Pittsburgh Penguins Face Utah Mammoth Seeking Third Consecutive Win
Arturs Silovs will start in goal as Pittsburgh welcomes several key players back from injury and illness ahead of Thursday night's matchup.
The Pittsburgh Penguins are preparing to secure their third straight victory on Thursday night as they host the Utah Mammoth. Heading into the matchup, the team named Arturs Silovs as its starting goaltender following a pair of strong performances that helped backstop Pittsburgh to wins over the Florida Panthers and Nashville Predators.
Silovs enters Thursday's game with an .890 save percentage, a 2.87 goals-against average, two shutouts, and a .500 quality starts percentage. In his last two outings, he allowed just two goals while stopping 50 of 52 shots. However, Utah presents a tough test for the goaltender, who previously faced the Mammoth on October 19 and surrendered five goals on 29 shots.
Pittsburgh will also see significant reinforcements returning to the lineup. Forward Ben Kindel is expected to play after missing time following a medical episode on a team flight last week. Kindel suffered a bout of vasovagal, a condition that causes heart rate and blood pressure to drop suddenly, while the team traveled from Salt Lake City following a previous game against Utah.
Reflecting on the frightening incident, Kindel expressed gratitude for the rapid response of the team's medical staff and flight crew. "Just really grateful for the Penguins staff, doctors, trainers, everybody who are so good, as well as the flight crew," Kindel told reporters. "Just so really grateful for that, and they handled it with really good professionalism, and everything worked out good, so now I’m just looking to move forward."
Coach Dan Muse confirmed that Kindel, along with forwards Evgeni Malkin and Egor Chinakhov, are slated to return to game action. Malkin missed one game due to an illness, while Chinakhov sat out two contests with a lower-body injury. Additionally, defenseman Sam Girard remains a game-time decision as he works his way back from a lower-body issue that caused him to miss three games.
The projected lines feature Tommy Novak, Sidney Crosby, and Rickard Rakell on the top line, followed by Egor Chinakhov, Ben Kindel, and Evgeni Malkin on the second line. Andrei Kuzmenko, Hendrix Lapierre, and Ville Koivunen are slated for the third line, while Connor Dewar, Blake Lizotte, and Nick Robertson make up the fourth line. On defense, Spencer Stastney is paired with Erik Karlsson, and Declan Carlile is set to line up alongside Kris Letang.
Through 12 games this season, the Penguins hold a 5-6-1 record and sit sixth in the Metropolitan Division. A victory on Thursday would mark their first three-game winning streak of the season and help them create separation from division rivals like the Columbus Blue Jackets and Philadelphia Flyers. The puck drops at 7:00 p.m. EDT.