In Pittsburgh, the Penguins’ Jake Guentzel scored with 58 seconds left in the third period on Tuesday night to force an extra session with the Carolina Hurricanes, his strike tied the game, 2-2.
The goal salvaged a point for the Penguins because Brett Pesce hit for the game-winner midway through the extra session for a 3-2 win for the Hurricanes.
“[Pesce] has been obviously solid all year. A little bit snakebitten,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “Hadn’t scored, but he had many, many chances. He’s a great player for us. It’s good to see him get that. Good play by ‘Svech’ on the wall to give it to him. Nice finish. Definitely take the win.”
Pyotr Kochetkov made 30 saves in the Canes win.
Carolina improved to 12-6-5.
“They came out pretty hard, we expected it,” the Canes’ Sebastien Aho said. “They have a good team as well. After that goal, we kind of regrouped pretty well and took over the game for at least, I don’t know, I felt the second period was ours. Got a couple goals there and obviously got the win.”
Sidney Crosby also scored for the Penguins, his goal gave Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead in the first period.
Carolina tied the game, 1-1, in the middle frame on a goal by Martin Necas .
The Pens dropped to 11-8-4.
“Give Carolina credit, they put a lot of pressure on us,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said of the power play. “That was the biggest challenge. … You have to gain possession first. We just didn’t do a good enough job tonight.”
Andrei Svechnikov hit for his 14th goal of the season with 2:22 left i the second period to give the Canes a 2-1 advantage headed to the third period.
“At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter what happened in the past,” Aho said. “It’s just, we’re on the road. … We have a chance to win the game. We’ve done a good job so far, so it’s just, go out there and get the win.”
Tristan Jarry made 36 saves in the Pittsburgh loss.
“It’s good we were able to get one 6-on-5,” Jarry said. “I think that’s a positive thing. We’ve been working on that quite a bit. To get a point out of that, I think, is big.”
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