MONTREAL — The Penguins earned five of six points on a road trip where they needed to bounce back, but good luck singing the virtues of that. With the lead at several points during the third period Saturday, the Penguins surely wanted point No. 6 to complete a perfect trip.
No dice.
After ceding a couple of leads, Mike Hoffman scored in overtime to help Montreal down the Penguins, 5-4, in a back-and-forth game at Bell Centre, one that saw Tristan Jarry and the Penguins' defense take a step back from how this trip started.
For a brief moment, it looked like this might actually be the Brock McGinn game, capping the Brock McGinn road trip. The winger scored a terrific short-handed goal at 14:02 of the third period, on an outstanding feed from Jeff Carter.
But that lasted a mere 20 seconds, as Sean Monahan helped Montreal forge a 4-4 tie with his power-play goal at 14:42.
McGinn, of course, had notched the game-winning goals on the first two games of this trip.
Hoffman did the honors, finishing a two-on-one with Kirby Dach at 1:03 of the extra session.
Looking to protect that same pesky one-goal lead early in the third period, those plans were originally spoiled thanks to a goal from Montreal left wing Cole Caufield just 49 seconds in.
As Caufield fired a shot from the point, Marcus Pettersson and Dach battled in front. The Penguins challenged for goaltender interference but to no avail; it was their first unsuccessful challenge in the past 13 attempts.
Evgeni Malkin, who early in the second period broke his stick on the glass when missing a glorious one-time chance from Bryan Rust, pushed the Penguins in front briefly at 3-2 with a nifty backhand goal from the inner-edge of the right circle at 3:19 of the period. But that, too, vanished.
Nick Suzuki created a 3-3 tie with a dazzling goal at 4:09 of the period, his 10th of the season. Suzuki deked his way around Kris Letang, then tossed a shot from in tight over Jarry's pads.
Trailing, 1-0, after the first period, it didn't take the Penguins long to tie the score in the second period and for Jeff Petry to exact some measure of revenge against his former team.
In the Penguins' last visit to Montreal, Petry wasn’t happy with himself after taking three minor penalties, but this was the opposite of that.
When his team needed an icebreaker, Petry came through. The defenseman delivered a centering pass from the corner, the puck seemingly intended for somewhere around Jason Zucker. It bounced off the stick of Montreal center Jake Evans and went in at 1:46.
Whatever, the Penguins will take it. Especially on the power play, where the Penguins had just one goal in their previous 16 opportunities.
Pittsburgh jumped in front, 2-1, less than two minutes later thanks to another fortuitous bounce, although this one was a little more intentional, Rickard Rakell tipping a point shot from Pettersson at 3:29 of the second
The Canadiens grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first period on a goal that Tristan Jarry will probably want back, one emblematic of his struggles. (Pittsburgh’s top netminder had gone 0-3-1 in his last four starts, with a .867 save percentage, 4.73 goals-against average.
Josh Anderson’s wrister from 52 feet somehow beat Jarry. A tick before the puck stopped in the back of the net, Jarry and Chad Ruhwedel clicked skates, a subtle play that may have hampered the former’s ability to react.
ICE CHIPS
— Pierre Olivier-Joseph missed a second consecutive game with a lower-body injury, and the Penguins used the same composition of defensemen as Friday night in Toronto.
— The Penguins had won 12 consecutive challenges before Saturday, 15 if you include only regular-season games. Their last unsuccessful challenge was against Montreal on Aug. 5, 2020 in the playoff bubble. The last one in the regular season was April 10, 2019 against the Islanders.
— Filip Hallander also sat out Saturday’s game with an undisclosed illness and was replaced by Kasperi Kapanen, who was a healthy scratch for the first two games of this road trip. Kapanen skated on the left wing of the fourth line with Ryan Poehling and Josh Archibald.
— Odd display of vitriol: Petry was booed by the Montreal fans every single time he touched the puck. Apparently getting traded is frowned upon in some places?
STAT ’N ‘AT
— 4: Game-winning goals for McGinn as a Penguin in 78 games before Saturday. That’s as many as he had in 345 games with Carolina. McGinn had the game-winners Wednesday in Washington and Friday in Toronto.
UP NEXT
The Penguins are off Sunday before returning to practice Monday at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex. The Maple Leafs are in town Tuesday at PPG Paints Arena.
