The Penguins were missing Sidney Crosby, Chris Kunitz, Evgeni Malkin, Pascal Dupuis, Marcel Goc, Kris Letang, Brooks Orpik, and Olli Maatta tonight...but they still had goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury. He kicked out 39 shots in regulation to lead them to a 3-2 shootout victory over the Colorado Avalanche.
Pittsburgh also had forward Brandon Sutter, who logged 23:33 minutes with most of the team’s top-six forwards sidelined, and scored two goals in the span of 3:22 minutes. Jussi Jokinen made his return tonight and registered an assist before beating Avalanche goaltender Semyon Varlamov in the shootout.
Although he came up short, Varlamov also had a good night, stopping 30 of 32 shots. He hasn’t allowed more than two goals in regulation in a single contest since March 25.
The Avalanche aren’t dealing with the sheer volume of injuries that Pittsburgh has, but it is worth noting that they were missing top scorer Matt Duchene. Despite that, the Avalanche rallied back from a 2-0 deficit and Patrick Bordeleau bought the team a point with his goal at 16:47 of the third period.
Pittsburgh’s already locked into the second seed in the Eastern Conference, so these two points won’t impact the Eastern Conference standings. It does have meaning to the Chicago Blackhawks though as they try to close the gap between them and the Colorado Avalanche in the battle for the second seed in the Central Division.