PITTSBURGH — After Evgeni Malkin’s hat trick Sunday gave the Penguins a 9-2 lead over the Detroit Red Wings, the giddy fans at PPG Paints Arena began to make demands.
“We want 10! We want 10! We want 10!”
Brian Boyle didn’t keep them waiting long.
When the big lug beat Red Wings goalie Alex Nedeljkovic just over a minute later, the Penguins hit the 10-goal mark for the first time since 1995. Their 11-2 win over the Wings was just the 12th time in team history they accomplished that.
During their offensive outburst, the Penguins chased Nedeljkovic with four goals on their first 12 shots, scored a short-handed goal and a trio of power-play tallies and had already netted a half dozen goals at the game’s midway point.
Two longtime Penguins players hit milestones as the team ran up the score.
Which, you know, is bound to happen when you hang 11 goals on somebody.
Kasperi Kapanen scored a beauty four minutes into the game to get the Penguins on the board first. He pulled an errant pass out of his skates, leaned left like he was about to lift a backhand then cut back the other way. Nedeljkovic bit hard and was sliding toward the corner when Kapanen tucked it past the goalie.
Later in the first period, Teddy Blueger went top shelf on a 2-on-1 to push the lead to 2-0. It was his first goal since returning from a fractured jaw March 8.
The Penguins turned the game into a laugher with five second-period goals.
By setting up Malkin on the power play, Kris Letang passed Rick Kehoe for fifth in franchise history in points. Kehoe had 636 points in black and gold.
Jeff Carter made it 4-0 by scoring short-handed. It was his second goal in as many games. Heading into the weekend, Carter had just one in his previous 17.
At that point, Nedeljkovic got the hook after making just eight saves on 12 shots. Calvin Pickard was the poor soul pushed out there to stand in his place.
Less than three minutes later, the Penguins rudely welcomed him with a surgical power-play goal. Bryan Rust snapped a pass through the defense to Sidney Crosby, who sent it right back across to Rust. He pounded it into the open net.
With an assist on Rust’s goal, Malkin tied former Red Wings star Sergei Federov for the NHL’s all-time leader in assists among Russian-born players at 696.
The Red Wings used their timeout, perhaps to see if the NHL had a mercy rule. It does not, so they played on. Malkin, back after sitting out Friday’s 5-1 loss to the New York Rangers due to a non-COVID illness, would soon make it 6-0.
The Red Wings showed a little life by scoring a couple of goals to briefly quiet the crowd. But Crosby tapped one in to make it a 7-2 lead after two periods.
Early in the third period, Danton Heinen scored on a power play. It was the second straight game in which the Penguins got a goal from their second unit.
Soon after Pickard left the game with an injury, forcing Nedeljkovic back in, Malkin blasted a one-timer past him and the hats rained down at PPG Paints Arena.
Boyle got the Penguins into double digits 7:15 into the third period. Big trade deadline pick-up Rickard Rakell made it 11-2 with his first goal in black and gold.
“We want 12! We want 12! We want 12!”
Boyle and the Penguins tried. But those fans would have to settle for 11.
Sunday’s scoring outburst glossed over several sloppy defensive sequences for the Penguins, including a Mike Matheson giveaway to Jakub Vrana in front of his net, leading to a goal. They also uncharacteristically took a few penalties.
They will need to tighten that up before Tuesday, when they will get a rematch with the Rangers at PPG Paints Arena. They will need to show up this time.
