GettyImages-2189339622

The Penguins return to Pittsburgh having grabbed three of four points on their quick two-game trip through Canada. After beating the Canadiens 9-2 on Thursday, the Penguins fell to the Senators in overtime on Saturday.

Blake Lizotte and Kris Letang scored; Tristan Jarry made 28 saves in his fourth straight start; and the Penguins played two-plus periods with just five defensemen. Marcus Pettersson went awkwardly into the corner boards with under four minutes to go in the first, and did not return to the game. Head Coach Mike Sullivan did not have any update following the contest.

“He's tough guy to replace. He plays a lot of minutes,” Jarry said. “He plays those hard minutes for us, and he does a great job. I think the guys did a great job stepping up. The five guys who we had really played well, and I thought they stuck with it. They were able to do their thing. And I think that's a big part of why we've got a point.”

The first period was relatively low event, save for a couple of chances on either side. The Penguins really started getting to their game in the second half of the second period, when they began generating offensive zone time and making it more difficult on Senators goalie Linus Ullmark.

“I thought Ottawa defended their netfront really hard all night. It took us a while to get to him,” Sullivan said.

Ullmark, who won the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s top goalie during Boston’s historic 2022-23 regular season, was starting his second game in as many nights after backup Anton Forsberg suffered a minor injury during warmups.

His former Bruins teammate Matt Grzelcyk helped the Penguins even the score in the final frame. The sequence started with a tremendous forecheck from the fourth line, with Matt Nieto working the puck back to the point. Grzelcyk didn’t hesitate before firing it on net, and Blake Lizotte was there for the rebound.

“Just trying to make him work as much as possible,” Grzelcyk said. “Forwards did a pretty good job getting to the net, and just trying to deliver as many pucks as we could. Obviously, he was kind of feeling it a little bit, but we did a good job just trying to be a little relentless there in the third period, and came up with some big goals.”

The Senators regained the lead when Drake Batherson deflected in a pass from the back post using his skate. When asked if he thought about challenging the play, Sullivan said, “the league checks whether it's a kicking motion or not. That's a tough one. I didn't think it was worth it. Especially when you're going against the No. 6 power play in the league, and with the power couple of power plays that they had, they were zipping around pretty good.”

The Penguins responded well, and Letang tied it on a strong individual effort. While the goal was unassisted, the fourth line was once again out there on the play.

“They played straight ahead,” Sullivan said. “They played a north-south game. They put pucks below the goal line. They get in on the forecheck. The goals they get, they're not pretty, but they count. It's one way to score goals in this league.”

The Penguins started overtime with possession, but Senators captain Brady Tkachuk got one past Jarry at the 1:46 mark.

“Yeah, it's tough. Obviously you want to win every game, but that's a very important point,” Grzelcyk said. “I think we're starting to come together more as a team. Maybe earlier in the year, we kind of let that one slip away, but we battle back. Showed a lot of resilience there, especially losing a D-man. You take a lot of positives from that.”