The Pittsburgh Penguins returned home from Sweden this week after splitting the NHL Global Series and will try to cool off Matt Boldy and the visiting Minnesota Wild on Friday night.
Pittsburgh shut out the Nashville Predators 4-0 in Stockholm on Sunday; they lost the opener 2-1 in overtime after giving up the tying goal late in regulation.
Minnesota beat the visiting Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 in a shootout on Wednesday night and is 7-1-1 since a 3-6-3 start. Boldy scored his first career short-handed goal to increase his point streak to five games (four goals, three assists) and later added the shootout winner.
Mats Zuccarello had a goal and an assist, and Brock Faber also scored as the Wild won their third straight and extended their point streak to six (5-0-1).
Goalie Jesper Wallstedt did not earn his third straight shutout, but did make 42 saves and improved to 5-0-2 with a 2.20 goals-against average and a .926 save percentage.
“Maybe everything didn’t click for us (Wednesday), but you cannot say that the effort was not there,” Wallstedt said after Carolina rallied from down 3-1 to force overtime. “I think that shows how strong of a team we are even though we maybe didn’t have our best game. … Very nice, very nice two points.”
The Wild continued their streak of fast starts. Faber gave them a 1-0 lead just 1:54 into the first period. Minnesota has scored first in a franchise-record 10 straight games and 13 times total this season.
“I thought in the first period we played really well, and then I thought they took control of the game, particularly in the second period,” Minnesota coach John Hynes said. “I thought in the third we got back to some things that we needed to do.”
The Penguins got goals from four different players on Sunday — including Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin — and rookie Sergei Murashov earned his first win, making 21 saves in the shutout.
“I think we were pretty motivated coming off the last game, the way it finished,” Crosby said of Friday’s loss to the Predators. “Didn’t feel like we played our best and to have it finish the way it did, I think we were just motivated to bounce back. I thought it showed.”
According to NHL.com, Pittsburgh is 116-10-6 when Crosby and Malkin score in the same game.
The Penguins practiced Tuesday and injured goalie Tristan Jarry worked with the team for the first time since he was sidelined with a lower-body injury in early November.
He was 5-2-0 with a .911 save percentage and one shutout when he got hurt. Murashov and Arturs Silovs are sharing the net in his absence.
“I think the biggest thing is we’re getting to a point in the game where we have a chance to win every game,” Jarry said. “And I think that comes from everyone within this room, whether guys are blocking shots, we’re getting big plays, the power play, the penalty kill.”
Penguins forward Ville Koivunen (lower-body injury) is week-to-week and was placed on injured reserve. Forward Sam Poulin was recalled from AHL affiliate Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
