Goalie Stuart Skinner was not the rationale the Pittsburgh Penguins entered Saturday’s Recreation 4 in opposition to the Philadelphia Flyers going through a 3-0 sequence deficit. He was arguably their greatest participant by means of the primary two video games, and performed properly sufficient to win at the very least certainly one of them. Regardless of that, head coach Dan Muse nonetheless opted to make a goalie change on Saturday simply to shake issues up and provides the crew a distinct look.
It labored.
Arturs Silovs got here off the bench and stopped 28-of-30 pictures to assist the Penguins earn a 4-2 win, preventing off elimination and forcing a Recreation 5 in Pittsburgh on Monday evening.
Sidney Crosby, Rickard Rakell, Kris Letang and Connor Dewar offered the offense for the Penguins within the win.
Arturs Silovs helps Penguins power Recreation 5 in sequence
Whereas a goalie change in the course of a playoff sequence is often uncommon, and the kind of factor that solely will get utilized in determined occasions, it’s not actually an enormous shock right here. Principally as a result of the Penguins spent many of the common season going with a goalie rotation that noticed Skinner and Silovs share the evening with a virtually 50-50 break up, alternating begins each recreation.
It was not till the ultimate two weeks of the common season that Skinner began to separate himself and take over the beginning job going into the playoffs.
Apart from simply wanting to vary issues up, Muse might need been slightly involved about a few the targets that Skinner allowed of their Recreation 3 loss and used that because the tipping level for making the change.
Regardless of the cause, it labored, and Silovs performed a giant function within the win. Whereas the Penguins performed what was simply their greatest recreation of the sequence, they nonetheless had too many breakdowns within the second interval and allowed too many odd-man rushes that might have swung the sport and sequence in a distinct route. Silovs was capable of bail them out, and possibly earned himself one other begin on Monday.
Whereas Silovs doesn’t have an intensive monitor document of play within the NHL and is technically nonetheless thought-about a rookie, he does have big-game expertise and has performed properly in some moments. He helped the Vancouver Canucks win a playoff sequence a few years in the past by additionally coming off the bench, and has performed properly on the worldwide stage for Latvia in some huge video games. If he can get the Penguins again into this sequence, it is perhaps his greatest second but.
