“He Was Huge For Us”: Penguins, Blomqvist Shut Down Capitals, Win 4-2

In the beginning, it seemed like it was wash, rinse, and repeat for the Pittsburgh Penguins against the Washington Capitals.

The Penguins went ahead early, 2-0, on goals from Erik Karlsson and Michael Bunting – and they saw that lead evaporate six minutes into the second period. Once again, Pittsburgh was destined to lose a hockey game after surrendering a two-goal lead.

But, this time, their rookie goaltender had something to say about that.

Joel Blomqvist – who let in a questionable goal in the first period – bounced back in a big way, gave the Penguins some huge saves in the final two frames, and afforded his team the time and the chance to, ultimately, put a foot down and win the game, 4-2, on third period goals from Evgeni Malkin and Noel Acciari (empty-net goal).

“He was huge for us (last night),” forward Rickard Rakell said. “He played great for us and really gave us a chance there in the second period. We gave up a lot of great scoring chances, and then, coming down the stretch, he was just making good saves.”

The Penguins also played a really solid third period, as they were responsible on both sides of the puck and were able to hunker down when the Capitals pressed late and tried to tie the game.

“I thought it was one of our more complete periods,” head coach Mike Sullivan said. “Just kind of digging in, playing a team game. Really proud of the guys.”

Here are some thoughts and observations from Friday’s win against the Capitals:

– That was the best third period of the season from the Penguins, and, arguably, one of their best of the season.

They defended well and didn’t give the Capitals much at all. They didn’t play high-risk hockey, were smart in all three zones, and really controlled the pace of play in the third, only allowing five shots to the Caps and none in the first nine minutes.

They were also opportunistic on offense. Malkin’s goal came as a result of Bryan Rust using his speed to do his “signature move” off the rush, skating around and behind Capitals’ forward Connor McMichael, who was back on defense. He shot it from below the goal line, and Malkin picked up the loose change and buried the game-winning goal 9:32 remaining in the third period:

Drew O’Connor also made a few nice blocks at the end of the game with the empty net, prior to Acciari’s goal.

“I just think we defended hard,” Sullivan said. “We were above the puck, we didn’t play a high-risk game, we made good decisions with the puck, and we defended as a group. And, when we defend hard and we have that mindset, I think we can be hard to play against. Our challenge is going to be to bring that consistently, shift in, shift out, period in, period out, game in, game out.”

– After a not-so-great effort from Karlsson on Thursday against Carolina, he responded well and put up a great effort against Washington.

He was still shaky on the defensive side during the second period. But in the first period, he made a great read on his goal to pinch into the slot, which is something he simply hasn’t done enough of in Pittsburgh:

Then, he made a gorgeous pass to Bunting to set up the second goal, which I’ll get to in a second.

Karlsson was good on both sides of the puck in the third period, which is something the Penguins need more from him. He now has 10 points in 16 games to lead Penguins’ defensemen in scoring, and it appears he is starting to heat up on the offensive side of the puck.

He’s never going to be a defensive stalwart. But if these efforts are what the Penguins can get from Karlsson more consistently, that is more than enough.

– Bunting scored a very Bunting goal. Not going to spend too much time on this one, but even though Karlsson made the nice pass, Bunting initially made a perfect pass to Karlsson to set up his own goal. The goal was a result of Bunting being no-brakes and driving the net hard:

As with Karlsson, the Penguins need this version of Bunting more consistently. When he’s playing this way and crashing the net hard, good things happen.

– Noel Acciari played yet another strong game defensively. He’s so good on the penalty kill, and there was a play in the second period where he dove to block a shot by a wide-open Alex Ovechkin on the power play, and the block led to a clear for the Penguins.

I’ve said it before, but I really like Acciari’s game this season. He is everywhere in a good way on the ice – especially defensively – and he earned the empty-net goal yesterday by hustling to the loose puck, exercising some patience and letting the Capitals overskate him, and putting it home into the empty cage.

This is the kind of player any team would love to have on their fourth line. He’s a hockey player.

– Jack St. Ivany had a night to forget.

There was a minute-plus sequence in the second period when he had a bad pinch in the neutral zone that led to an odd-man break, a failed net-front coverage that led to a high-danger scoring chance, and a misrad that let Caps forward Dylan Strome get behind him for a breakaway chance.

It hasn’t been the best start to the season for St. Ivany. This game, in particular, was a struggle for him. He was good for the Penguins last season, but he hasn’t quite found his game to start the 2024-25 campaign.

– There is no understating how good Blomqvist was Friday.

He let in a soft goal in the first period, when Rasmus Sandin went short-side on him. But after the Capitals tied it in the second, this is the first time all season long that the Penguins didn’t absolutely just wilt and die. And so much of that was because Blomqvist was making really timely saves at key times during the second period.

He stopped Strome on that breakaway chance. He stymied that prime Ovechkin scoring chance at point-blank range. And he was really good at controlling rebounds around the crease.

And it’s not just the eye test, either. Blomqvist’s ability to make big saves in key moments is showing up in the numbers as well:

This is the difference good, timely goaltending in this league can make. Because of his ability to make high-danger saves, he was able to buy his team some time and opportunity to pull ahead – and stay ahead – in the third period. If one of those high-danger chances goes in, there’s a good chance this game has a different outcome.

The truth is, he is the only Penguins’ goaltender making these saves with regularity. This is the kind of goaltending the Penguins were getting on their Cup runs. The Penguins will, presumably, run with three goaltenders for a bit longer, as Tristan Jarry is officially back from his AHL conditioning stint. He should get some chances.

But there is no doubt that Blomqvist has earned more starts this season for the Penguins.

– Matt Grzelcyk deserves some credit for the way he is playing right now.

After a decent stretch of games in the early going, he really struggled for a good while. He looked a mess in the defensive zone and was pretty consistently making costly decisions with the puck.

I haven’t seen much of that in his game over the last three or four games. He’s contributing on the offensive attack – and Sullivan has praised Grzelcyk for his puck-moving ability, which has been on display – and he has cleaned up his game quite a bit in the neutral and defensive zones.

When a defenseman is playing next to Karlsson or, in Grzelcyk’s case, Kris Letang, it’s not a bad thing if they’re not super noticeable. As long as Grzelcyk isn’t noticeable in a bad way, he’s doing his job out there. And it’s an added bonus that he’s second in blue line production on the Penguins with seven points.

The Penguins will be much better off defensively for the rest of the season if this is the version of Grzelcyk that they continue to get.

– The Penguins really, really needed this win. The mood in the room was sour. The team wanted to avoid another lengthy skid akin to their six-game losing streak earlier this season. And they hadn’t yet beat a playoff team from last season until Friday.

The Penguins have four games in six days starting Monday against a good team in the Dallas Stars at home, followed by tilts against Detroit, Columbus, and San Jose. They’ll need to rack up some wins in these games to put themselves into a favorable position heading into next week, where they start a very challenging set against some of the league’s better teams in the Winnipeg Jets, Vancouver Canucks, Florida Panthers, and New York Rangers.

Pittsburgh simply needs to carry some of the momentum from this win, and the way they’ve been playing more consistently in general, into the upcoming gauntlet.

“This trip, we played better hockey, even though the score didn’t indicate what we wanted last game (in Carolina),” Rakell said. “But we are starting to get into a rhythm and play the game that we want to.”

Maybe teams “underestimating” them will give them the push they need.