Penguins rally in final minute but lose to Panthers in shootout

The Florida Panthers do not instill fear in the Pittsburgh Penguins.

They inspire.

Mired in the middle of the melancholy mediocrity that is the Eastern Conference’s playoff race, the current edition of the Penguins can look to the 2022-23 edition of the Panthers for a blueprint on postseason success.

The Panthers sneaked into the postseason with the final wild-card slot in the Eastern Conference and roared all the way to the Stanley Cup Final.

“Ask Florida, they were chasing it all last year, and it worked out pretty well for them,” Penguins forward Sidney Crosby said after a practice session Wednesday in Cranberry. “They had a pretty good run after chasing it for a long time. There’s different ways to get in. It doesn’t matter how you get in. You’ve just got to find a way to get there.”

The Penguins moved only incrementally in the right direction Friday as they fell to the Panthers, 3-2, in a shootout at PPG Paints Arena.

Shootout goals by forwards Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart were the difference.

Another area the Penguins could emulate the Panthers in? Special teams.

The Penguins were 1 for 8 on the power play — including a brief five-on-three sequence — and the Panthers were 2 for 3 with the man advantage. That imbalance largely impeded the Penguins throughout much of the contest.

The Penguins opened the scoring with a power-play goal and generated an ample 14 shots with the man advantage. So, the glass was half full in that regard.

Then again, considering they had eight power-play opportunities and could only muster one goal with them, that glass had plenty of cracks.

“Obviously, right now, the result is all that matters,” Penguins forward Bryan Rust said. “We need some points, we need some goals. … Some of (the power play) was good, some of it was bad. Consistently, we need all of it to be good.”

Things seemed to be going good for the Penguins early in the contest as a power-play goal by forward Jake Guentzel opened the scoring 111 seconds into regulation.

Accepting a pass in the high slot of the offensive zone, Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson slid the puck to the left circle for Rust. Considering his options for a moment, Rust fed the puck to the far side of the crease where Guentzel redirected a forehand shot by goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky’s left skate for his 21st goal of the season. Rust and Karlsson had assists. Karlsson extended a scoring streak to 10 games.

Former Penguins forward Evan Rodrigues scored his eighth goal on a power-play sequence at 4:52 of the first period.

Corralling a puck at the left point of the Penguins’ zone, Panthers defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson maneuvered to the center point and chucked a wrister toward the cage. Stationed above the crease, Rodrigues tipped the puck on net and was rejected initially by goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic. Unimpeded on the ensuing rebound, Rodrigues backhanded the puck by Nedeljkovic’s left skate. Ekman-Larsson and forward Sam Bennett tallied assists.

Reinhart’s 36th goal of the season at 11:49 of the second period came during a power-play sequence and supplied the visitors with their first lead of the contest.

With Penguins defenseman Kris Letang serving a pair of minor penalties for a hit that temporarily injured Barkov, Ekman-Larsson settled a puck at the left point of the Penguins’ zone and fed a pass to the top of the right circle. From there, Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk tapped a forehand feed to the opposite side of the circle, where Reinhart boomed a one-timer by Nedeljkovic’s glove on the near side.

While Barkov returned to the game shortly after his collision with Letang, the Panthers as a gang tried to stomp Letang out of revenge over the entanglement and absorbed several penalties through their actions in the second period.

As a result, the Penguins had five different power-play opportunities in the middle frame alone, including a brief five-on-three opportunity that lasted 22 seconds.

At one point in the third period, superstar forward Evgeni Malkin and defenseman Erik Karlsson were bumped to the second power-play unit. Those changes did not offer the desired effect.

“We understand we need to change something,” Malkin said. “How many times? Six, seven times we play not very well (on the power play). … Sometimes, it’s working. Sometimes, it’s hard (luck). … Between shifts, you can tell what’s going on. We understand sometimes (Sullivan) tries to change something. If the power play doesn’t work, maybe he jumps (the) second line. It’s hockey, you know?

“We should play better. We should help the team to win because we have so many power-play (chances), a five-on-three (for 22) seconds. But again, it’s not great.”

Malkin went to great lengths to tie the score in the last minute — literally — at 19:18 of the third period when he banged in a forehand shot off a subtle pass by Crosby during a frantic goalmouth scramble with Nedeljkovic pulled for an extra attacker. It was Malkin’s 16th goal of the season, and it came off assists by Crosby and Rust.

Nedeljkovic was sturdy as he stopped 29 of 31 shots in regulation and overtime, then one of three attempts in the shootout. His record fell to 8-3-3. Guentzel scored the Penguins’ only shootout goal while forward Rickard Rakell and Crosby were denied by Bobrovsky.

While they did gain a point in the standings, Friday’s result extended a losing streak for the Penguins to three games (0-2-1).

An extra power-play goal or two might have reversed that trend.

“There were moments where (the power play) looked pretty good,” Sullivan said. “There were others where we were a little bit disconnected. It’s disappointing we didn’t score more. I thought we had some looks that we didn’t necessarily finish on. We’ve just got to stick with it. We made some tweaks down the stretch there at the end with some personnel groups. I don’t know where we’ll go moving forward. We’ll discuss that as a coaching staff.

“I know that the guys that are on it care deeply about the power play and understand how important it is to helping us win. These guys put a lot of pressure on themselves to produce for us in those situations. When it doesn’t go the right way … all those guys, they’re proud guys and nobody cares more than they do. We’re just going to stay with it here.”

Notes:

• Rust (343 points) surpassed forward Robbie Brown (342) for 21st place on the franchise’s career scoring list.

• Penguins defenseman Ryan Shea (healthy) and forward Reilly Smith (undisclosed injury) were scratched.