PITTSBURGH — For the Penguins, wins are hard to come by against the Carolina Hurricanes. They lost Sunday in Raleigh, N.C., and were 0-2 against them entering Thursday.
Going back further, the Hurricanes had beat them in seven of their last nine.
The Penguins let a win slip out of their hands Thursday at PPG Paints Arena.
They couldn’t hold a one-goal lead late in the third period then watched Jaccob Slavin score just 23 seconds into overtime, giving the Hurricanes a 4-3 win.
Bryan Rust buried a beauty with 7:05 left in the third period to put the Penguins in the lead. The winger charged coast to coast, blew past Hurricanes forward Jordan Martinook by pulling the puck onto his backhand with a nifty move then tucked the puck past Antti Raanta’s left toe, bringing Penguins fans to their feet.
But former Penguins center Jordan Staal beat Tristan Jarry on a wraparound, the puck banking in off Brian Dumoulin’s stick, to tie it up with 4:26 remaining.
Then Slavin finished off a tic-tac-toe passing play with the winner on Jarry. That snapped a seven-game winning streak for the goalie, who made 32 saves.
The first period was low-event hockey, which had more to do with poor execution than anything these two defensive-minded clubs were doing. With seven minutes left, there had been more icing calls (eight) than shots on goal (seven).
Sidney Crosby gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead with 2:32 remaining in the period. He got his stick on a point shot from Kris Letang then stuffed the rebound into an open net, making it 10 straight games with a power-play goal for Pittsburgh.
But 32 seconds later, the Penguins suddenly found themselves down, 2-1.
Martin Necas capitalized on a crazy carom off the end boards to tie it, then after a faceoff win Jalen Chatfield beat Jarry from the point for his first NHL goal.
Tempers flared in the second period, with Brent Burns wrestling with Letang and Letang wishing a Merry Christmas to Martinook with a few firm crosschecks in his back. There were nine penalties called on the two teams in that period.
The Penguins, one of the NHL’s best teams in December in both phases of special teams, did not seem to mind that the period was filled with power plays. They tied up the score with a short-handed goal in the final minute of the second.
Brock McGinn, who drilled the crossbar earlier in that penalty kill, potted a rebound against his former team after Teddy Blueger took it to the net with a power move. Inside the penalty box, Jason Zucker rattled the glass in appreciation.
The Hurricanes pushed to regain the lead in the third, forcing Jarry to make a few difficult saves. His finest stop came after Jan Rutta got his pass at the Penguins blue line picked off by Jesperi Kotkaniemi, who couldn’t blow a shot past Jarry’s blocker. Moments later, Rust scored his spectacular go-ahead goal.
ICE CHIPS
— Josh Archibald and Ryan Poehling sat out due to injury. With those two missing from the fourth line, Drew O’Connor got into the NHL lineup for the first time since Nov. 5, skating on the fourth line with Teddy Blueger and Danton Heinen.
— Jeff Carter played in his 1,200th career game Thursday. The 37-year-old is the eighth member of the stacked 2003 draft class to hit that big milestone.
— The Penguins have not allowed a power-play tally in six consecutive contests. And McGinn’s short-handed goal was their second in their last four games.
— Evgeni Malkin was held without a point, snapping his nine-game point streak.
— The Penguins wore helmet decals honoring Steelers legend Franco Harris, who died Wednesday. They also held a moment of silence prior to puck-drop.
COMING UP
For the Penguins, the Christmas break begins now. They’re off until Dec. 27, when they visit New York for the first meeting of the season against Islanders.
