The Pittsburgh Penguins eye revenge when they play host to the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday night.
Tuesday’s meeting wraps up a home-and-home series that began Sunday with Chicago claiming a 3-1 home win.
Chicago (22-45-10, 54 points) had entered the contest on a five-game losing skid and with just one win over its previous 13 games.
Ilya Mikheyev scored twice and Frank Nazar tallied a short-handed marker for the Blackhawks while Spencer Knight made 28 saves.
The Blackhawks also received a contribution from one of their young hopefuls, as 20-year-old defenseman Sam Rinzel recorded his first NHL point with an assist on Mikheyev’s initial goal. Chicago’s 2022 first-round pick was playing in his fourth career game.
“He’s mature,” Blackhawks interim coach Anders Sorensen said. “We really like the fact that he wants to have the puck. He takes control in shifts and I think that’s a great attitude as a player, especially as a young player to come in and do that.”
Despite being 20 points ahead of Chicago, the Penguins joined the Blackhawks in being eliminated from postseason consideration following Sunday’s contest.
Pittsburgh (31-35-12, 74 points) will be absent from the Stanley Cup playoffs for the third consecutive year after securing a berth in 16 consecutive seasons from 2007-2022.
Rickard Rakell remains a rare bright spot for the Penguins in what has been a somber season as he scored Pittsburgh’s lone goal in Sunday’s loss.
Rakell’s third-period goal was his team-high 34th this season, which tied the career best he racked up with the Anaheim Ducks in 2017-18.
Alex Nedeljkovic made 28 saves for the Penguins.
Pittsburgh entered the matchup on little rest after grinding out a 5-3 win over the powerhouse Dallas Stars the night before.
“It’s a tough situation,” Nedeljkovic said when asked about his team playing on back-to-back days. “It’s a long flight from Dallas to here, on a back-to-back. It was an emotional game yesterday, obviously playing a really good team. We dominated the game pretty much start to finish. It was a really good win for us. Long travel afterwards, and being at the hotel all day, just kind of dragged on a little bit, and I think you saw that in the first period.
“It’s not like it was a bad first period, but both teams looked a little loose, and I think they were able to get to their game a little quicker than we were able to get to ours.”
Sidney Crosby, who was coming off a three-goal, one-assist performance Saturday at Dallas, saw his point streak conclude at 12 games (11 goals, nine assists) in Chicago.
Crosby has just 14 points (seven goals, seven assists) with a career-worst minus-14 plus-minus rating in 20 career outings versus the Blackhawks.
Penguins forward Philip Tomasino is considered questionable for Tuesday’s tilt after missing Sunday’s affair with an upper-body injury.
The Blackhawks have a league-low seven road wins this season, but they have come out on top in three of the previous five meetings with the Penguins. That includes each of the past two clashes in Pittsburgh.
–Field Level Media
