Penguins/Devils Recap: Pens battle back to earn a point, but fall in shootout

New Jersey wins in a shootout after Pittsburgh comes back from a 2-0 hole

Pregame

The Penguins are using the same lines and order that won via shutout on Saturday night against Nashville.

The visiting Devils get Erik Haula back after missing 12 games with injury and have these lines for the night:

First period

Fairly slow start for the game on both sides. Scary moment when Jonas Siegenthaler bails on a hit when he sends a puck in and folds up on his legs the wrong way. He would leave the game slowly and not return to put New Jersey down to five defensemen for most of the night.

The Penguins get two power plays, nothing going on the first one but on the second advantage Rickard Rakell scores. But the goal gets immediately waived off for a kick and upon further review the refs stick with the call of no goal.

Shortly after, Bryan Rust sets up Cody Glass for a goal but he can’t hit the target. Shame, he had almost the entire upper half of the cage open. The play goes the other way and after a scramble Rakell bumps the puck into the net and it will count this time. Unfortunately on his own cage.

The Devils score on their sixth and final shot of the period and take a 1-0 lead into the break.

Second period

Early in the second period, P.O. Joseph takes a double minor for high-sticking and it takes a great effort (and a post) for the Pens to hold NJ off the board.

Cody Glass and Haula get tangled up and both go to the box, Jack Hughes takes advantage of the extra space to operate and fires in his second goal of the night. 2-0 NJD.

Pittsburgh strikes back and Rakell gets on the board for real this time. Sidney Crosby drove to the net and his backhand shot was stopped but a rebound was left behind the net. Rakell out-positioned Brendon Dillon and quickly grabbed the puck, got around the back of the net and wrapped it in on his forehand. 2-1.

Ryan Graves gets ticket to the penalty box for tripping, it looked like Ondrej Palat felt a stick in his skates and went down pretty easily so fittingly Palat took a high-sticking penalty right off the power play faceoff to send the game back to 4v4.

Fairly even period, but playing the middle close after going down in the first means the Pens are in a hole entering the third period.

Third period

It looked like Crosby got his arm pinched in between two Devils defending him and went down in pain. He would go directly to the lockerroom hunched over. The Pittsburgh captain would miss a few shifts but return later in the third period.

Kris Letang and Paul Cotter are the next to tangle up and both go to the penalty box. This time the 4v4 works out better, Joseph makes a great play bulling down the left side and sends a pass back as he gets to the net. Kevin Hayes collects the pass and punches a shot past goalie Nico Dawes to tie the game. 2-2 with 12:07 to play.

Both teams are able to keep it even and get to the end of regulation that way.

Overtime

Glass, Rakell and Karlsson start things out, Glass wins the faceoff and the Pens gain the all-important possession of the puck in the 3v3 OT. Letang coughs it up a minute in, but New Jersey doesn’t do much with it.

The Pens are able to isolate on the Devils when Crosby steals the puck back and they work it around for a while. Crosby sets up Bryan Rust attacking the net but Daws makes the save. Rust takes a high-stick and draws a whistle but no penalty when it is determined to be Crosby’s stick.

Hayes goes down in a heap but is able to get to the bench. Crosby leads a 3-on-1 but forces a pass that gets knocked away. That springs Jack Hughes all alone for a breakaway with 10 seconds but Nedeljkovic keeps the game alive with a huge stop.

Shootout

Pens shoot first, it’s Rakell. He winds in slowly, stickhandles and snaps a forehand shot past Daws.

Paul Cotter is the first up for NJ, he goes to the backhand and lifts it into the net to tie.

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Crosby is next, he tries a forehand shot across the grain but Daws stops him.

Jack Hughes is next for the Diablos, but the puck rolls on him and he fans on the shot.

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Rust is up for the Pens but weakly shoots directly into Daws’ glove.

Jesper Bratt gets the chance for a game-winner, Nedeljkovic stops him with the leg.

—

Round 4 is Anthony Beauvillier’s time to shine and he tucks it on off a backhand deke.

Dougie Hamilton has to score to keep the game going, and he does just that by opening up the five-hole and snapping in a shot.

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Hayes goes in Round 5, he gets Daws leaning with the deke but the NJ goalie is able to grab it with his glove.

Tomas Tatar can win it for NJ but Nedeljkovic stays with his dekes and battles to block the shot.

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Round 6 is Kris Letang, he makes his usual backhand move but can’t elevate the puck.

Luke Hughes gets a chance to end it, Nedeljkovic blockers his effort away.

—

Round 7 brings Cody Glass, his quick shot is stopped.

Timo Meier is up for yet another chance to win it for the Devils and he finally gets the job done. NJ wins in the shootout.

Some thoughts

• It was unfortunate for the Penguins to be down 1-0 instead of up 1-0 after 20. The rulebook cites a “direct result of a distinct kicking motion” and there certainly was a direct result but coming off more of a twist than what I generally would consider a kick (i.e. a swinging action). Don’t have a huge problem with the inability to reverse the call on the ice but all things considered it was unlucky that Rakell couldn’t quite reach the puck with his stick to tap it in and make it a fully legal play.
• Then, of course, comes the biting irony that Rakell’s accidental kick that propelled the puck into his own net just seconds later counts. The beauty of hockey, eh?
• There’s still a few more days yet before the long break but both of these teams were sliding into some casual play. Errant passes were all over the place through the middle, ill-advised drop passes, sticks getting up for each club in ways more unfocused than intentional adding in with general lax play with and shots on goal going on all across the board. We should probably suspect that will continue and only intensify over the last few games with the human nature of knowing a vacation is near.
• The Pens were very shaky at 4v4 in two extended sequences before finding magic with Hayes scoring the team’s first 4v4 goal in two seasons. Probably has more to do with the speed and skill of players like Hughes and Jesper Bratt with less resistance in their way but it wasn’t a pretty sight.
• That Hayes goal was the most clutch of timing, happening in the moment with Crosby on the sidelines dealing with his pain and Evgeni Malkin out for a while now. That’s about the most dire the team has looked in a while personnel-wise and good on Hayes (and Joseph) to step up with the primary points on a crucial goal. The team badly needed someone to step up and not have Rakell/Rust do everything, it probably shouldn’t be too big of a surprise that Hayes was the one to answer the call.
• Pittsburgh got a brief respite from being down entering the third period in their win over Nashville last game, but were back in the usual hole after 40 minutes for the sixth time in the last eight games. The Pens are now 1-4-1 when losing after two periods in that stretch, and 2-0-0 when not behind. Being in that hole so frequently is a dagger. The margins and reasons have been extremely close but they continually find themselves on that brink of falling behind and being unable to catch up late.
• Michael Bunting has been known to get under some people’s skin out there, but did he run afoul of the official scorer? (At home, no less). Through two periods, Pittsburgh had 10 official giveaways — and Bunting was rung up for six of them all on his own. That was a strange anomaly, Bunting only had 30 giveaways over his first 52 games of the season entering tonight.
• Pens fall to 1-5 in shootouts this season. Tough to win only scoring 2/7 times. Nedeljkovic did well to battle and keep hopes alive for a while but NJ had too many chances to seal the deal, eventually they finally did.

The Pens get at least a point out of the night, they’re off to New York on Friday night as they start to wind down for the 4 Nations break.