Musings: Penguins Bounce Back to Beat Montreal in OT

After scoring seven goals in the season-opener in Philadelphia on Wednesday, the Pittsburgh Penguins exploded offensively once again, this time putting up six goals in their home opener against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday at PPG Paints Arena. 

While the Penguins did surrender a three-goal lead in the third period to a highly dangerous offensive team, it was Tommy Novak who thwarted Montreal’s comeback when he netted the overtime winner.

“I think the fact that we found a way to get the extra point in overtime, especially with those last couple of minutes, you're not going into overtime with the best feeling,” Head Coach Dan Muse said. “But they stuck with it. We found a way. We got the two points. We got plenty that we can look at now that we know we got to fix, and I'm confident that this group will work to correct those things.”

Andrei Kuzmenko slotted into the lineup and made his Penguins debut after tending to the recent passing of his father, Alexander.

“I thought for a first game coming in, considering it's a pretty big layoff, and considering all that he went through, I thought he had a good game,” Muse said. “And the number one thing is, it's just good to have him back. It was just tragic. I think everybody in the organization over the last week and a half, two weeks, he's constantly been on our minds, and I'm just happy to have him back in the locker room with his teammates.”

Ben Kindel also made his season debut on Saturday after suffering a lower-body injury in the preseason, missing the remainder of camp and the season opener. In the 6-5 win, Kindel scored a power play goal, with Novak (2), Samuel Girard, Declan Carlile, and Evgeni Malkin also getting on the scoreboard.

Through the first ten minutes of the game, the Canadiens came out as the hungrier team and outshot the Penguins 7-1 in the process. After Captain Sidney Crosby drew an interference penalty on defenseman Mike Matheson, Pittsburgh started to build momentum.

On the man-advantage, which went two-for-four on Wednesday in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh stayed hot with Malkin banging in the loose puck off a point shot from Kris Letang. That sparked some life in the team, and they carried that momentum into the second period when Declan Carlile scored his first goal as a Penguin, and just the third of his career, wiring a quick shot past the glove of Jakub Dobes.

“He's jumping up in the play. I think he's picking those spots to be involved,” Muse said on Carlile. “He's a good hockey player … he looks confident out there, and he's got the ability to contribute, and he's shown that.”

Dictating the flow of the game, the Penguins simply outworked their opposition. Girard and Novak would each get on the board before Kindel made it 5-1 on the power play. Coming off an excellent rookie season, Kindel was inserted onto the team’s top power-play unit and found a way to make an immediate impact, redirecting Erik Karlsson’s shot from the point.

“I’d give most of the credit to ‘Karl’ (Karlsson) and his vision,” Kindel said on his goal. “Just being able to put that on my tape without really without even looking, it’s really an unbelievable play. Just really had to do the lazy part and just tap it in.” 

In the third period, Pittsburgh thought that they went ahead 6-3 when Egor Chinakhov made a power move to the net and tucked the puck past Jakub Dobes’s right pad. However, Montreal challenged for offside, and after further review, it was deemed a no-goal.

From there, the Canadiens, who made it to the Eastern Conference Finals last season, found their game offensively and hemmed the Penguins in their own zone. Cole Caufield, who finished with 51 goals last season, got his second goal of the game to start the third period, followed by Chris Kreider and Ivan Demidov scoring with their goaltender pulled to tie the game 5-5.

“I think (Montreal) did a better job with not giving up on the game, and they kept pushing,” Karlsson said. “It’s easy that they kind of fell out of the rhythm too, and it’s going to end 5-1 and nothing is going to happen. But they didn’t do that. We have to realize that when we start losing control a little bit too long, things like this can happen.”

Montreal controlled the puck for the majority of the overtime before the Penguins were able to capitalize. Malkin and Novak found themselves on a two-on-one. Malkin threaded the puck to Novak, who made no mistake and buried it for his third point of the night.

“It was really just off a change. I hopped on the ice, and I’m on a two-on-one,” Novak said. “Geno makes a great pass, like he does, and I kind of shoveled it in.”

Goaltender Arturs Silovs got the start in net for his second straight game after earning a shutout against the Flyers. While Saturday’s game wasn’t perfect, the team not only earned two points, but now has a lot of things to learn and improve. 

“I think any game you're going to have things that you are going to look back on,” Muse said. “Even at Philly, like, you're going to look back, there's still things to clean up. There's more things to clean up after tonight, for sure.”

“Even throughout the game, with the chances that we're giving up there, some breakaways – Arty had to make some massive saves, especially early in the game. We got to clean it up. And so, that's something that we went into this year knowing that we have to.”