At long last, the losing streak is over for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
After losing seven in a row, the Penguins finally got back in the win column with a 4-3 shootout win over the visiting Montreal Canadiens.
The big story from this night was Sidney Crosby. His first period goal tied him for most points in franchise history alongside the iconic Mario Lemieux, and just a few minutes later, his assist on a Rickard Rakell goal gave him the record.
It would have been soul crushing for the Penguins to blow yet another game like this, and ruin Sid’s legendary, forever historic night.
And they got really close to doing it.
When Noah Dobson scored to make it a 3-3 game in the third period, it felt like yet another rendition of the Penguins blowing a third period lead.
A blown lead late, a loss to Montreal for the second time in as many nights, and an eighth loss in a row would have sent this fan base spiraling right as they are about to head into the brief Christmas break.
They have one more game in Toronto before the holiday, but making the trek back across the border would have felt like a nightmare carrying that kind of streak.
Overtime was hectic, and heavily controlled by Montreal. The Canadiens had three shots to Pittsburgh’s one in the extra five minutes, and goaltender Arturs Silovs had to stand on his head to help bail the Penguins out numerous times.
However, getting the Penguins out of that onslaught of Canadien attacks meant putting Silovs in his ultimate weakness: the shootout.
But maybe, in a weird way, the Penguins needed this game to go to a shootout.
Think about how much this team has struggled in the shootout over the last calendar year, and then some. Prior to last night, the Penguins had not won a shootout since November 16th, 2024. They had gone 0-9 since then.
Their struggles in hockey’s expedited skills competition were well documented, including here on this very site.
It was one of the league’s weirdest stats, and it was directly costing the Penguins in the standings. Five shootout losses this season was the difference between 13th place in the Eastern Conference and second place in the Metropolitan Division.
That’s how bunched up things still are this early in the playoff race. Teams are sliding and surging all at different times, and even though this nasty streak has brought the Penguins plummeting down in the standings, the reality is they aren’t far from out of it at all.
So, this game was about far more than just stopping the bleeding. It was about getting yourself back in the mix.
Head coach Dan Muse was able to somewhat change up his lineup of shooters. First for the Penguins was Kevin Hayes, who during this lengthy shootout win drought, had only taken one attempt.
He was an odd choice for Muse to go with, but in the spirit of trying anything to change up what wasn’t working, Hayes was sent out there. And it worked!
In the third round, Rakell also scored, giving the Penguins the rare two-goal performance in the shootout. Rakell, who has participated off-and-on as one of the shooters for the Penguins, ultimately had the game-winner for the Penguins last night.
But it wasn’t just the shooters for Pittsburgh who needed this. Think about the man in net.
Silovs has been the team’s biggest reason that they had not won a shootout so far this season. He was terrible in these opportunities, going a combined 2-for-10 in saves while in goal for the Penguins this season.
The book was out on how to beat him as well, and nearly every opposing shooter was taking advantage of it. But Silovs, even with his struggles, rarely got the goal support to make it a fair fight.
Suddenly, Silovs was tasked with being the closer, the guy to make the final save. And he did it beautifully.
We’ve seen Silovs bite on one-on-ones like that all the time. Way more often than not, he overcommits to the first move he sees, and is left tangled like a pretzel when the puck ends up in the back of his net.
Silovs had a league leading extra time losses. Four of those six games were lost in the shootout. That has to be such a huge mental weight off his mind now.
And that’s the vibe surrounding this entire team after last night. Not just because they finally won a shootout, although that admittedly is a pretty big deal for this team at this point.
But because they have had a rough, rough December, and with each loss, the negative thoughts and the (perfectly valid) criticism from the outside just continued to pile up.
Two points is always two points, but something tells me these two mean just a little bit more.
This was truly a win for the soul of the Penguins. With all of the negative trends surrounding this team right now, and the history that Crosby made with his multi-point effort, a loss here would have been so much more deflating than the others.
It looked as though the Penguins had far more energy last night, knowing the buzz that the building was humming with for the guy they’ve watched for 21 years now. That same level of excitement won’t be there every game; after all, you can only pass Mario once.
But they needed every bit of energy they could get to help try and get their season back on track. Sunday night was a start.
Fifth Avenue Sports 
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