The Pittsburgh Penguins overcame what was a lackluster 1st period and then poured it on against the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Penguins owned the puck the entire night.
That is a beautiful chart if you are the Penguins. Papa Geno concurs
The Penguins have a Fenclose percentage of 56.6% in these playoffs and that is an excellent number. It is 2nd best in the NHL at the current moment. Those kinds of numbers will breed victories way more often than they will defeat. Good recipe for success.
Every Penguins player was a positive possession player at even strength with the exception of Joe Vitale (45.0%) and Tanner Glass (21.4%).
By owning the puck the Blue Jackets were limited in their chances on goal. This set the table for Marc Andre Fleury to have what many would consider a best case scenario bounce back game. Fleury made 23 saves and only allowed one goal which came on the power play. Fleury earned the 2nd star of the game.
Columbus leads the playoffs in the number of times they have been shorthanded with 25, in Game 5 it was a power play goal that tied the game up for the Penguins in the 2nd period. The Blue Jackets are playing with fire taking that many penalties.
The Penguins penalty kill continued its struggles in Game 5. Pittsburgh had no problem killing off the 9 second power play Columbus had on the tail end of a 4 on 4 situation, but they couldn’t kill off the only other power play opportunity the Blue Jackets had on the evening. This continues to be an issue, an issue that will eventually be fatal if not fixed.
Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin played over 11 minutes at even strength together. I can’t remember the last time they played that much together.
What made this possible was the fine play from the Penguins 3rd line. Stempniak, Sutter, and Bennett were excellent all night long. Each player was over 70%(!). All combined they had 52 shot attempts for and only 16 shot attempts against at even strength. That is just a terrific job by them.
It was Lee Stempniaks's terrific puck handling through the neutral zone that led to Jussi Jokinen's game winning goal.
Sidney Crosby continues to play well despite the boo birds that came out in Consol Energy Center last night. Honestly, I can’t believe I had to type that, despicable.
Crosby had the primary assist on Chris Kunitz’s power play goal which tied the game at one. He didn’t score so I suppose the boos are warranted…
It was quite the strong effort from the Penguins in Game 5, the only reason it wasn’t a blow out is because of Sergei Bobrovsky and his 48 saves. His .960% was actually slightly better than Marc Andre Fleury’s .958%. That goes to show just how great Bob was last night.
Game 5 was the 2nd game in a row where the Penguins shut the Blue Jackets down in the 3rd period while they were trying to tie the game up. Columbus only had 7 shots in the 3rd period.
Game 6 will be back in Columbus on Monday night. The Penguins will be looking to shake some hands and move on to the 2nd round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. If they play like they did in Game 5 it will be pretty much a certainty.
Thanks for reading!