Pittsburgh vs. Vancouver (10 January 2023)

 

First game at PPG Arena in Pittsburgh in 2023

Pittsburgh vs. Vancouver (10 January 2023)

In my first hockey game of 2023, and my first Penguins game of the season, it looked at first like the two-and-a-half-hour drive to Pittsburgh was going to be frustrating. By the first TV timeout, the Penguins were down by two goals, and coming out of the commercial break they would give up another.  Down by three goals, the Penguins replaced starting goalie Casey DeSmith and even the score by the end of the first period in a dramatic and exciting game. Coming in for relief and making his Penguins debut, was Dustin Tokarski called up after the injury to Tristan Jarry. 

The game had a fascinating backstory. Ending a 6-game losing streak against Arizona in Tempe two nights before, the Penguins remained without the services of Kris Letang who had a nightmarish season thus far. He suffered a stroke on 28 November, only to return to play against Buffalo on 10 December. After suffering an injury in the last game of 2022, he traveled to Boston for the team’s outdoor game in the Winter Classic in Boston. While there, he found out that his father died. The team voted to travel to Montreal to attend the wake in a show of support for Letang.

 

 

Dustin Tokarski entering the game, in his Penguins debut, during the first period 

Score

	1	2	3	F
Vancouver	3	0	1	4
Pittsburgh	3	2	0	5

 

Goals

Scorer	Assists	Time
Conor Garland (7)	Hughes Schenn	4:46 / 1st	Van 1, Pit 0
Brock Boeser (8)	Horvat Mikheyev	6:40 / 1st	Van 2, Pit 0
Quinn Hughes (2)	Schenn Petterson	7:05 / 1st	Van 3. Pit 0
Evgeni Malkin (13)	Smith[1] Rust	8:57 / 1st	Van 3. Pit 1	PPG
Sidney Crosby (21)	Dumoulin Rust	14:25 / 1st	Van 3, Pit 2
Jason Zucker (10)	Malkin	16:30 / 1st	Van 3, Pit 3
Evgeni Malkin (14)	Zucker	7:58 / 2nd	Van 3, Pit 4
Rickard Rakell (14)	Malkin Smith	14:31 / 2nd	Van 3. Pit 5	PPG
Travis Dermott (1)	Ekman-Larssson Boeser	12:52 / 3rd	Van 4, Pit 5

 

Game Notes:

·         Crosby’s goal 1457 points tying him with Teemu Selanne  for 17th most career points in NHL history.

 

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[1] Ty Smith: First point as a Penguin.