Pittsburgh took control of the game early in the second period. Erik Karlsson kept the puck in the offensive zone, Rickard Rakell played it on to Jevgenij Malkin who made it 1-0. A couple of minutes later, team captain Sidney Crosby added to make it 2-0.
After that, Aleksander Ovetchkin probably felt that he needed to wake up his team and get his home crowd going by stuffing Erik Karlsson. But the skilled Swede backed away at the last second and managed to avoid any major impact.
– I saw him coming the whole time but at the same time tried to keep control of the puck and then you have to eat a tackle like that sometimes, says Karlsson to Sportbladet about the situation.
Malkin scored four points
Pittsburgh eventually won 4-0 after Malkin totaled one goal and three assists. It was their first win of the season.
In the only other match of the night, Jesper Bratt showed his very best. He had two goals and an assist for New Jersey at home against Arizona, but it wasn’t enough for top-seeded New Jersey, who lost 4-3 on penalties.