RECAP: Pens get three goals in the third, save the day against the Sharks.

Seventies Elton John was the best Elton John; don’t even argue about it.

“And someone saved my life tonight sugar bear
You almost had your hooks in me, didn’t you dear”

The Sharks let the Pens off the hook tonight. It’s too early to read much into anything right now, but the Pens coming back to win 3-2 with three unanswered goals in the third is the exactly what they needed after getting their doors blown off in Montreal Tuesday night. Already shorthanded, the Pens got down, got beat up, but like they did last season, just kept playing and found a way in the end.

Nobody is going to look back on the fifth game as some pivotal moment in this season. And there will be a lot more adversity than what they overcame here. Talking about a team that over the last three seasons has lost players to everything short of the diseases from Oregon Trail — shit is going to happen. But in a spot where they could have easily given up, they found their sac in the third and pulled it out. Gotta like that.

FIRST PERIOD

SECOND PERIOD

San Jose dominated from start to finish. For a while, the only shot the Pens had was one Trevor Daley threw on net from somewhere beyond Lawranceville. They couldn’t do anything, but it got worse.

At one point there were more people inside your nearest Family Video than players on the Penguins’ bench. The Pens were playing with four defensemen after Derrick Pouliot and Olli Maatta left the game due to injuries. Phil Bourque was on the radio side talking about Eric Fehr playing defense when he was 15. Hornqvist and Nick Bonino also left the game at different points — it was looking bleak.

San Jose ended up outshooting the Pens 17-4 in the period, with two finding their way behind Fleury. The first came when Brent Burns led Joe Pavelski up ice on a breakout. Pavelski put a shot on net; Tomas Hertl cleaned up the garbage. Ten minutes later, Patrick Marleau stripped Chris Kunitz, played a give-and-go with a horse Logan Couture, and finished it off to put the Sharks up by two.

The Pens came close when Hornqvist pushed one in from the doorstep. The refs called Toronto and replay showed he used too much of his glove.

Shots were 27-10 going into the third. If you changed the channel, went to bed, yelled at your dog, whatever, nobody could blame you. But wait just a second, Jack.

THIRD PERIOD 

Sullivan: "This is a new season. This is a new challenge. This is one example of what we're capable of when we show resilience."

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) October 21, 2016

Not sure if anything was said between periods, or if anything even needed to be said, but the Pens came to life.

Geno got it started seven minutes into the period:
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Unreal individual effort. The radio side was wondering when Geno would show up, and when he did, the party got started.

Next up was Scott Wilson. He’s clearly got some talent, but so did Beau Bennett. But if he can keep scoring big goals like this, he’s gonna stick around.

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Great play by Wilson, again, but what was Brenden Dillon even doing here? Up by one in the third period and you play the puck like you’re not going to get hit? Yikes.

From this point, you could feel it. The Pens’ wheels were turning and everyone on the San Jose bench looked like they just dropped their phone in the toilet. Hornqvist eventually sent everyone home happy — all this guys does is score greasy goals.

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Boom. Three goals in seven minutes. Paul Martin was so stunned he knocked Hornqvist down he totally forget where he was. The rest of the Sharks D:

The Pens just held on the rest of the way.

Pretty much everyone is banged up, so we’ll see who suits up Saturday night in Nashville. Til then…