard Rakell, Penguins RW
3. Kirill Kaprizov, Wild LW
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• Brock McGinn, left winger, is week-to-week because of an unspecified upper-body injury. He has resumed skating.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
Zucker-Malkin-Rakell
Rodrigues-Carter-Kapanen
Boyle-Blueger-Heinen
Dumoulin-Letang
Matheson-Marino
Friedman-Ruhwedel
And for Dean Evason's Wild:
Kaprizov-Hartman-Zuccarello
Fiala-Gaudreau-Boldy
Greenway-Eriksson Ek-Foligno
Deslauriers-Jost-Duhaime
Middleton-Spurgeon
Brodin-Dumba
Merrill-Kulikov
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins called off the practice scheduled for Friday at 2 p.m. Eastern at the University of Denver's Magness Arena. They will face the Avalanche Saturday at Ball Arena at 3 p.m. Eastern.
THE CONTENT
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