Penguins/Hurricanes Recap: Pittsburgh hangs until OT, but can’t break Carolina losing streak

The Pens still haven’t won in Raleigh since 2018, but they get a point out of tonight at least

Pregame

The Penguins get one player back from injury (Kris Letang) but lose another player to injury (Philip Tomasino) which means Anthony Beauvillier is called to play. Alex Nedeljkovic is also back rotating into the net for the action tonight.

The host Carolina Hurricanes have a lineup that looks like this:

First period

The Penguins get out to a hot start and score the rare (for them) first goal of the game on the road. It comes only 3:47 in and on the first shot. A breakdown leads to a 2-on-1 and Kevin Hayes looks off the pass and calls his own number, finding paydirt with a quick shot five-hold on Dustin Tokarski.

The good times continue with the Pens swarming in the offensive zone. With tons of high-to-low and low-to-high movement, Pittsburgh creates a hole in Carolina’s man coverage system. Erik Karlsson steps up from his blueline position driving in, then passes back to Michael Bunting, who has found a hole in the middle of the zone. 2-0 game.

As quickly as the goals come, they dry up for the Pens. The Canes steady themselves a bit and tighten up their coverage and stop giving up odd-man rushes.

No problems for the Penguins early on. Carolina gets a late period power play, they don’t score but momentum starts to shift even further in their direction. The visitors sit on a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes.

Second period

The middle frame is a terrible one for the Pens. They only muster five total shots on goal. Carolina gets 13, and three of them light the lamp.

The ice gets broken by a terrible play by Matt Grzelcyk. Grzelcyk flips the puck out of the zone with no hope or plan and it gets picked off. To make up for it, Grzelcyk melts completely away from the speed Sebastian Aho has driving to the middle. Being so undefended, Aho makes it look easy to drop a pass back for Seth Jarvis to step into. 2-1 game.

Carolina is back on the hunt. On the next two goals you really have to wonder what Bryan Rust and Rickard Rakell are thinking. The two turn it over and basically hand the Canes a 3-on-2 rush up the ice. They make it count when Aho’s speed pushes Erik Karlsson back this time and his centering pass is one that Jalen Chatfield can step into and hammer home, ramping off Grzelcyk’s stick and to the top corner of the net. 2-2 game.

Carolina gets a go-ahead goal. Marcus Pettersson doesn’t put Rust in the best of spots going up the wall, but Rust is bullied by Brent Burns and loses the puck. Sidney Crosby oddly loses his feet and wipes out and a few quick passes later Jarvis has the puck from point blank range and he doesn’t miss for his second goal of the night.

Disaster period for the visitors, Carolina is a better and deeper team that has more skill and that skill woke up in the second period. A few opportunistic finishes later and a 2-0 lead has swing into a 3-2 hole.

Third period

The first pair builds some credit back from the earlier defensive mistakes by generating a goal. Grzelcyk makes a long pass over to Karlsson, who has done well to stretch the zone horizontally and hammers home a tying goal with 18:09 left to play.

P.O. Joseph takes a tripping penalty but the Pens survive.

Late in the game with just over three minutes to go, the Canes clear the puck over the glass, giving Pittsburgh the chance to score late and win in regulation. Doesn’t work that way.

Overtime

Carolina owns the puck throughout the 3v3 and after working it around between each other finally deliver the finishing blow. Orlov shoots, Nedeljkovic stops it but Aho is able to punch the rebound in for the GWG.

Some thoughts

• Carolina is so good at closing off the walls and winning battles all over the ice. The Pittsburgh first line (forwards and defense) were going through serious struggles in the second period. Every player was making classic mistakes that can’t be made. Of course, it’s easy to say that from afar without a quality team bearing down and forcing a lot of the errors to happen, so it goes against the relentless crush of the Hurricanes.
• It was kinda crazy though that the Pens scored as many goals in the first 5:08 of this game (2) as they did in the first 120 minutes against Carolina. Shame they couldn’t have rode that wave a little longer and built up the lead a bit more in the early going when they had the momentum and before the Canes got going on the night.
• Between the goal and assist, another quality performance by Karlsson.
• Evgeni Malkin was held without a shot, and per Bob Grove that now makes seven straight periods without even a SOG for Malkin. Having Glass/Beauvillier/O’Connor/whomever as a right winger just hasn’t been working, it’s probably one of the most glaring holes on the team in this moment.
• The Pens’ power play went 0/3 but the penalty kill stood strong and killed all three Carolina power plays. Good math there for Pittsburgh to hold even on special teams, even though the late power play gave them the opportunity to win in regulation and they couldn’t make it happen.
• Some old school Bob Errey-esque math is 2 OTL = 1 win, at least in terms of fuzzy NHL math in the standings. Getting a win equivalent out of the weekend trip from Florida and Carolina isn’t the worst outcome possible.

The Pens head home for a while, starting on Tuesday night against Columbus. Surprisingly, it might be a battle for fourth place in the division, depending on how the other teams in the division so in the interim.