The Penguins didn’t have their best in the first two periods of Saturday’s matchup with the Senators. But after a dominant third, they battled back to get a point in a 5-4 overtime loss to Ottawa at Canadian Tire Centre.
Kris Letang got the tying goal late in regulation, while Lars Eller, Rickard Rakell, and Drew O’Connor also scored for Pittsburgh. Alex Nedeljkovic is now 3-0-2 in his last five consecutive starts since Dec. 4, getting the nod for the fourth time in the past five games with the Penguins riding the hot hand in goal.
“Honestly, we just turned it up to another level,” Nedeljkovic said of what changed for the team entering the final 20 minutes of play. “I think there was just an intensity that wasn't there in the first two periods, and we only gave up a handful of shots.”
The Penguins faced an opponent with a familiar face taking over behind the bench after the team lost six in a row and seven of eight. Jacques Martin, who was on Pittsburgh’s coaching staff during the back-to-back championship runs in 2016 and ’17, is serving as the interim head.
“I know they've gone through their struggles here as of late, but they've got a real talented young core. They're trying to find their way right now,” Mike Sullivan said this morning. “They've obviously had a coaching change, and usually that entails a whole lot of urgency.”
The Senators had more of that in the opening 40 minutes compared to the Penguins, with Ottawa doing a tremendous job in what Sullivan likes to call the critical moments of a game, particularly after giving up goals. Every time Pittsburgh scored, the Senators responded and got it back quickly.
But as Sullivan pointed out, it didn’t help that a lot of those first two periods were spent on special teams, “so it was hard to assess 5-on-5,” he said. “There was no flow.”
With the Penguins trailing by two heading into the final frame, O’Connor – on the ice with Evgeni Malkin and Radim Zohorna – put the Penguins within one just under two minutes in. From there, Pittsburgh continued to push.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t convert a key power play with under eight minutes to go, as Rakell got robbed from getting another tally after breaking through in the goal column earlier in the night. The five-time 20-goal scorer hadn’t found the back of the net before getting sidelined with an upper-body injury that kept him out for 16 games.
Rakell said obviously, it felt good to get that first one in his third game back. “Hopefully just take some weight off my shoulders, and I can start helping out our team a little bit more,” he said.
Pittsburgh couldn’t get in sync on the man-advantage all night, going 1-for-7, with Eller’s tally coming on the power play. But the Penguins didn’t get discouraged, and ended up getting the tying goal from Letang with just 2:26 to play.
“We played a better possession game,” Rakell said. “We held on to more pucks and made sure we came together. We got a good forecheck out of that, and our D did a good job of getting pucks to the net, and we just tried to crash there. Definitely, it was better in the third.”
“When we play like that in the third, and we have been the last couple of games, it's really good hockey and we create a lot,” Nedeljkovic added. “It's not always pretty, but it opens up the ice a lot more for those guys to make plays. We don't give up as much on the defensive side as a result of that.”
The Penguins are off from Dec. 24-26 for the holiday break. They’ll be back in action on Dec. 27 with a road game against the Islanders.
