Standing at center ice in the 12th round of a shootout between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre, Jansen Harkins was the latest Penguin with a chance to win the game.
It had been a while since either team put the puck in the net; the teams exchanged goals in the first two rounds, and again in the 7th, but the goaltenders on both ends of the ice had been perfect ever since.
Harkins had never attempted a shootout before, but he was ready to go as the Penguins continued up and down their bench to find shooters.
Hoping to finally put an end to things, Harkins skated toward the net and fired a puck that just squeaked by Montreal’s Sam Montembeault to give the Penguins the win.
At 12 rounds long, this was the longest shootout in Pittsburgh Penguins history. It was also the longest shootout in the NHL (so far) this season.
Kris Letang and Sidney Crosby had the Pittsburgh goals much earlier in the shootout, and Lars Eller added a tally later on, but each goal was to answer one already scored by a Canadien.
On the Montreal side, Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, and Sean Monahan had the shootout goals for the home team.
In all, 24 skaters attempted a shot in the shootout.
Montreal jumped out to an early 3-1 lead in this game. The Canadiens capitalized on one of the worst periods of hockey the Penguins have played all season.
David Savard opened the scoring, and minutes later, fellow defenseman Jaydeen Struble added a goal as well.
Sidney Crosby would answer back for the Penguins, but Montreal’s Sean Monahan nullified that with a goal of his own.
Starting the second half of a back to back, Alex Nedeljkovic was lit up early on. The Canadiens peppered him with shots, including 15 in the first period.
But credit to Nedeljkovic, he locked things down after that. As did the Pens’ defense.
The Canadiens were held to just 7 shots in the second period, and at the same time, the Penguins got some much needed goal support.
Pittsburgh scored back to back goals, get this, ON THE POWER PLAY, to tie the game at 3. Jake Guentzel and Sidney Crosby, respectively, would score in the second frame as the Penguins stormed back.
For a team that had gone over a full month without scoring a power play goal, they now have 4 power play goals in the span of 48 hours.
The third period, in contrast, was rather boring. The teams exchanged chances, but no one scored as the game was sent to overtime.
From there, 3-on-3 overtime was, as it almost always is, entertaining. Of note, the Penguins got a big time break from their penalty kill after Evgeni Malkin was called for tripping.
Montreal had 9 shots to Pittsburgh’s 1 in overtime, but Nedeljkovic stood tall and the Penguins did just enough to scrape by and get the game to overtime.
Jansen Harkins, who played a grand total of 4:24 in this contest, got the winner as the Penguins improved to 13-12-3.
They also add another win for the dad’s trip, a majority of which got to see their son get an attempt at the shootout.
The Penguins are off until Saturday, when they continue this mini road trip with a journey to Toronto, where Pens GM and President of Hockey Ops Kyle Dubas will travel back to his old city for the first time.
(Featured photo by Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press via AP)
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