Leading the Panthers with a career-high 36 goals, Reinhart paces the NHL with 19 goals on the power play, which is tied for the single-season franchise record. The 28-year-old has also scored in a franchise-record eight straight games on the road.
Extending his point streak to a career-long 12 games, Reinhart is the fifth Panther to ever record a streak that long.
But after Reinhart’s goal, Pittsburgh spent most of the rest of the period on the power play.
After Kevin Stenlund was called for hooking against Drew O’Connor at 12:55, Bennett received a double-minor penalty after being called for a cross-check against Letang, who continued to draw the ire of the Panthers after the incident with Barkov.
Luckily, the penalty kill was up to the task.
After killing off 22 seconds of a 5-on-3 power play, the Panthers held their ground to kill off the entire double-minor. Between the pipes, Bobrovsky looked like a man possessed. Of his 15 saves in the second period, 11 came on the penalty kill.
While there were more than a few highlight-reel saves to choose from, Bobrovsky’s glove save on a point-blank redirection from Rickard Rakell in front of the cage during the first half of the double-minor really stands out as a game-changing stop.
In the goalie battle, Bobrovsky finished with 35 saves, while Nedeljkovic made 29.
“There was a lot of PK reps,” said Bobrovsky, who's now tied for third in the NHL with 23 wins this season. “I thought the guys did a great job. It was one of those games when the score’s tight and every moment is a big moment."
At 18:54, Anton Lundell was sent to the box for roughing Letang, giving the Penguins their fourth straight power play. But after managing to get to the intermission unscathed, they killed off the rest of the power play at the start of the third period.
Finally some 5-on-5 hockey, right? Nope!
After what looked like a no-fault collision near center ice between Bennett and Rakell, the officials once again sent Bennett to the box and the Penguins to the power play.
At that point, all the Panthers could do was shrug and smile at how the calls were going.
"You've got to be careful about letting your emotions get the better of you, but I'd rather have a night of that than trying to wind guys up to play hard in the sport of hockey,” Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said of the intense passion he saw from his players. "You don't have to wind these guys up. They come wired to the game."
At 14:35, Aaron Ekblad went to the box for hooking.
Again, the Panthers killed off another power play for Pittsburgh.
But with Nedeljkovic pulled for the 6-on-5 advantage and the Penguins in search of the game-tying goal late, Sidney Crosby pounced on a rebound and dished it over to Evgeni Malkin for a one-timer that made it 2-2 with 41.5 seconds left.
Following a scoreless extra frame in which the Panthers carried most of the play, it was time for the shootout. After Guentzel answered a goal from Barkov with a goal of his own, Reinhart scored the deciding goal to lock in the 3-2 win for the Panthers.
“We stuck with it,” Reinhart said. “We didn’t get frustrated in the third. The penalty kill came up huge. Unfortunately we weren’t able to get it done in regulation, but good to stick with it and get the win.”
