Comeback Cats force overtime in Pittsburgh, fall 5-4 to Penguins

The Florida Panthers saw their latest winning streak come to an end on a strange night in Pittsburgh.

Florida outplayed the Penguins in just about every way measurable, except where it counted: the scoreboard.

Pittsburgh survived a furious comeback attempt by the Cats and picked up a 5-4 overtime win.

Florida started the game strongly, controlling the puck on several of the game’s first shifts and pinning the Penguins deep in their end of the ice.

A successful offside challenge by Pittsburgh cost Jesper Boqvist his fifth goal of the season when replay showed Anton Lundell failed to get back to the blue line before the puck was carried back into the Pens zone.

It wasn’t long after that the Penguins earned a goal on their first sustained zone time in what felt like a while, with a long point shot by Owen Pickering squeaking through the pads of Spencer Knight.

Just over a minute later, Florida was caught after a neutral zone turnover and Evgeni Malkin found himself with the puck on his stick and plenty of space.

His quick wrister over Knight’s glove made it 2-0 Penguins midway through the opening period.

The Cats continued to control most of the puck possession and they finally cashed in on a hard-working play deep in the Pens end.

Evan Rodrigues won a puck battle below the goal line and Sasha Barkov’s backcheck kept the puck in the zone. Barkov then found the puck and guided it to Matthew Tkachuk, who wound up and fired a shot past Tristan Jarry to put the Panthers on the scoreboard with 2:36 left in the period.

The only goal during the middle frame came off a funky play on a sneaky shot by Kris Letang.

Matt Grzelcyk fired a shot from the left point that bounded off the back boards and around the wall, where Letang one-timed the puck past an unsuspecting group in front of Florida’s net, including Knight.

Defenseman Marcus Pettersson made it 4-1 Penguins on a play where Florida’s defending left quite a bit to be desired.

Sam Bennett scored three minutes later to bring Florida back within two of the Pens, getting loose in the slot and beating Jarry to the blocker side.

The Panthers kept the pressure on and picked up their third goal 2:03 later when Tkachuk found Adam Boqvist between the circles. He beat a moving Jarry and just like that it was a one-goal game again.

Tkachuk’s second goal of the game tied the game at four, deflecting home an Aaron Ekblad point shot with Florida on the power play.

Unfortunately for the Cats, they couldn’t get completely over the hump.

The game ultimately went to overtime, where a 2-on-1 rush ended with Bryan Rust firing a wrist shot from inside the right circle past Knight to give the Penguins the win.

On to Philadelphia.

QUICK THOUGHTS

Barkov is now up to six points over a four-game streak.

Tkachuk finished with two goals and four points. He’s up to seven goals and 23 points on the season.

He’s also riding a four-game point streak, racking up seven during the run.

Bennett has scored in four straight games. He scored in five straight back in late October.

Adam Boqvist has scored in back-to-back games, his first goals as a Panther.

Another assist for Ekblad, who now has eight points over his past nine games.

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