The Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Los Angeles Kings last night in dominating fashion, winning 6-1 and keeping the Penguins’ hot start going, as well as giving head coach Mike Sullivan his 300th win as Penguins head coach.
Sullivan now has 300 wins in 511 games coached with the Penguins. He also has the most wins by a head coach in franchise history, with 48 more wins as second place (Dan Bylsma). Sullivan now has 370 career NHL head coaching wins. He previously coached the Boston Bruins from 2003-06.
Sullivan talked about this courageous achievement, saying, ”It’s humbling. It means a lot. I’m grateful for the players. They’re the guys that go out there and earn the wins for us. These guys that I’ve been coaching in my time here work so hard to bring the success that we’ve had on the ice. I’m grateful to those guys. They’re the ones who make the sacrifice every day.”
Defenseman Jan Rutta got the Penguins on the board to start the game, as he fired home a snapshot just over four minutes into the game to give the Pens an early 1-0 lead. With under six minutes left in the period, Jake Guentzel would tip in his third goal of the season to give the Pens a 2-0 lead. Guentzel would leave the game in the third period after being hit by a deflected shot and was evaluated postgame. With less than two minutes remaining in the first, Rickard Rakell extended the Penguins lead to 3-0.
Just over four minutes in the second period, defenseman Jeff Petry scored his first goal as a Penguin, a power-play marker, giving the Pens a 4-0 lead.
With just over three minutes played in the third period, Jeff Carter would pot home a breakaway goal to give the Pens a 5-0 lead. Ryan Poehling would score his first as a Penguin to add to the Pens giant lead only a minute and 37 seconds later to make it 6-0. With just over two minutes remaining, Carl Grundstrom would score on the power-play to give the Kings some life and make it 6-1.
Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry would make 39 saves on 40 shots. In three starts this year, Jarry has only allowed five goals on 104 shots, which gives him a .952 save percentage on the year. Kings goaltender Cal Petersen started the game but would be pulled early after allowing three goals on nine shots. Jonathan Quick came to replace Petersen and made 22 saves on 26 shots he faced.
The Pens are now 3-0-1 to start the season, and they’ve put scores their opponents 18-5 in their first three home games. Pittsburgh is also the sixth team in NHL history to score at least six goals in their first three home games of the season, joining the 1984-85 Islanders, who went four straight games, the 1985-86 Whalers, who went three straight, the 1988-89 Kings, who went four straight, 1991-92 Flames, who went three straight, and the 1996-97 Avalanche, who went three straight games.
Pens forward Teddy Blueger would miss his fourth game and is still deemed day-to-day with an upper-body injury per head coach Mike Sullivan. Kings defenseman Alex Edler would miss his third game after taking a puck in the face in warmups on Monday.
