Evan Rodrigues' hat trick along with Bryan Rust's hat trick and 2 assists for a 5-point night helped the Pittsburgh Penguins dominate the San Jose Sharks Sunday evening at PPG Paints Arena. It only took 1:03 for Rodrigues to get things going for the Pens, scoring his 11th of the season past Sharks netminder James Reimer, who would later be replaced by backup Zachary Sawchenko after allowing 6 goals on just 17 shots. At the 3:12 mark of period 1, Jake Guentzel made it 2-0 Penguins with his 16th of 2021-22. 1:01 after that, Rodrigues bagged his 2nd of the night and 12th of the season to make it 3-0 Pittsburgh. 1:58 after that, Rust tallied his first of the night and 3rd of the season to make it 4-0 Pens. The Sharks would finally get on the board at 15:33, courtesy of Alexander Barabarnov (5), but his effort would be in vain as Pittsburgh added two more goals to make it 6-1 and seemingly putting things away already heading into the first intermission.
Period 2 was nowhere near the goalfest the previous period was. In fact, only one tally was made, by San Jose, no less, and it was former Boston Bruin Patrice Bergeron's 14th of 2021-22 at 14:27 to make it 6-2 Pittsburgh.
However, San Jose wasn't done. Goals by Matt Nieto (2) just 20 seconds into period 3, Jacob Middleton (3) at 3:01, and Logan Couture (12) at 4:09 all of a sudden cut Pittsburgh's 6-2 2nd period lead a much more manageable 6-5 shootout. That would be all San Jose could muster, though, as once again, Pittsburgh ignored the Sharks' efforts with a 2nd pair of goals starting with Rodrigues to complete his hat trick, his 13th of the season on the power play, and Rust completing his own hat trick with 11 seconds left in regulation and 5th of 2021-22 to make it 8-5 Penguins, sealing the Sharks' fate.
Stats:
Shots: SJ 27, PIT 39
Hits: SJ 51, PIT 32
Faceoff Wins: SJ 42, PIT 22
Up Next:
PIT: 1/5 vs. STL, 7:30 PM
SJ: 1/4 @ DET, 7:30 PM
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