Penguins Despoke Red Wings in OT, 6-5

Somewhere, embedded deep down in some remote corner of our Penguins’ DNA lurks a self-destruct gene. It surfaces at the most inopportune of times.

The full-force of that self-destructiveness was on display last night at PPG Paints Arena during arguably THE most important game of the year. The one our very playoff lives depended on.

Let’s see. Blown multiple-goal leads (multiple times to boot)? Check.

Goals allowed in the last-minute of periods? Check.

Bone-head decisions at critical junctures? Check.

The only mishaps missing? A shorthanded goal against and our usual abject failure in overtime, although the latter most assuredly wasn’t for a lack of effort.

However, for all our bizarro tendencies, there’s a certain cosmic symmetry to our largesse. Take Erik Karlsson, for example. On the Red Wings’ fourth goal at 12:56 of the third period, the one that tilted the momentum in favor of the visitors, the reigning Norris Trophy winner inexplicably abandoned the net front and his goalie Alex Nedeljkovic, paving the way for an easy peasy tally from the slot by unfettered Wings star Dylan Larkin.

Even Karlsson knew he screwed up, tilting his head skyward to the hockey gods while clasping his hand to his face in equal parts embarrassment and disgust.

Yet there was EK65 at 1:40 of overtime, taking a pass from Sidney Crosby and blasting the puck past Wings goalie Alex Lyon for the winner.

We giveth and we taketh away. At least on this night.

In the 60 or so minutes leading up to EK’s OT bolt? An incredibly entertaining and hard-fought hockey game befitting two teams that began the night in lockstep with 84 points apiece.

Our top line opened the scoring just 2:40 in, thanks in no small part to a brilliant bit of shake-and-bake by Crosby, who shed Larkin behind the net like an ugly Christmas sweater before feeding Bryan Rust, who in turn flung the puck on net from close range. Drew O’Connor arrived as Johnny on the Spot to nudge the biscuit through Lyon’s pads.

As if to establish the madcap tone for the evening, our lead held up for all of 59 seconds. On the ensuing sequence, Alex DeBrincat picked Kris Letang’s pocket in the right circle and pounded the puck on net. The rebound popped off Nedeljkovic’s pads to Lucas Raymond, who backhanded it home.

In a little bit of that hidden vigorish I mentioned earlier, Letang would net our next goal, converting from the slot off a beautiful feed from Michael Bunting. It should be noted that Evgeni Malkin, doing the dirty work, begat the scoring play with a hard pass off the wall from deep in our zone.

Alas, no sooner did TV color analyst Phil Bourque mention playing situational hockey in the final minute of the period than we turned the puck over in the neutral zone, leading to a quick-strike counter by Raymond with 14 seconds left in the period.

Inspired, the Wings came at the Pens hard in the early stages of the second period. They were having their way until Sid struck like a bolt from the blue on a backdoor play at 7:58, thanks to a gorgeous 40-foot saucer pass from Rust.

We extended our lead to 4-2 five minutes later on a top shelf snipe by Rusty on a play unwittingly set in motion by a heavy hit from Wings defenseman Moritz Seider on Marcus Pettersson at the visitor’s blue line. Reilly Smith got the lone assist.

Speaking of physical play, the game became downright nasty for a stretch. Sid and big Ben Chariot went off at the halfway mark. Malkin crunched Patrick Kane into the sideboards. Letang battled ex-Flyer Shayne Gostisbehere. Pettersson tangled with DeBrincat and hulking countryman Simon Edvinsson.

For a moment, I thought I was transported back to the Gary Roberts–Bugsy Malone era.

Nedeljkovic got into the act as well, not with roughhouse tactics but rather a big save on DeBrincat with four minutes to play in the period.

Then Bourquie had to go and mention situational hockey again. Jeff Petry escaped the attention of Rust and buried one from the top of the right circle with 36 seconds to play in the period.

Yeah, another last-minute goal. Ouch.

Then Jeff Carter scored what by all rights should’ve been the put-away goal at 3:32 of the third period on a brilliant individual effort. While killing a penalty, big Jeff broke up an ill-advised pass from former Pen Daniel Sprong at the blue line, nudged the puck to open space and smoked Lyon from the right faceoff dot.

A magnificent effort and play.

Then Karlsson suffered the aforementioned brain cramp to open the door. Less than two minutes after Larkin’s tally, Raymond tied it up at 5-apiece on a breakaway. Sending the game to oh(no)vertime.

Fortunately, thanks to EK65’s heroics, this one ended on a happy note.

To lift a quote from the movie, A League of Their Own, “I have seen enough to know I have seen too much.”

Great game. Better outcome.

Puckpourri

According to the early returns on Natural Stat Trick, the visitors held a slight edge in shot-based stats, including shot attempts (60-57), shots on goal (30-27), scoring chances (33-26) and high-danger chances (14-13).

Crosby was in a word…terrific. On the game-winner, he completely outmuscled Raymond down low before feeding Karlsson. Sid finished with a goal and two assists (including his 1000^th career helper). In the process, surpassing Phil Esposito and moving into 10^th place on the all-time points list.

Don’t know if anyone’s noticed, but Geno’s been playing some incredible 200-foot hockey of late.

Karlsson and Letang each notched their 10^th goal of the campaign. The latter reached the 50-point plateau for the seventh time in his career.

Lost in the hoopla was Nedeljkovic’s game-saving stop on Larkin from the slot 62 seconds into overtime. Ned may not be posting Vezina Trophy numbers (an .833 save percentage last night) but he’s making the saves he needs to make.

Awfully hard to fault him on at least two of the Wings’ goals.

Jack St. Ivany (three hits) used the body very effectively along the wall, including a thumping hip check on ex-Pen David Perron. Love this kid. (Thanks Hexy.)

Radim Zohorna replaced fellow big ‘n’ tall forward Jesse Puljujärvi…and skated a team low 4:57. Big Z took a penalty early in the third period and was stapled to the bench thereafter.

Former Pen Zach Aston-Reese played in only his second game of the season for the Wings. ZAR, too, was whistled off in the third period and saw precious little ice time afterward.

Smith collected two assists. Coach Mike Sullivan flip-flopped him and O’Connor, moving DOC to the third line. Not sure why.

On Deck

With the victory, the Pens (37-30-12, 86 points) hold the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. The Wings, Capitals (losers to Buffalo) and Flyers (winners over the Rangers) each trail us by a point.

We host the Bruins on Saturday night and the Preds on Monday night before finishing our season against the Islanders on Long Island Wednesday night.

We’re three points behind the third-in-the-Metro Isles.