Pittsburgh gets Matt Dumba back into the lineup, Connor Clifton comes out to make room. Sergei Murashov is in net for the second day in a row after mopping up the back-end of last night’s blowout loss.

Not a lot going on early, an improvement over last night. Ben Kindel almost scores on a nice setup from Tommy Novak but can’t elevate the puck enough to score.

The teams trade power plays, then Pittsburgh gets an extra one. Sadly, they don’t come very close to cracking Seattle’s 30th ranked penalty kill.

Anthony Mantha almost gets a good scoring chance but it gets broken up. Goalie Philip Grubauer flashes the glove later onto stop Erik Karlsson.

Pittsburgh gets a third power play of the game late in the period, the power play is moderately better than it had been, but no goals.

Shots are 9-3 Pens. The good news is nothing bad happened, the bad news is Pittsburgh didn’t get much positive going either in a scoreless first period.

The Kraken strike first, Ryan Shea’s gap gets loose on Mason Marchment after Ben Kindel couldn’t deke through him. Marchment quickly pulls the puck in to change the angle and fires a shot by Murashov using Shea as a screen. 1-0, 1:24 into the second.

The rest of the period ambles on. The Penguins are OK in spots, but not sharp or that dangerous. Then, out of no where, they tie the game. Grubauer tries to go up the wall but his clearing effort is easily sealed off along the wall by Connor Dewar. Dewar quickly slung a centering pass for Sidney Crosby to finish from the middle of the ice on a knee. 1-1 game.

Any chance to build momentum is thrown out the window when Mantha takes a penalty, the Pens kill it off.

Active period, shots were 13-12 Seattle, each team found the back of the net once. Very big goal by Crosby in order to keep this game even after 40 minutes.

The Pens get another power play early, Danton Heinen hits the crossbar but it doesn’t go in. The big boys go out there and after knocking the puck around the crease for the longest time (seemingly all night) someone finally gets the hands to finish. It’s Evgeni Malkin from in front. 2-1 Pens go in front for the first time of the night with 14:04 to play.

The Kraken aren’t going away without a fight. Matty Beniers knocks Ryan Graves down in the corner, the Kraken continue their sequence for a while. The puck later gets to Beniers and instead of staying up and trying to use his stick to defend him, Graves hits the ice to take the bottom away. Undaunted, Beniers snipes a shot top shelf. 2-2 game with 7:24 to go. There’s the old Ryan Graves.

Crosby wins the faceoff for the all-important possession of the puck in the 3v3 setting.

Malkin and Novak eventually get out there, Letang hits the crossbar on a breakaway. Seattle collects the puck but ice the puck.

Crosby makes an insane pass for Karlsson, who shoots wide (but not by much).

Later on it’s Karlsson and Malkin that almost combine for a goal but can’t get it to go.

In the final minute of OT, Seattle wins the game. Brandon Montour shoots from distance and it’s got enough velocity to beat Murashov.

  • Between last night’s game and tonight, it took 107 minutes for the Penguins to score a goal after their Swedish trip. It wasn’t very pretty, the team was OK tonight – certainly much better than last night against Minnesota – but just had that little something off in timing or sharpness to put plays together or handle the puck with success at key times. They got more offensive zone time than Seattle and the box score looks fine on shots, so again, it’s not like it was bad but that doesn’t really make it impressive either.
  • The roster is certainly a problem too, it’s not very good at the moment due to some injuries having key players unavailable. It doesn’t help that some of the players who were very good early in the season (Anthony Mantha, Ryan Shea in particular, probably Bryan Rust too) are not playing very well lately.
  • To that end, a win is usually in the bag in the games that both Crosby and Malkin score goals in, as they did tonight. Issue becomes when no one else chips in..
  • Liked the game from Novak and Kindel together, they each have some nifty hands and are on the same page when it comes to making passes around the blue line for zone entries. That hasn’t extended in closer to the net, but play’s going in the right direction with them out there for the most part. Kindel had four giveaways though and a tough go on that first goal against, didn’t really see it as a rookie mistake (though he is a rookie and it was a mistake, so technically it is just that), that’s a function of handling the puck so much in the defensive zone. Sometimes that’s going to happen to not make the play or get a roll of the puck that wasn’t as expected.
  • What’s Kevin Hayes do for this team besides be the DJ and affable guy everyone likes? Rutger McGroarty scored his third goal in as many games down in the AHL, it’s hard not to get impatient there just since Hayes is such a zero. He’s not the only one who dressed tonight but playing on the Malkin line makes it more critical.
  • It took until the fourth try for the Pens’ power play to score against a 30th ranked Seattle PK that had given up a goal to the other team’s power play in eight straight games to go ahead in the third. Good thing, would have been inexcusable to not take advantage.
  • Crosby recorded points on the first two goals, notching his 500th career multi-point game. Only five others in NHL history have done the same. More crazy stats like that are trickling in all the time, just another day at the office for him.
  • Pittsburgh is now 0-5 in games that last beyond regulation (two OT losses, three shootout losses). The points squandered pile is growing. This was a tough one to take, the team played pretty well in OT, they had some looks and opportunities, just couldn’t quite get it. Montour’s shot on Murashov was perfectly placed above the leg pad but low to the blocker, and really that’s a save an NHL goalie should make most of the time, just one that sometimes is going to go in during career game No. 4.

The Pens go back into a period of inactivity, for games at least, they’re not back at it until Wednesday. That’s a shame after a 0-1-1 weekend that produced two goals will have to leave a bad taste in their mouth to try and straighten out where they can in practice before the absolute crush of the schedule kicks up in the near future.