Domingue needs OT to win Penguins debut, defeat Sharks

SAN JOSE -- Louis Domingue made 40 saves in his Pittsburgh Penguins debut, a 2-1 overtime win against the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center on Saturday.

Domingue, who signed a one-year contract with the Penguins on Sept. 2, had not played in the NHL since May 18 with the Calgary Flames, and had not won since Jan. 12, 2020, with the New Jersey Devils.
"It was how I visualized it. It was a long time coming," Domingue said. "Ever since camp, I was prepared for this moment. I saw an opportunity and you either take it or you don't. I thought tonight I came in focused, and we played until the last whistle."
Jake Guentzel scored 37 seconds into overtime off a pass from Sidney Crosby. Kris Letang's pass from behind his goal line hit Crosby in stride at the Sharks blue line on the right. Crosby skated to his left to get around Sharks defenseman Brent Burns and passed into the crease where Guentzel had position on Sharks forward Timo Meier for a tap-in.
"I knew we didn't like the first 40 [minutes] so I think we needed to get some emotion out of the bench and play a little harder and just keep it simple," Guentzel said. "That's when we know we're at our best. We did it in the third, we kept it simple and got on the forecheck and created some turnovers."

Guentzel and Letang each had a goal and an assist for the Penguins (22-10-5), who are 3-2-0 on their six-game road trip.
"Give San Jose credit, they played really hard, but we didn't play the type of game that we're capable of in the first 40 minutes," Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said. "I thought the last 20 was a step in the right direction. We certainly played better, and obviously Sid and Jake made a great play in the overtime, but I think that was the difference."
Rudolfs Balcers scored, and Adin Hill made 25 saves for the Sharks (20-17-2).
"We did some good things, but the only thing we didn't do was score," San Jose coach Bob Boughner said. "A lot of our guys are snakebit. We had guys in front of the net but we're not putting them in. We had 41 shots, tried to make it hard on their goalie, just not a lot of puck luck."
Balcers gave the Sharks a 1-0 lead at 7:01 of the first period when he redirected a shot by Erik Karlsson from the right face-off circle.
"We had a lot of good chances," San Jose forward Logan Couture said. "I liked our game. If we continue to play this [type of] game, you're going to win more than you're going to lose."
Letang tied it 1-1 at 10:56 with a backhand on the rush.
"We have to stay positive," Sharks defenseman Mario Ferraro said. "We played a really good game tonight. There will always be struggles to put the puck in. We'll obviously study on ways to improve."

NOTES: Crosby has scored 37 overtime points (18 goals, 19 assists) to tie Alex Ovechkin (24 goals, 13 assists) and Patrik Elias (16 goals, 21 assists) for the most in NHL history. … Letang has scored 29 overtime points (seven goals, 22 assists) to tie Karlsson (seven goals, 22 assists) for the most by a defenseman in NHL history. … Letang has scored 12 points (two goals, 10 assists) in a seven-game point streak. He passed Ron Francis for sixth in Penguins history with 614 points. … Pittsburgh forward Brock McGinn had three shots and four hits in 16:46 after missing three games in NHL COVID-19 protocol. … Meier had an assist and has scored nine points (two goals, seven assists) in his past seven games.