Penguins Fall to Nashville in Overtime on Controversial Sequence

After the Predators scored just 14 seconds into overtime for a 3-2 win over Pittsburgh on Tuesday in Nashville, instead of heading directly to the locker room, the Penguins remained on their bench for a few moments, not pleased at all with what had happened on the sequence.

As Filip Forsberg entered the zone en route to getting the winner, Ryan O’Reilly tried to stay onside, colliding with Sidney Crosby in the process. No interference penalty was called on the play, which surprised Mike Sullivan, who said he had gotten a good look at it.

“It's a game-changing moment, right?” the Penguins head coach said before continuing, “I didn't like the opening drop of the overtime. It just… it is what it is."

It was a tough finish to a solid performance from the Penguins, now 10-11 on the season after falling to the Predators, who extended their win streak to six games.

“It's unfortunate. I thought our team played hard tonight,” Sullivan said. “I thought we had a lot of good looks. It's unfortunate the way it ended.”

While the Penguins entered the first intermission down 2-0, the score wasn’t indicative of their play, as they actually had a strong opening 20 minutes. The first half flew by with hardly any whistles before Michael McCarron got on the board at the 10:20 mark.

Pittsburgh had a terrific response from there, tilting the ice and outshooting Nashville 5-1 before the Predators got the game’s first power play. The penalty kill did a great job, but shortly after, McCarron got his second of the night.

“This team's played really well. This is a good hockey team. We come out of the first period down, I thought our team played well, and that's what we told them,” Sullivan said. “We just got to stay with it, we got to dig in and try to work to get the next goal and claw back into the game.”

That’s exactly what the Penguins did, with Evgeni Malkin getting his 10^th goal of the season with a quick release on a beautiful feed from Reilly Smith to cut the deficit to 2-1.

Pittsburgh entered the third period with 1:22 remaining on another penalty kill, and shortly after the Penguins went back to even strength, Bryan Rust netted his 10^th of the year just 2:26 into the final frame to even the score.

The winger didn’t miss a beat in his return in Music City, as Rust had missed the last three games with a lower-body injury. He said the first couple of shifts might have been shaky, but he felt good after that, and his line with Crosby and Jake Guentzel was creating chances.

While Rust wryly added it would have been nice to get another goal or two, finding one after being out for a while “is something that gives a little bit of confidence, and hopefully I can keep my game going in the right direction.”

Pittsburgh’s power-play woes continued in the sense that they couldn’t come up with a timely goal after getting their second and final opportunity of the night at the 5:28 mark of the third, and are now 1-for-27 dating back to Nov. 7 in Anaheim.

From there, the Predators pushed, with a big surge leading up to the buzzer. At one point, Ryan Graves and Kris Letang had a shift that lasted around two minutes, and it only ended because a puck deflected and caught Matt Nieto up high. But the Penguins managed to survive and come away with at least a point.

"I thought we played a decent game, generated a lot of chances,” Crosby said. “They pushed a bit after we tied the game. I thought we handled it well. It's unfortunate we couldn't find a way to get the extra point."

“To be able to get a point is nice, but I think right now, we're looking for wins,” Rust said.