Pittsburgh Penguins Captain Sidney Crosby registered a goal and an assist against the Carolina Hurricanes in his first game back after missing the last 11 games with a lower-body injury. In a high-scoring contest, the Penguins ultimately fell in the shootout 6-5 to cap off their five-game road trip.
“Both coaches probably wouldn’t be thrilled with it, some lead changes and things like that,” Crosby said. “Sometimes that’s what the game dictates, and ultimately it’s about winning it at the end of the day. We’ve got to find a way to win that game.”
Throughout the first period, the Hurricanes generated turnovers and created many quality scoring chances, but Stuart Skinner made timely saves. Aside from the shorthanded goal the Penguins surrendered to Jordan Martinook, the score could’ve been more than 1-0.
“He made so many big saves for us. He was huge tonight,” Bryan Rust said. “He was the reason that the game wasn’t ten or eleven to five. I think we definitely needed to play tighter defensively, but I think he made some amazing saves for us.”
Halfway through the second period, the Penguins were able to get on the board from no one other than the captain himself. The puck bounced out to the front of the net to Crosby, and he slid it five-hole on Frederik Andersen for his 28thgoal of the season.
“They got us going there with the first one,” Head Coach Dan Muse said. “It was just a great job by the line on the fore check and the recovery. I thought from there, too, they were finding themselves in the offensive zone more from that point on.”
Jackson Blake would reclaim the Hurricane’s lead, but Skinner continued to make stellar saves. Most notably, a right pad save on Seth Jarvis, who found himself on a short-handed breakaway.
“There’s plenty that we can clean up, especially in those first two periods,” Muse said. “With some of the chances we gave up, I mean, (Skinner) was excellent here tonight. He was a huge reason we walked out of here with a point.”
Entering the third period, the game seemed as if it was about to open up. Erik Karlsson scored on the power play, followed by Taylor Hall reclaiming his team’s lead just under three minutes later.
Bryan Rust, who stepped up in a major way in the absence of Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, scored his 25th goal of the season on a breakaway for goals in three straight games. But once again, Logan Stankoven scored five minutes later to make it 4-3.
“They’re a fast, hard, and deep team,” Rust said. “They play with all four lines, but I think we’re similar. We can roll our lines over the board, and we have guys from top to bottom who can score goals. I think it’s a good matchup.”
Looking for yet another response, Karlsson got his second goal of the period after beautifully dancing around Sebastian Aho and snapping a shot past the blocker side of Andersen and in. Since the Olympic Break, Karlsson has 17 points (5G-12A) in 12 games.
“Karl has got a swagger about him right now that I think is good,” Rust said. “Anytime you get a player with that much skill and can do that many amazing things with the puck, but he has that swagger and that confidence.”
23 seconds later, the Penguins got their first lead of the game when Anthony Mantha found Ben Kindel off the rush, who wristed a shot by the glove of Andersen for his 17th goal of the season.
For the fifth time in the game, the Hurricanes were able to reclaim their one-goal lead when K’Andre Miller snuck a shot past Skinner with just over two minutes left in regulation to send the game into overtime.
“I felt really good. I think that’s why I’m really annoyed right now, because I let in six goals,” Skinner said. “ I wouldn’t have expected that, but it’s a hard league. These guys know how to score goals, and they know how to make plays.”
In extra time, the Penguins had their chances to end the game, but were ultimately stopped by Andersen. With less than a minute to go, Aho found Sean Walker for a one-timer at the left circle, who finished the play for the winning goal.
“I think we have a good enough team to be better at them, but they haven’t been in our fortune this year,” Karlsson said on the overtime struggles. “That’s the way that it is sometimes. I don’t think there’s a particular reason for it. It sucks losing that way.”
The Penguins concluded their five-game road trip with a 2-1-2 record and will return home for three games as they continue on their March schedule and push towards the end of the season.
“We’re in a battle, and we just have to worry about ourselves and take care of our things,” Karlsson said. “Do the things we do well and not worry too much about what’s going on around us because everybody is doing a big push right now.”
