For 59:42 anyway, the Penguins played arguably their finest game of the season Tuesday night at PPG Paints Arena. They blitzed, and I mean BLITZED, a very good Ducks squad. In the process, piling up a staggering 91-52 edge in shot attempts and 48-29 advantage in shots on goal.
Scoring chances? Try 60-24 in our favor.
Noel Acciari, Tommy Novak and Anthony Mantha scored for the locals, the latter with 3:55 to play, to offset second-period goals by the Ducks’ Jackson LaCombe and Troy Terry.
All we had to do was salt away the final 18 seconds and the two points were ours. On the power play.
We couldn’t do it.
With roughly five seconds left, Beckett Sennecke took a pass from Cutter Gauthier at center red in full stride. Making like a Chris Boswell field-goal attempt, the Ducks’ rookie proceeded to split the uprights (aka Kris Letang and Bryan Rust) before driving to our net unimpeded and flipping a backhander on goal with about 0.6 seconds to go. A sprawling Arturs Silovs appeared to have the net closed off as the puck began to angle harmlessly through the crease.
But hold the phone. Erik Karlsson, diving to break up the play, inadvertently steered it through Silovs with literally a fraction of a second to spare.
In the blink of an eye, pfft goes our hard-earned victory. Hello overtime.
Likely stunned by the excruciating turn of events, the Pens’—still working on the power play—frittered away the man-advantage with perimeter passing. Perhaps an ode to 2023-24 and our 15.27 percent conversion rate.
Rookie Ben Kindel tried to save our bacon in the final minute of OT, oh how he tried, to no avail.
The game went to a shootout. Any guesses how we did?
If you answered we couldn’t score and Silovs couldn’t prevent the Ducks from scoring, you’d be spot on. (Well, Silovs did stop one. Or Terry shot the puck wide. The jury’s still out.)
Three-two, Ducks win.
Life precludes me from providing a lengthier recap. But you get the picture. And it ain’t pretty.