Penguins Come Back Twice But Fall Short To Senators In Overtime

The Pittsburgh Penguins headed into Ottawa on Saturday riding the high of a 9-2 win against Montreal on Thursday.

Unfortunately, they didn’t have as many goals up their sleeve this time around.

The Penguins dropped their contest to the Senators in overtime, 3-2, in a tightly-contested game. Ottawa was playing their second game in a back-to-back set, as was their goaltender, Linus Ullmark – who was spectacular for the Senators.

The Penguins came back twice in this game, once on yet another Blake Lizotte goal in the second period to make it 1-1, and the second time on a Kris Letang goal in the third period.

Most of the game was played at five-on-five, as Pittsburgh had no power play opportunities and Ottawa had just two. The Penguins also played most of the game down a defenseman, as Marcus Pettersson was injured on an awkward board collision late in the first period. He did not return.

But, despite being down a man, the Penguins really pushed in the second half of the game.

‘I thought we played really well the whole game,” head coach Mike Sullivan said. “I liked our game. I thought it was a really good hockey team, I thought Ottawa played hard, I thought our team played hard.”

Here are some notes and observations from Saturday’s loss:

– Ullmark really was the star of the show on Saturday.

He stopped 25 of 27 Penguins’ shots, and he made two huge saves to keep the Penguins from grabbing momentum at two different points in the game.

The first was not long after Thomas Chabot scored the game’s first goal in the opening frame. Michael Bunting won a one-on-one battle while gaining the offensive zone on what was initially a breakaway and created a scoring chance. He shot the puck, and the rebound squirted right out to Erik Karlsson.

Karlsson pounced on it right away, but somehow, Ullmark reached back and made the save with his stick:

Later on, Sidney Crosby had a prime scoring opportunity that Ullmark stymied with his blocker:

Ullmark had made an emergency start after the game’s original starter, Anton Forsberg, sustained an injury during warm-ups. And he didn’t look the least bit worn down.

Kudos to him for the win by the Senators. He was the difference.

– Crosby or Evgeni Malkin has scored just one of the Penguins’ last 38 goals.

The Penguins are second in the league in goals per game (4.22) since Nov. 27. They are getting scoring throughout their lineup, which is a very good thing. Letang and Karlsson have been ramping up their production as well.

However, they are going to need their top guys to start putting the puck in the net sooner rather than later, too.

– Lizotte is now on pace for 29 goals this season. He has nine points in his last nine games. He’s on an absolute tear right now.

Yes, linemates Noel Acciari and Matt Nieto each registered goals against Montreal. Yes, the fourth line was on for both Penguin goals on Saturday.

However, if the third line isn’t generating much – which, it hasn’t over the last two games – there’s not much point in having a great fourth line.

I still do not understand the decision to move Lizotte from third-line center to fourth-line center. If I had to guess, the Penguins think their center depth is at its most optimal when they have both Cody Glass and Lizotte at center, and Lizotte more so fits the bill for a fourth-line center than Glass does.

What I’d do? Drew O’Connor is failing to generate anything offensively right now. Sullivan has mentioned that he wants to take the focus away from scoring on O’Connor’s part.

So, go all the way with that and have him center the fourth line with Nieto and Acciari. A third line of Glass, Lizotte, and Anthony Beauvillier or Jesse Puljujarvi doesn’t sound so bad.

In any case, Lizotte has earned that more elevated offensive role on this team. And he’s done well on both ends of the ice.

– I can’t say enough about the way Letang has looked over this last stretch of games. He now has nine points in his last seven games, and he has seven goals on the season – which is pacing him for a career-high 19 goals.

And it kind of coincides with playing on a defensive pairing alongside Pickering.

Now, granted: Saturday was a bit tricky since the team played with five defensemen for much of the night after Pettersson was injured. But, generally speaking, Pickering has brought a defensive presence and awareness that Letang has been lacking on his left side for several seasons now.

Going into the game against Ottawa, Pickering was third among all Penguins’ skaters in expected goals against per 60 at 2.25, behind only Lizotte and Philip Tomasino, each at 2.24. He allows Letang to do what he does best, and in the early returns, Pickering appears to be a legitimate shutdown option on that pairing – which says a lot about his development since he was drafted as an offensive defenseman.

Letang is thriving right now, and while all credit goes to him for elevating his game, I do think Pickering has played a role in that as well.

– The Penguins’ defensive situation could get pretty interesting if Pettersson is out.

Jack St. Ivany – recently sent to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton – is currently injured. The obvious answer is to put Matt Grzelcyk back on the left side and play Ryan Shea on the right, which is probably what they’ll do.

But the Penguins would need to call up another defenseman. Filip Kral has been doing well in WBS. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him be the one to get the call, but we’ll see what happens.

– Even though the GameScore says differently, I thought Ryan Graves played a solid defensive game.

He made a great play to break up an Ottawa two-on-one and a good scoring opportunity. He was strong man-on-man and won several battles for pucks. He was using his size advantageously in the defensive zone.

He had a bit of a rocky start, but I thought he played very well for the rest of the game. Batherson’s goal wasn’t on him.

– Another player who had a strong showing was Michael Bunting. This guy continues to prove why he’s an important player on this team. He led the team with six shots and was a menace on the forecheck all night long.

The Penguins are a better team when he’s playing well.

– Despite the loss, this was a big point for the Penguins. They earned three out of four on this mini road trip with the Los Angeles Kings coming into Pittsburgh on Tuesday.

They are just one point out of a tie for the first wild card spot with 31 points. There are currently three teams with 32 points and three teams with 31 points.

Right now, it seems that the race to the playoffs in the East is going to come down to the wire. The Penguins simply need to collect as many points as possible.

At 6-2-1 in their last nine, they are doing just that.