PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Penguins erased an early deficit and beat the Montreal Canadiens 6-5 in overtime Saturday in Pittsburgh, overcoming a strong Montreal start before holding on after the Canadiens rallied from 5-1 down to earn a point.
Montreal led less than four minutes in and built a 7-1 edge in shots before Pittsburgh scored five unanswered goals from the 14:37 mark of the first period through the 15:32 mark of the second to take a 5-1 lead. Juraj Slafkovsky was blunt afterward. “Can’t let them do that,” Slafkovsky said. “We fell asleep, and I think it shouldn’t happen.” The 22-year-old added, “It’s our fifth year together, and we kind of talk about it every single year” about the need for urgency and attention to detail early in the season.
Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis pointed to second-period structure with tired defenders far from the bench. “In the second, you have tired bodies — especially our Ds — far from the bench, hard to change, and once the brain goes, it’s hard to prevent stuff,” St. Louis said. “That’s why you want to play much simpler in the second period, play a deeper game, and we got a little stubborn with that because we know what we can do in possession in the first (when) fresh, and in the third. It’s something we talk about.” Lane Hutson, who had three assists, focused on his giveaway with about 13 minutes left in the second with Montreal down 2-1. “It’s more of the same, for sure, and it’s a new season, and we want to kind of put that mistake in the past, and it’s kind of frustrating that it came back,” Hutson said. “I get a puck (with 13 minutes left in the second period), it’s a 2-1 game, and I could get it deep, and I try to make a play, and it kind of was a domino effect from there.” Sam Girard made it 3-1 seconds later, then Tommy Novak and Ben Kindel scored within 91 seconds to extend the lead.
Montreal habitually played loose in second periods last season, entering the third at a deficit 28 times before tightening that habit in the playoffs on the way to the Eastern Conference Final. Captain Nick Suzuki scored at 18:46 of the second to spark the comeback and set up two six-on-five goals in the final two minutes from Chris Kreider — his first as a Canadien, coming just over 15 minutes after he set up Cole Caufield’s second of the game — and Ivan Demidov to force overtime. Hutson assisted on all three late goals. Tommy Novak then won it in overtime after officials missed a Demidov trip on Rickard Rakell before Kreider’s goal and ignored Rakell breaking Demidov’s stick before the winner.
St. Louis said he was confident the players are addressing it internally. “I’m confident that they’re managing that, too, in the locker room by themselves,” he said. “As coaches, we’re trying to do our job to steer them in the right direction, but at the end of the day, if your players don’t recognize that, I think you’re in trouble, and I don’t think that’s the case.” Montreal opened the season with a win over Toronto on Tuesday and practiced Thursday and Friday in Pittsburgh before Saturday’s collapse. Slafkovsky warned Tuesday will be harder in the home opener against a Carolina Hurricanes team that eliminated Montreal in five games before winning the Stanley Cup. “You’ve got a lot of teams that have good starts to the season, and we want to be one of those teams,” he said. “Second period like today can’t happen.”