In Pittsburgh, Sidney Crosby had the deciding goal, and only goal, in the skills competition, on Sunday to give the Penguins a 3-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets.
The goal completed a comeback for the Pens that had them down 0-2.
Kasperi Kapanen and Jeff Carter scored nine seconds apart in the third period to erase the two-goal deficit.
“I think we had a lot of chances throughout the game,” Kapanen said. “First two periods weren’t our best. We still had chances. I think that [first goal] goes in for us, it’s a big weight lifted off everybody’s shoulders. … It was a good segment there.”
Tristan Jarry made 27 saves in the Pittsburgh win.
“They’re a great team,” Jarry said. “They play a hard game. They’re a heavy team. I think they put a lot of pucks on net. They have a good transition game. They forecheck hard. I think that was something that we struggled with at the beginning. I think we caught ourselves in the third period.”
The Penguins improved to 26-10-5,
“I think our team has played a lot of consistent hockey,” Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan said. “I think most recently might be our most volatile team game that we’ve put on the ice. So I think that’s our challenge moving forward, is to put a consistent game on the ice that we think is going to give us a chance to win.”
Blake Wheeler an Kyle Connor scored in the first and second periods, respectively.
“I think for a back-to-back coming in, against a good team, I thought our special teams, we were pretty sharp,” Winnipeg’s Brenden Dillon said. “We were able to give ourselves a chance in that area.”
Winnipeg dropped to 17-14-7.
“I liked the way we stayed in the fight right to the end,” Jets coach Dave Lowry said. “I really liked the way we started the game. We had a very good answer for coming back from a game yesterday. Our preparation was good.
“I thought our leadership guys got our team ready to play. We were in control of the hockey game for the most part. That’s a positive.”
Connor Hellebuyck made 36 saves in the Jets loss.
“Game goes from a shutout, and what should be a shutout, to an overtime, shootout loss,” Hellebuyck said. “The second [Penguins goal], I just had a late decision because it looked like it was going to be icing for a second. Then when I finally decided, my only play was to rip it behind the net and they just have a guy wide open right there. Just seems like my luck right now.”
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