Rust, Rakell each gets 2 points for Penguins in win against Maple Leafs

Bryan Rust and Rickard Rakell each had a goal and an assist for the Pittsburgh Penguins in a 5-2 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs at PPG Paints Arena on Saturday.

Michael Bunting scored the go-ahead goal in the third period, and Tristan Jarry made 25 saves for the Penguins (12-13-4), who have won five of six. They lost 4-2 at the New York Rangers on Friday.

“As I said to the guys after the game, ‘What a difference a day makes,’” Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said. “I thought we were a different team tonight from the drop of the puck. It might’ve been the most complete game that we’ve played all year from start to finish.

“I thought it was a great hockey game. It was a lot of tempo to the game. It was a fast-paced game. I thought Toronto played extremely hard and I thought our team played extremely hard.”

Mitch Marner had a goal and an assist, William Nylander scored, and Auston Matthews had two assists for the Maple Leafs (16-9-2), who lost a second straight game, having lost 3-1 to the Washington Capitals on Friday. Joseph Woll made 24 saves.

“I thought it was a pretty solid game,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “We worked. We competed. Took too many penalties.”

Bunting gave Pittsburgh its third lead of the game at 3-2 on a power play at 5:34 of the third, scoring with a wrist shot from the right face-off circle after Rust had a shot deflect off Maple Leafs defenseman Conor Timmins.

“Yesterday in New York didn’t go our way,” Bunting said. “We didn’t like how we played and we came in with another great opponent with Toronto over there. … I thought we responded well and we played our game. We stuck to what we wanted to do and we were able to win.”

Matthew Knies came close to tying it at 8:31 but hit the left post with a wrist shot from the slot.

Blake Lizotte scored a short-handed, empty-net goal from the other end to make it 4-2 at 19:20 before Kris Letang also shot into an empty net short-handed with 26 seconds left for the 5-2 final.

Rakell put the Penguins ahead 1-0 with a power-play goal at 4:39 of the first period, jumping to deflect a point shot from Matt Grzelcyk for his team-leading 11th goal this season.

“I like my game right now,” Rakell said. “I mean, the players that I’m playing with, I know I’m going to get a few scoring chances every game. So, I’m just trying to clean up a little bit of my game around that. So, just try to put a full effort every night.”

Marner tied it 1-1 at 6:35, flicking in a rebound off a shot from Oliver Ekman-Larsson while being pushed to the ice by Marcus Pettersson just outside the crease. He has nine goals in the past 16 games after scoring one in his first 11.

“I thought we were really good tonight in the offensive zone,” Berube said. “I thought we played our game, forechecked well. We had good O-zone time and opportunities. So, I was happy with a lot of the game. There’s things we can always clean up, right? But I like the effort.”

Rust then gave Pittsburgh a 2-1 lead at 14:15 with a one-timer from the right face-off circle after a shot from Sidney Crosby bounced back off the end boards.

Nylander tied it 2-2 on the power play at 2:32 of the second period with his Toronto-leading 17th goal of the season, scoring on a one-timer from above the left circle set up by Marner.

“Sometimes you play good games and don’t get a win,” Nylander said. “That happened tonight.”

Morning Skate

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