Silovs And The Penguins Shutout Panthers 4-0

The Penguins returned to home ice on Thursday after taking their fourth straight loss in Utah against the Mammoth to host the Florida Panthers, shutting them out 4-0 to end their 4-game skid while handing the Panthers their second loss in a row. Arturs Silovs was a wall in net, making 25 saves for Pittsburgh for his second shutout of the season and his fourth in the NHL. Nick Robertson scored twice, and both Evgeni Malkin and Hendrix Lapierre had a goal and an assist. The Penguins are back at it on Saturday, taking on the Nashville Predators, while the Panthers head to Chicago on Sunday.

Florida Panthers Lineup:

Tkachuk – Bennett – Tkachuk
Verhaeghe – Reinhart – Eller
Luostarinen – Lundell – Reinhardt
Imama – Schwindt – Hathaway

Forsling – Ekblad
Mikkola – Jones
Kulikov – Balinskis

Black

Pittsburgh Penguins Lineup:

Novak – Crosby – Rakell
Koivunen – Lapierre – Malkin
Kuzmenko – Lizotte – McGroarty
Soderblom – Dewar – Robertson

Stastney – Karlsson
Carlile – Korczak
Solovyov – Letang

Silovs
Murashov

Late into the opening frame, Nick Robertson put the Penguins ahead 1-0 with his fifth of the season at 4:41. Connor Dewar collected the puck, making a pass to Robertson for a wrist shot from the high slot past Cooper Black’s glove. Kris Letang earned the secondary assist.

Hendrix Lapierre put home his second of the season to make it 2-0 at 10:02 of the second period with a backhand-to-forehand wrist shot just outside the crease. On a 3-on-2 rush starting from Pittsburgh’s end, Evgeni Malkin carried the puck before passing it to Ville Koivunen in the neutral zone, who set up Lapierre for the Penguins’ second tally.

Early into the third period with 18:20 on the clock, Malkin picked up his second point of the night when he got the puck from Lapierre, skating into the Panthers’ zone, and slid the puck under a diving Gustav Forsling before grabbing it back up to fire a wrister under Black’s glove to extend Pittsburgh’s lead to 3-0. Spencer Stastney had the secondary assist. With little time to go, Robertson scored an empty-net goal for the 4-0 final, tying Malkin for the team lead with six goals.

Notes:

– The Penguins (4-6-1) were 1-6-1 in their previous eight games, allowing at least five goals in each of those four losses.

– Egor Chinakhov was a late scratch due to a lower-body injury. He is day-to-day.

– Earlier in the day, Pittsburgh announced that both Ben Kindel and Bryan Rust were placed on injured reserve. They recalled Rutger McGroarty and Chase Pietila from the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

– Nick Robertson’s game-opening goal was the first to be scored on the 6-foot-9 goaltender Cooper Black. He’s the first player to score a goal on a goalie who was a foot taller than him (5-foot-9) since Rocco Grimaldi got three on 6-foot-7 Ben Bishop in the 2019 First Round. The last time during the regular season was 5-foot-7 David Desharnais on Bishop on February 5th, 2018.

– Evgeni Malkin has six goals this season and can tie Mario Lemieux (7) for the third most in franchise history by a player age 40 or older. The others: Matt Cullen (17) and Gary Roberts (10).

– Cooper Black, who’s currently the tallest goaltender in NHL history, made his debut and made 17 saves for the Florida Panthers. Black ties 6’9” skaters Zdeno Chara, Curtis Douglas, and Matt Rempe as the tallest players in NHL history.