Pens/Sens Recap: Pittsburgh falls in OT in Ottawa

The Penguins make a push but can’t overcome the Senators on Saturday night

Pregame

The Penguins look similar to previous games, Tristan Jarry gets the net for the fourth straight game.

Full on intrigue in Ottawa; Anton Forsberg, tonight’s projected starting goalie, got hurt during the day and can’t dress so Linus Ullmark gets pressed into duty to play his second game in as many days. 22-year old EBUG (emergency backup goalie) Zach Dietz from the University of Ottawa gets to dress and serve as Ottawa’s backup for the night.

First period

Not too much happening very early through the first TV timeout.

Evgeni Malkin gets a chance from in tight but can’t finish. Puck goes the other way and more classic early-game Tristan Jarry foibles continue when Jarry leaves a big rebound and falls over in a scramble to completely lose his net. The Senators pass it around and shoot the puck in before he can get set. Jarry lasts until shot No. 3 by the opposition tonight before giving up the goal. 1-0 OTT.

The Pens get a glorious chance to tie the game, but Ullmark stops a Michael Bunting breakaway and Noah Gregor makes a hustle play to disrupt Erik Karlsson and prevent the Pittsburgh defender from scoring into an open cage of his own.

Marcus Pettersson went hard into the boards. Didn’t look pretty, a reverse angle replay showed his feet pointed in opposite directions as he crashed front-ways first into the boards. He skates off slowly favoring a leg and slowly heads off to the locker-room.

Shots are 8-5 OTT after 20 minutes.

Second period

The Pens play with fire, Kris Letang could have gone to the penalty box for a pretty obvious tripping call but the refs let it slide. Their charity runs out when Malkin hooks a Senator. Ottawa gets the game’s first power play but Pittsburgh kills it.

With Pettersson absent, the Pens have to play Ryan Graves more in higher leverage situation. It’s not ideal, Brady Tkachuk gets behind Graves for a breakaway but Jarry shuts it down with a great save and keeps Pittsburgh in the game.

Jarry makes more saves, Noel Acciari gets rocked by Tyler Kleven and a minor fracas ensues. Blake Lizotte takes the only penalty out of it to grant another Ottawa power play. Jarry makes a few saves but can’t deaden the puck and the Pens’ can’t clear it. Makes for some nervy times but they survive.

Pittsburgh tries to load up a Rakell-Crosby-Malkin, Letang/Karlsson line following the PK but they don’t get much going.

Bunting and Phil Tomasino get shots and Bunting tries to stir it up in front of the net post-whistle and drag the team into the game.

The Pens continue with a push, Crosby gets a shot from in tight but Ullmark denies him.

Shots are 14-13 PIT in the second period, which seems even enough until adding some context. Eliminate the four minutes of OTT power play time in the second and 5v5 shots are 13-4 PIT. Yet, they couldn’t crack Ullmark and Ottawa clings to a 1-0 lead through 40.

Third period

The Pens kept chipping away and find the equalizer. Blake Lizotte, man. Good things happen when he’s out there. Nice job by the fourth line to swarm on the puck behind the net, turn it over and get it back to the point. Grzelcyk’s point shot gets to the net and it takes a bounce right out to Lizotte who has space on the backhand to tuck it in. 1-1 game, 17:20 to go.

The nightmare Grzelcyk-Graves pair rears its head. Both defenders are positioned in front of the net, Thomas Chabot centers and Graves can’t disrupt the pass. Grzelcyk can’t stop Drake Batherson from tipping it in. Ottawa retakes the lead but there’s still 13:22 to play.

Malkin centers a puck for Bunting but it just won’t go in.

Ottawa awakens, Ridly Greig gets behind Owen Pickering for a breakawday. Jarry makes a huge save, the rebound is somehow not put in by Greig who only hits the post and Karlsson (!!) on the backcheck helps prevent the trailing Senator from scoring into the open net. They play on.

The Pens keep pushing, the first line has a long extended offensive zone shift but can’t score. The fourth line helps generate another goal. Letang skates the puck up the whole way and the defenders circle off him. Matt Nieto is in front of the net so Letang flings a wrister from the left side that has eyes and sneaks past Ullmark. 2-2 game, 7:20 in regulation.

No one else scores so this game will need extra time.

Overtime

The Pens lose the puck and give up a 3-on-1 but somehow don’t give up a shot. They keep puck possession.

Bryan Rust gets a shot from in close but he can’t finish. An errant Karlsson pass turns the puck over and Pittsburgh never touches it again. Tkachuk regroups and leads a 2-on-1, he plays for the shot and wires it low and in.

Some thoughts

• Jarry’s first goal allowed tonight came on the third shot on goal for the opponent. This marks the 11th time out of 13 starts that he’s surrendered a goal within the first five shots on goal this season.
• It’s impossible to diagnose injuries since sometimes incidents that don’t look harmful do a ton of damage and sometimes things aren’t as bad as they look, but the signs didn’t look good for Pettersson. He went into the boards with a good bit of force. It was tough contact to any/all of his legs/groin/ankle with that force, he left the game shaky and the team announced he would not return. None of those elements give a lot of comfort. No official word yet of course, but the Pens could be without their most competent actual defender (and best trade chip) for potentially some time...
• Ottawa looked strong despite tough circumstances of playing on the road last night and having to resort to playing the same goalie in both but their energy was strong in the beginning and then showed the inevitable tapering away. The Pens survived the early push (in no small thanks to Jarry playing strong after the typical early slip up) and then kept chipping away. Ullmark’s strong play saved Ottawa’s bacon tonight.
• Along those lines, it’s strange how Pittsburgh has swept the season series against Montreal in the past two seasons, yet Ottawa swept the Pens last night and won this first meeting tonight. Odd how certain teams and styles tend to match up against one another.
• Lizotte only scored seven goals with Los Angeles last season (in 62 games). He’s tied that mark in 16 games this season. Very charmed run for him in Pittsburgh, he’s working hard and it’s getting rewarded.
• Letang scored a fifth goal in his last seven games, he’s red hot too. I swear he found the fountain of youth after missing a few games last month. 26 more minutes tonight with the team down Pettersson for most the game
• But it seems like those two are the only ones with the puck luck lately. Bunting and Crosby in particular got great looks from dangerous areas but couldn’t find the back of the net.
• Moneypuck’s breakdown of shots on goal told the story of which line was struggling the most:

• The Beauvillier-Glass-O’Connor line had a tough go, giving up almost a shot per minute. All ended up in the 11-14% xGF% range (but did not end up on ice for a goal against, which is something) but that one needs to go back into the blender. That mattered since there were only two power plays and so much of the game was spent at 5v5 when the teams had to roll lines and depth was tested. It wouldn’t be fair to say the Pens failed that test, since their “fourth” line generated both of the team’s goals but the other group had issues that didn’t help the cause.
• Pittsburgh ends up 1-0-1 on the quick two-game tour of Eastern Canada. Not bad for the overall standings, but given the circumstance of Ottawa on the back-half of a b-2-b and having to rely on a goalie for the second straight night, the Pens only pick up one point in the standings when they really coulda/shoulda been looking for both.

The team heads back home for Tuesday night’s game against the Kings.