Erik Karlsson Scores in OT for 4-3 Final vs. Vancouver Canucks 2/27/2024

The Penguins won their third game straight when they played against the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday, February 27th at the Rogers Arena. Rickard Rakell scored twice and Sidney Crosby recorded two assists in the 4-3 overtime victory. Crosby recorded his 1,000th even-strength point, becoming the ninth player in NHL history with this amount of even-strength points. He also became the fourth-fastest player in league history to hit this milestone.

Penguins lineup against the Canucks:

Smith – Crosby – Rakell

O’Connor – Malkin – Puustinen

Bemstrom – Eller – Puljujarvi

Harkins – Acciari – Carter

Joseph – Letang

Pettersson –  Karlsson

Graves – Ruhwedel

Jarry

Nedeljkovic

Canucks lineup against the Penguins:

Suter – Miller – Boeser

Hoglander – Pettersson – Mikheyev

Bains – Lindholm – Garland

Di Giuseppe – Blueger – Lafferty

Hughes – Hronek

Cole – Myers

Zadorov – Juulsen

Demko

DeSmith

   Vancouver opened the scoring at 9:37 of the first period when Nils Hoglander, who was inside the right face-off circle, put in a rebound. With 2:17 remaining in the first frame, Brock Boeser extended the Canucks’ lead to 2-0 on the power play. Boeser scored a quick wrister that deflected off Marcus Pettersson’s leg and then over Tristan Jarry’s glove after he had taken a one-touch pass from above the right hash marks by J.T. Miller.

   Rickard Rakell put the Penguins on the board early into the middle frame at 17:47. Vanvouver turned the puck over to Sidney Crosby in the high slot before Rakell deked around Thatcher Demko. Crosby’s assist made him to be the ninth player in NHL history with 1,000 even-strength points (408 goals, 592 assists). Scoring his second of the night and tying the game at 2-2, Rakell scored with a backdoor tap-in during a 5-on-3 power play off a pass from Crosby. Taking back the lead for the Canucks, J.T. Miller struck his 30th goal of the season 29 seconds after Rakell tied it when he scored shorthanded on a breakaway at 9:55 of the second period.

   Lars Eller scored the only goal in the third period to tie the game 3-3. He got a wrist shot through a Drew O’Connor screen as he was skating down the slot… Eller recorded his 11th goal of the season at 10:15 of the third frame.

   At 3:18 of overtime, Erik Karlsson scored his eighth of the season on a rebound after Thatcher Demko had made a cross-crease save on Lars Eller… the Penguins have three wins straight after two straight losses.

Lars Eller on being without Bryan Rust and getting a 4-3 OT win: “Everybody has to step up and do a little bit more. Other guys are going to have bigger roles, more ice time, more opportunity, and a good chance for them to step up. And again, we just need a little bit more from everybody but obviously ‘Rusty’ is a big part of our team and hard to replace. So when he gets back, we’re going to be a better team,” – “It’s everything, it’s determination and guts. When you’re down and things aren’t looking good, there’s no quit attitude and we find a way to claw back in. Huge two points.”

Tristan Jarry on the big two points and confidence: “It was huge. I think just going down two-nothing, that’s never something we want. But I think the guys battled all night, I think we’re really resilient. We kept on them and I think we were able to get some goals at some really clutch times. I think that helped us tonight,” – “I think the last couple of games, we’ve been able to strength wins together and I think that’s good for our whole group, being able to get those wins. I think it builds confidence, especially against some good teams. Tonight, that was a good team and we played really well.”

Notes:

– Sidney Crosby has seven points during a three-game point streak (one goal, six assists)… Erik Karlsson scored his 10th career OT goal, making him the fifth defenseman in NHL history with at least that amount. Karlsson joins Brent Burns (16), Scott Niedermayer (13), Seth Jones (11), and Kris Letang (11).

   Karlsson has six points during a five-game point streak (one goal, five assists) 

– Tristan Jarry made 32 saves for Pittsburgh and Thatcher Demko made 35 saves for Vancouver.

   Demko recorded his first assist of the season when J.T. Miller scored a short-handed goal.

– J.T. Miller had a goal and an assist… Miller became the fourth player in Vancouver Canucks history to record three consecutive 80-point seasons.

– Nils Hoglander played his 200th NHL career game.