Only for Guild Members » It was his 12th goal of the season

PITTSBURGH (AP) There’s a bit of masochist in Patric Hornqvist. Has to be.How else to explain the thrill the Pittsburgh Penguins forward gets by planting himself in front of an opposing net and daring someone – be it a goaltender or defender typically within a stick’s reach of him – to move him out of the way by any means necessary?Over the course of three periods on a given night Womens Anze Kopitar Jersey , Hornqvist will be punched, pushed, slashed (both legally and illegally) and generally treated as a pi锟絘ta on skates. And here’s the thing. He likes it. A lot. The smile on his face even as he’s being chopped to the ice is a dead giveaway.”I think he finds comfort in being a pain in the neck,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said.Sure, it’s not quite the career path the 31-year-old envisioned while growing up in Sweden, where the larger international ice sheets provided Hornqvist plenty of room to do as he pleased. That space has disappeared in the NHL, where the ice surface is smaller, the players bigger and faster, and the goals far harder to come by.So Hornqvist has carved out a niche by volunteering to get to the places on the ice that aren’t for the meek – a 5-foot-11, 189-pound stockpile of kinetic energy. In the process, he’s become arguably the best of the net-front masters that will play a pivotal role in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Hornqvist scored 29 times this season for the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions, most of them coming from in tight. Some on deflections. Others on rebounds. Others still when he managed to thrust his stick in the middle of chaos and find the order in it. Oh, and the puck Authentic Derek Forbort Jersey Kids , too.They call the corners and the front of the net the ”dirty area.” Maybe, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Especially in the postseason.”Usually it’s not the pretty goal that wins the game,” said Predators forward Scott Hartnell, no stranger to the mosh pit that doubles as the area just outside the goal crease. ”It’s the one-two-three-four whacks on it and it goes in.”The goal that propelled the Penguins to a second title last June came not from Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin or Kris Letang but by Hornqvist doing what he does as well as anyone in the NHL – collecting Justin Schultz’s shot off the end boards then banking it off Nashville’s Pekka Rinne and into the net late in Game 6 of the 2017 Stanley Cup finals.”I love to be where it’s hot, especially in those areas in front of the net,” Hornqvist said. ”It’s probably the best place to be.”And, in a weird way, it’s a pretty effective path to career longevity. Hornqvist just signed a five-year contract extension over the winter. Hartnell will turn 36 later this month. Tampa Bay’s Chris Kunitz – who filled a role similar to Hornqvist’s while helping the Penguins to three Cups before joining the Lightning – played in all 82 games this year for the Eastern Conference’s top seed at age 38.Pain, it turns out, has its perks. Washington’s Tom Wilson, just 24, points to players like Hornqvist and Philadelphia’s Wayne Simmonds as a role model of sorts.”(Simmonds) will tip the puck, he’ll turn and he’ll find it Youth Dion Phaneuf Jersey ,” Wilson said. ”He’s strong enough to be able to get two or three chances. And you’ve got to be strong enough in order to be able to do something with it after you find it.”Hornqvist brushes off the notion that he’s special, saying only ”I take pride in what I do out there.” He points out he scored 15 power-play goals this season – third most in the league – not so much because of any particular talent he may have but because he happens to play on the same unit as Crosby and Malkin.Defenses can become so intent on trying to keep Pittsburgh’s two stars in check that Hornqvist has a knack of finding the open spot. And if the puck happens to show up there, too, even better.Crosby isn’t so sure. Asked if there’s an art to Hornqvist’s approach to his job, the two-time MVP nods.”I think it’s a skill,” Crosby said. ”It takes a lot of determination, a lot of courage but there’s also some thought that goes into it, too. I think you can’t have one without the other and I think he’s able to find ways to create space and find pucks and battle all through that stuff in order to create goals there.”It goes beyond putting the puck in the net. Hornqvist, Hartnell and the rest can be just as effective doing things that never show up on a goal sheet, be it creating a screen or occupying a pair of defenders or simply refusing to get out of the way.”There’s obviously the guys that work well with the shooter, moving screens, on the same page,” Washington goaltender Braden Holtby said. ”And then there’s just the guys that they just get in there and kind of frustrate you and run interference and stuff like that. It’s more those tiny little jabs that throw you off balance that the ref or no one else sees.”Hornqvist does it all. Rookie forward Zach Aston-Reese marvels at Hornqvist’s ability to both use his stick ”like an axe” while absorbing all manner of abuse without letting his frustration get the best of him.”We played Washington and he had three guys punching him in the head and for him to be like cool Drew Doughty Jersey , calm and collected and not retaliate, not drop his gloves,” Aston-Reese said. ”There’s a huge mental capacity to it.”A capacity Hornqvist and the rest of his brethren will have to rely on in the postseason, when goals of any variety are at a premium and where the traffic jams in front of the net are not for the claustrophobic. Some players will have to find a way to adapt. Not so for guys like Hornqvist.”He plays every game like it’s a playoff game,” Crosby said. ”What he has to deal with is exactly what you face every night in the playoffs with how hard you have to compete in front of the net to find those loose pucks, yeah I think he finds a way to elevate his game.”—AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno in Washington, D.C. and AP Sports Writer Teresa M. Walker in Nashville contributed to this report.— NEWARK, N.J. (AP) On the opening day of the baseball season, Sidney Crosby swung and connected for the Pittsburgh Penguins, preventing the New Jersey Devils from sweeping their four-game season series with the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion.Crosby batted his own rebound out of the air and into the net 19 seconds into overtime, and the Penguins beat the Devils 4-3 on Thursday night, marking the second time in just over a week the back-to-back Conn Smythe Trophy winner has scored on a baseball swing.”I’ve seen him do it so many times, it doesn’t surprise us anymore http://www.officialkings.com/authentic-adidas-dustin-brown-jersey ,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. ”He’s an elite player. There aren’t too many (making) guys those types of plays. He does it time and time again. He thinks the game on such a high level and he’s such a competitor.”Kris Letang stole Taylor Hall’s pass in the opening seconds in the Pittsburgh zone and sent Crosby on a semi-break the other way. His initial shot hit the goalpost, but then the star center pulled his hands in and swatted the puck, extending his goal-scoring streak to five games.The tally was similar to one against Montreal last Wednesday in which Crosby juggled the puck once on his stick before smacking it from just below shoulder height.Crosby, who has won almost every major award in the NHL, modestly downplayed his latest trick.”I just tried to stay with it,” he said. ”It’s fortunate it came back to me. I saw it go off post.”Pittsburgh defenseman Brian Dumoulin called the goal incredible.”It kind of leaves you in awe,” he said. ”I mean we see it a lot, but every time he does it and does something special it’s crazy to see and enjoyable. It just speaks to what an incredible player he is.”Conor Sheary, Letang and Patric Hornqvist also scored for the Penguins. Matt Murray made 28 saves.Kyle Palmieri, Hall and Blake Coleman scored for the Devils, who had a three-game winning streak snapped. Keith Kinkaid had 31 saves in losing for only the fourth time in his last 16 decisions (12-3-1).”That’s a good team over there,” Palmieri said after the Devils remained three points in front of Florida in the race for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. ”They know how to win at this time of year. We’ll take the point and reset and shore some things up for us. It’s a big weekend for us.”New Jersey has five games left in the regular season, one less than the Panthers Jake Muzzin Jersey , who lost 3-2 in overtime to Ottawa.The losses by Ottawa and New Jersey clinched playoff berths for Washington and Toronto, which were both idle.The game was tied three times, with the Penguins getting a lucky bounce on Hornqvist’s 25th goal that tied it with 8:34 left in regulation. His shot from just inside the blue line went through a maze of players, hit the goalpost and then bounced off Kinkaid’s leg into the net.Coleman had given the Devils the lead 5:11 into the third period. He stole a puck at the Penguins’ blue line, worked a give-and-go with Travis Zajac and then put the rebound of his own shot past Murray. It was his 12th goal of the season and third against Pittsburgh.The game was tied 1-all after the first period and 2-all after the second.Palmieri, who has four goals in his last three games, was sent on a breakaway by Nico Hischier and beat Murray between the pads at 12:19. Sheary tied it 25 seconds later after taking a cross-ice pass by Hornqvist and beating Kinkaid in close.Letang, who has goals in two straight, put Pittsburgh ahead 6:59 into the second period, beating Kinkaid from low in the right circle.Hall tied the game with a power-play goal from the right circle. It was his 34th goal.NOTES: Hischier is the first Devils’ rookie to have 50 points in a season since Adam Henrique in 2011-12. … The Penguins now have four 25-goal scorers with Hornqvist joining Evgeni Malkin (42), Phil Kessel (30) and Crosby (28). It’s the first time since 2011-12. … RW Patrick Maroon returned to the Devils’ lineup after missing two games with a lower-body injury. … Rookie RW Jesper Bratt was a healthy scratch.UP NEXTPenguins: Host Montreal on Saturday.Devils: Finish four-game home stand on Saturday against Islanders.—