The Pittsburgh Penguins were back at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex for another day of training camp on Sunday, and there was a big emphasis on special teams.
Players from Groups A and B warmed up on separate rinks before scrimmaging for 45 minutes. Instead of the usual 5v5 scrimmage, each team rotated between having two-minute power plays.
Ville Koivunen was one of the standouts during the power play scrimmage. He scored the first goal for Team Black when he banked it off a defender and in. He was later showcasing his strong vision with some of his passes in the offensive zone.
He’s had the opportunity to skate with some of the Penguins’ top players at camp, including Sidney Crosby, Rickard Rakell, and Erik Karlsson, and confirmed after practice that he’s starting to build some more chemistry with them.
“Yeah, of course,” Koivunen said. “I know how they play and what they want to do on the ice, so that’s helped a lot.”
Koivunen got to spend time on Crosby’s line to end the 2024-25 season and looked comfortable, notching seven points in eight games. He also got time on Evgeni Malkin’s line, but appears more likely to at least start the season on Crosby’s line.
Speaking of Malkin, he beat Sergei Murashov five-hole to give Team Black a 3-0 lead over Team Gold after Tommy Novak made it 2-0 a few seconds prior. Malkin had his legs during Saturday’s 4-1 preseason win over the Columbus Blue Jackets, and that didn’t change on Sunday.
Benjamin Kindel continued to show his strong hockey IQ and playmaking ability when he threaded a beautiful pass through traffic from the blue line to set up Danton Heinen for Team Gold’s first goal. Kindel has looked more comfortable as training camp has progressed and had the opportunity to play with the NHL regulars on Saturday.
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He never looked out of place and used his skating ability to get some quality chances, just as he did in two previous preseason games. It’s still unlikely that he gets a nine-game tryout, but he’s not super far away from being an NHL player.
Defenseman Caleb Jones cut the lead to 4-2 at the end of the power play portion of the scrimmage before the format switched to 6-on-5. Both teams got to work with an extra attacker for the last few minutes of the scrimmage and it resulted in a 7-3 win for Team Black.
Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Rickard Rakell, Bryan Rust, and Erik Karlsson were on PP1 for Team Black, while Tommy Novak, Justin Brazeau, Ville Koivunen, Anthony Mantha, and Kris Letang were on PP2.
Team Gold’s top power play consisted of Ben Kindel, Philip Tomasino, Tristan Broz, Filip Hallander, and Caleb Jones. The second PP unit featured Robby Fabbri, Valtteri Puustinen, Matt Dumba, Avery Hayes, and Broz.
The Penguins will play their fifth preseason game on Monday against the Detroit Red Wings. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. ET.
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