*Photo from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette*
It was a marathon of a game in Quebec. Sidney Crosby had two goals and an assist, Jansen Harkins scored the winning goal, and the Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Montreal Canadiens 4-3 in the shootout on Wednesday night in Montreal.
Following a 4 game losing streak, the Penguins won their second game in a row, sitting at 13-12-3 and 7th place in the Metropolitan Division. Erik Karlsson had two assists for the Penguins while Crosby had 3 points, tying Mark Recchi for 13th in league history in points with 1,533.
Pittsburgh head coach Mike Sullivan said of the win that "We didn’t start the way we wanted to start but we kept fighting, we climbed back in the game. And I thought obviously, the power play once again was a big difference for us but the penalty kill in overtime, and down the stretch I thought ‘Ned’ made some real timely saves for us as well. So, I’m just proud of the group. It’s a back-to-back, they’re never easy in these circumstances and I thought we competed hard."
David Savard scored 6:24 into the first period for the Canadiens, giving them a 1-0 lead on his first goal of the season. Jayden Struble then scored to double the lead to 2-0, his second NHL goal. Crosby cut it to 2-1 with his 16th goal of the season before Sean Monahan scored a power play goal to make it 3-1 Canadiens after one.
The Penguins took control in the second period to even the score. On the power play 5:36 into the period, Jake Guentzel scored to make it 3-2, assisted by Crosby and Karlsson on his 13th goal of the season. Crosby added a power play goal of his own to tie the game 3-3, with assists going to Karlsson and Evgeni Malkin.
After a scoreless 3rd period and overtime, it was off to the shootout. The first two skaters on both teams scored before a 4 round drought. Lars Eller scored for Pittsburgh and Monahan for Montreal, continuing the game. 4 more rounds went by before Harkins scored in the 12th to win it.
Karlsson said of Harkins' goal in the shootout that "Guys on the bench are starting to panic a little bit and hoping for a goal for us, so it kind of ends so they don’t get picked. But at the same time, it’s one of those things that guys get opportunities to take a penalty shot that otherwise they might have not, and today Harks scored a goal for us. I don’t know if he’s taken a penalty shot before, let alone scored a goal, so it’s a big moment for him personally, and obviously, for our hockey club as well."
It was Alex Nedeljkovic who got the start for the Penguins in net, getting the win to improve to 3-2-1 in 6 starts. Nedeljkovic stopped 39 of the 42 shots the Canadiens sent his way, which was good for a .929 save percentage.
Getting the start for the Canadiens was Sam Montembeault, who got saddled with the OT loss to drop to 6-4-2 in 12 starts. Montembeault turned aside 27 out of the 30 shots on goal the Penguins tested him with, giving him an even .900 save percentage.
Montreal head coach Martin St. Louis said of the loss that "I liked a lot of things in the first period, but we started to shoot ourselves in the foot. And in the second, we continued to shoot ourselves in the foot some more. But we played a very good third period. Overall, I think we played well enough to win the game, but when you shoot yourselves in the foot like that, you leave things to chance a bit."
Both teams get back in action on Saturday. The Penguins continue their Canada trip against the Toronto Maple Leafs, with Tristan Jarry the likely starter. Montembeault is listed as the starter for the Canadiens against the New York Islanders.
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