• Who: Penguins (32-18-15) vs. Mammoth (34-26-6) • What: NHL regular season, Game 66 • When: 9:08 p.m. Eastern • Where: Delta Center • Goaltenders: Stuart Skinner (19-13-8, .891 SV%) vs. Karel Vejmelka (30-17-3, .898 SV%) • TV: SportsNet Pittsburgh • Stream: SNP360 (local), ESPN+ (out-of-market) • Radio: Penguins Radio Network • Satellite: SiriusXM 91 • Boxscore: NHL.com • Medianotes: Penguins | Mammoth
► FOLLOW ALONG
• Ballgame.
• My God, yet another Acciari giveaway in the defensive zone. This is all so Bizarro World. Now 27.9 seconds left. Utah net empty. Faceoff in Pittsburgh zone.
• Skinner covers. 1:11 left.
• Empty net. 1:30 left.
• Yikes. Carcone comes up with a bouncing puck for a clean breakaway and clangs one off the crossbar behind Skinner. Crazy. 2:20 left.
• Five minutes to go. The Penguins are generally boxing out well, but they're spending way too much time in their own zone. Not sure which is more relevant. Earlier, they were getting killed off the rush, so maybe it's good.
• There's the Utah power play everyone was expecting. I'd share here that it was a dive, but I'm not interested in insulting anyone's intelligence.
• GOAL. Acciari. Grimy-ness. He and Lizotte crashed. Made it happen. Fourth line back to being a positive at the best possible time. Assists: Wotherspoon, Karlsson. Time: 8:03, third period. Penguins, 4-3
• No panic after the Cole goal. Encouraging.
• Excellent pass breakup by Solovyov. Skinner taps his stick in appreciation.
• GOAL. Cole. Skated right down the slot. Could've used a save there. Skinner stayed way back. Assists: Kerfoot, Stenlund. Time: 4:17, third period. Tie, 3-3.
• Excellent chance for Koivunen. Does nothing with it.
• Good backhander by Lizotte off the rush. Vejmelka beats him.
• GOAL. Rust. Assists: Rakell, Chinakhov. Power play. Time: 1:24, third period. Penguins, 3-2
• Third's underway. Feels big, you guys.
• One way to keep myself sane in non-press settings like this: I'm blasting Black Flag between my ears at bad decibels.
• End period. Yet another power play to close it out. Still 1:45 at the start of the third.
• More turnovers from the fourth line. More of those in the past week than all season.
• GOAL. Novak. Wotherspoon's shot from the left point redirects to Novak's skate, and he (barely) gets enough on the rebound. Tie, 2-2
• Two more great chances on the remaining five-on-four. Vejmelka stops both.
• GOAL. Mantha. Assist: Whoever pointed the gun at him to get him to shoot there. Assists: Karlsson, Chinakhov. Mammoth, 2-1
• Now it'll be a five-on-three. The game isn't close enough for the NHL. It'll be 1:27 full. Might want to score here.
• Why's Rakell in the bumper spot? How much evidence is needed that he isn't that guy?
• Another power play.
• Skinner does very well to square up Schmaltz, point-blank off a three-on-one.
• Koivunen enters the Utah zone on a power play and hands the puck away.
• Karlsson hauled down after undressing an Elephant with a deke. No call. Entire visiting bench leaped to its feet in front of me here to protest. These guys are horrible.
• Peterka's off for a hook on Shea. Another power play on which to pass up shots.
• Blue Jackets go to OT. That's a point.
• Rakell clotheslined at the Utah blue line -- by a stick, no less -- with no call.
• Cooley's hurt. No weight on left leg as teammates help him off.
• Cooley tries to split the D, crashes into the crease area, goes down ... the Elephants are all upset with Letang. Would love to elaborate, but the basketball arena's not showing replays.
• Hayton's off for throwing Karlsson's stick. They probably called that a trip.
• Turnover at the Pittsburgh blue line by Soderblom leads to a penalty. Solovyov's sent off for a slash, when it actually was a hook.
• Peterka blows Koivunen off a 50/50 puck. Rinse, repeat.
• Finally, a fourth-line kinda shift from the fourth line. Need a lot more. Too many passengers.
• Second's underway.
• That's period. Not nearly enough on net. Not nearly enough expended anywhere else on the rink, either, exempting Karlsson, who's been excellent.
• Clifton with yet another giveaway at the Pittsburgh blue line. Solovyov does VERY well to bail him out by breaking up the resultant two-on-one down low.
• Puck's bouncing all over creation. This is the first year that the base floor here was raised 2 feet to try to accommodate both hockey/basketball sightlines.
• Koivunen with a mini-break. Stopped by Vejmelka.
• Rust with a giveaway at the Pittsburgh blue line. These have to stop.
• Peterka with a partial break. Skinner's up to it. No one around to kick it in.
• For real, if that's not kicking -- turning the skate deliberately to put it in -- I don't know what is.
• I suppose it should matter that Guether turned skate to kick the puck in, but that never gets called. I could see from here the Penguins were considering a challenge. No need.
• GOAL. Yep. Guenther again. Power play. Review took like two seconds. Time: 6:37, first period. Mammoth, 2-0
• Sure looked like the Mammoth just scored. It's waved off on the ice, but I don't understand why, other than the net coming off. This'll count.
• Now Mantha's off for a cross-check.
• GOAL. Guenther's second. Giveaway by Lizotte -- his second already tonight -- and the icebreaker's home. Didn't help that Skinner was beaten short-side. Mammoth, 1-0
• Hayes collides with Vejmelka, who'd strayed well out of his crease, and Sergachev pretends to be offended by that. Hayes doesn't bite, skates away. Good for him. Shows me something.
• Brisk early pace for both teams. Solid tracking back by the Pittsburgh forwards. Always an encouraging early sign.
• Faceoff: Rakell vs. Hayton, 9:08 p.m. Eastern time
• And Dan Muse's lines and pairings, same as Las Vegas:
Egor Chinakhov-Rickard Rakell-Bryan Rust Anthony Mantha-Tommy Novak-Ville Koivunen Elmer Soderblom-Ben Kindel-Avery Hayes Connor Dewar-Blake Lizotte-Noel Acciari
Parker Wotherspoon-Erik Karlsson Ryan Shea-Kris Letang Ilya Solovyov-Connor Clifton
• André Tourigny's lines and pairings:
Clayton Keller-Nick Schmaltz-Lawson Crouse JJ Peterka-Logan Cooley-Dylan Guenther Jack McBain-Barrett Hayton-Michael Carcone Alex Kerfoot-Kevin Stenlund-Kailer Yamamoto
Mikhail Sergachev-Mackenzie Weegar Nate Schmidt-John Marino Ian Cole-Sean Durzi
THE ASYLUM
Final: Penguins 4, Mammoth 3
• Who: Penguins (32-18-15) vs. Mammoth (34-26-6)
• What: NHL regular season, Game 66
• When: 9:08 p.m. Eastern
• Where: Delta Center
• Goaltenders: Stuart Skinner (19-13-8, .891 SV%) vs. Karel Vejmelka (30-17-3, .898 SV%)
• TV: SportsNet Pittsburgh
• Stream: SNP360 (local), ESPN+ (out-of-market)
• Radio: Penguins Radio Network
• Satellite: SiriusXM 91
• Boxscore: NHL.com
• Media notes: Penguins | Mammoth
► FOLLOW ALONG
• Ballgame.
• My God, yet another Acciari giveaway in the defensive zone. This is all so Bizarro World. Now 27.9 seconds left. Utah net empty. Faceoff in Pittsburgh zone.
• Skinner covers. 1:11 left.
• Empty net. 1:30 left.
• Yikes. Carcone comes up with a bouncing puck for a clean breakaway and clangs one off the crossbar behind Skinner. Crazy. 2:20 left.
• Five minutes to go. The Penguins are generally boxing out well, but they're spending way too much time in their own zone. Not sure which is more relevant. Earlier, they were getting killed off the rush, so maybe it's good.
• There's the Utah power play everyone was expecting. I'd share here that it was a dive, but I'm not interested in insulting anyone's intelligence.
• GOAL. Acciari. Grimy-ness. He and Lizotte crashed. Made it happen. Fourth line back to being a positive at the best possible time. Assists: Wotherspoon, Karlsson. Time: 8:03, third period. Penguins, 4-3
• No panic after the Cole goal. Encouraging.
• Excellent pass breakup by Solovyov. Skinner taps his stick in appreciation.
• GOAL. Cole. Skated right down the slot. Could've used a save there. Skinner stayed way back. Assists: Kerfoot, Stenlund. Time: 4:17, third period. Tie, 3-3.
• Excellent chance for Koivunen. Does nothing with it.
• Good backhander by Lizotte off the rush. Vejmelka beats him.
• GOAL. Rust. Assists: Rakell, Chinakhov. Power play. Time: 1:24, third period. Penguins, 3-2
• Third's underway. Feels big, you guys.
• One way to keep myself sane in non-press settings like this: I'm blasting Black Flag between my ears at bad decibels.
• End period. Yet another power play to close it out. Still 1:45 at the start of the third.
• More turnovers from the fourth line. More of those in the past week than all season.
• GOAL. Novak. Wotherspoon's shot from the left point redirects to Novak's skate, and he (barely) gets enough on the rebound. Tie, 2-2
• Two more great chances on the remaining five-on-four. Vejmelka stops both.
• GOAL. Mantha. Assist: Whoever pointed the gun at him to get him to shoot there. Assists: Karlsson, Chinakhov. Mammoth, 2-1
• Now it'll be a five-on-three. The game isn't close enough for the NHL. It'll be 1:27 full. Might want to score here.
• Why's Rakell in the bumper spot? How much evidence is needed that he isn't that guy?
• Another power play.
• Skinner does very well to square up Schmaltz, point-blank off a three-on-one.
• Koivunen enters the Utah zone on a power play and hands the puck away.
• Karlsson hauled down after undressing an Elephant with a deke. No call. Entire visiting bench leaped to its feet in front of me here to protest. These guys are horrible.
• Peterka's off for a hook on Shea. Another power play on which to pass up shots.
• Blue Jackets go to OT. That's a point.
• Rakell clotheslined at the Utah blue line -- by a stick, no less -- with no call.
• Cooley's hurt. No weight on left leg as teammates help him off.
• Cooley tries to split the D, crashes into the crease area, goes down ... the Elephants are all upset with Letang. Would love to elaborate, but the basketball arena's not showing replays.
• Hayton's off for throwing Karlsson's stick. They probably called that a trip.
• Turnover at the Pittsburgh blue line by Soderblom leads to a penalty. Solovyov's sent off for a slash, when it actually was a hook.
• Peterka blows Koivunen off a 50/50 puck. Rinse, repeat.
• Finally, a fourth-line kinda shift from the fourth line. Need a lot more. Too many passengers.
• Second's underway.
• That's period. Not nearly enough on net. Not nearly enough expended anywhere else on the rink, either, exempting Karlsson, who's been excellent.
• Clifton with yet another giveaway at the Pittsburgh blue line. Solovyov does VERY well to bail him out by breaking up the resultant two-on-one down low.
• Puck's bouncing all over creation. This is the first year that the base floor here was raised 2 feet to try to accommodate both hockey/basketball sightlines.
• Koivunen with a mini-break. Stopped by Vejmelka.
• Rust with a giveaway at the Pittsburgh blue line. These have to stop.
• Peterka with a partial break. Skinner's up to it. No one around to kick it in.
• For real, if that's not kicking -- turning the skate deliberately to put it in -- I don't know what is.
• I suppose it should matter that Guether turned skate to kick the puck in, but that never gets called. I could see from here the Penguins were considering a challenge. No need.
• GOAL. Yep. Guenther again. Power play. Review took like two seconds. Time: 6:37, first period. Mammoth, 2-0
• Sure looked like the Mammoth just scored. It's waved off on the ice, but I don't understand why, other than the net coming off. This'll count.
• Now Mantha's off for a cross-check.
• GOAL. Guenther's second. Giveaway by Lizotte -- his second already tonight -- and the icebreaker's home. Didn't help that Skinner was beaten short-side. Mammoth, 1-0
• Hayes collides with Vejmelka, who'd strayed well out of his crease, and Sergachev pretends to be offended by that. Hayes doesn't bite, skates away. Good for him. Shows me something.
• Brisk early pace for both teams. Solid tracking back by the Pittsburgh forwards. Always an encouraging early sign.
• Faceoff: Rakell vs. Hayton, 9:08 p.m. Eastern time
• And Dan Muse's lines and pairings, same as Las Vegas:
Egor Chinakhov-Rickard Rakell-Bryan Rust
Anthony Mantha-Tommy Novak-Ville Koivunen
Elmer Soderblom-Ben Kindel-Avery Hayes
Connor Dewar-Blake Lizotte-Noel Acciari
Parker Wotherspoon-Erik Karlsson
Ryan Shea-Kris Letang
Ilya Solovyov-Connor Clifton
• André Tourigny's lines and pairings:
Clayton Keller-Nick Schmaltz-Lawson Crouse
JJ Peterka-Logan Cooley-Dylan Guenther
Jack McBain-Barrett Hayton-Michael Carcone
Alex Kerfoot-Kevin Stenlund-Kailer Yamamoto
Mikhail Sergachev-Mackenzie Weegar
Nate Schmidt-John Marino
Ian Cole-Sean Durzi
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