Ludvig, Rakell help Penguins pull away from Sharks, 6-3

By DAN SCIFO
Associated Press

PITTSBURGH (AP) — John Ludvig and Rickard Rakell scored two minutes apart in the third period and the Pittsburgh Penguins pulled away from the San Jose Sharks for a 6-3 win on Thursday night.

Ludvig scored his second goal of the season on a shot from the left point at 2:38 of the third period to make it a 4-3 game. Rakell stuck out his leg to deflect P.O. Joseph’s shot across the line at 4:48, as Pittsburgh snapped a four-game losing streak.

“I threw my skate on it,” Rakell said. “I was just kind of sitting on the bench waiting for it to be reviewed, but I was happy that it wasn’t.”

Evgeni Malkin, Bryan Rust, Jeff Carter Noel Acciari also scored for Pittsburgh, which won for the first time since dealing star winger Jake Guentzel to the Hurricanes at the trade deadline last week. Tristan Jarry made 29 saves for the Penguins, who were outscored 17-2 during their losing streak.

“Hopefully we can build off this,” Ludvig said. “We still have a lot of hockey left. We should take confidence from this game and bring it into our next ones coming up.”

Fabian Zetterlund, Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Klim Kostin scored for San Jose, which lost for the 11th time in 12 games. Magnus Chrona stopped 25 shots.

“(Pittsburgh) took three wristers that found their way into the net,” Sharks coach David Quinn said. “They tipped one, one off a skate and the other one went right in, so I thought we were a little slow reacting defensively, but I loved our compete. I thought we really battled hard.”

Acciari opened the scoring at 10:28 of the first period with his first goal in 22 games. He deflected a point shot by former Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson, last year’s Norris Trophy winner, who was acquired in a summer trade with San Jose.

Zetterlund converted a rebound from the top of the crease at 14:31 of the first period. Vlasic gave the Sharks a 2-1 lead at 19:02 when he threw a shot at the net from deep in the corner, which hit Marcus Pettersson in front and went behind Jarry.

Carter tied the game at 2-2, at 4:11 of the second on a tap in from Emil Bemstrom, and Malkin put the Penguins in front 3-2 at 11:34. Kostin tied the game in the final two minutes of the period, but Ludvig and Rakell helped the Penguins pull away for good in the third.

“We knew we were going to have a tough third period,” Rakell said. “To get those two goals and get a little breathing room I think helped us.”

The Penguins intended to give Jaromir Jagr bobbleheads away to fans during the game. But instead, the team will give fans a voucher that will allow them to pick up the item at a later date after the shipment carrying the bobbleheads was stolen in California.

UP NEXT

Penguins: Host the New York Rangers on Saturday.

Sharks: Continue a five-game road trip Saturday night at Columbus.

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