The Penguins reached the halfway point of the 2024-25 season by getting a point on Sunday in Carolina in a 4-3 loss to the Hurricanes – moving them past Ottawa into the second Wild Card playoff spot.
“After the start we had, I think we dug deep and got ourselves into a position where every game’s meaningful,” Kevin Hayes said. “I think as of late, there's a lot more better games than bad games.”
The veteran forward opened the scoring, his fifth of the season and first since returning to the lineup on Friday in Florida after nine games as a healthy scratch. Michael Bunting stayed hot by tallying 1:21 later to to put Pittsburgh up 2-0 going into the first intermission.
“I think we just played with the puck a little bit more. We held on to it and made them defend,” Erik Karlsson said. “That drains them on energy and makes sure that they don't have as much to play offense on their side.”
However, the Hurricanes responded with a vengeance, with three unanswered in the second to take the lead after 40 minutes. “We became a little bit hesitant, and they took over. They played with the puck for the most part,” said Karlsson, who evened the score in the third period after a beautiful setup on Bunting’s goal.
“We did a good job in holding onto pucks, which creates motion and confusion on their part when we're in control. That’s just what happened. Bunts got open and made a good shot. So unfortunately, we needed a little bit more of that and we didn't get enough today, but we'll take the point and head home.”
The Penguins had a chance to go ahead and get that second point with a power play late in regulation. But their units – ranked fourth in the NHL entering tonight – couldn’t convert against the league’s No. 2 penalty kill, going 0-for-3 on the game.
“In the third, I think we started off well, being down the goal,” Karlsson said. “We tied it up. And then again, we started giving them the puck a bit too much, and giving them easy offense. So, all in all, though, they're an unbelievably good team. Getting a point is better than none. But I think the way that we started today, it was a little bit of a disappointing one.”
Alex Nedeljkovic, getting his second start in the last three games, stopped 26 of 30 shots against his former team. “I think you'd like another save or two there in the second period, bail them out. I mean, got beat three times clean, high. So, it's a tough one to swallow,” the Penguins netminder said.
Here’s what Head Coach Mike Sullivan had to say after the game.
Were you taken aback a little with that second period considering how you started the game? Yeah. We just got outcompeted. They raised their level, and we didn’t push back. We got outcompeted. We didn’t win a puck battle. Every time we’d pinch on the walls, we’d lose that battle on the walls. Their D would pinch on the walls and keep pucks alive. Gotta win the walls.
Ned was pretty critical of his own game, what’d you see from him? I don’t know, the goals they scored were good goals.
The power play had some tough sledding tonight as well. What was maybe missing on that?
Execution, speed, tempo. It was a microcosm of our overall game. I thought we had a great start. I thought we had a great first period. I thought after that, we were ordinary.
