PITTSBURGH — A robbery was reported live on television in Pittsburgh Tuesday night.
The Penguins controlled the most important area of the ice all night and got the go-ahead score with 4 minutes remaining to take a 3-2 lead over the visitors. Anaheim Ducks. With 17 seconds left, Pittsburgh was ready to go on the power play, simply salting the victory and seeking some small revenge after a similar late power play failed in the Ducks’ home opener.
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However, when the final horn blew for the first time in Pittsburgh, it was the Ducks celebrating a one-point recovery. When the final horn blew for the second time, Anaheim walked out of PPG Paints Arena with two points and won 4-3 in a penalty shootout.
“It’s nice to get the win out there,” Ducks goaltender Will Husso said on the Victory+ broadcast. “There was a little unfortunate bounce on the third goal but moving on. Definitely an amazing comeback win.
Beckett Sennecke scored his 10th goal of the season and first shorthanded goal of his career with 0.1 seconds left, and Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson deflected Sennecke’s shot into his own net to tie the game at 3-3.
Senek’s goal tied Scott Niedermeyer’s goal on Nov. 21, 2008, as the latest game-tying goal in Ducks history.
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“I don’t really keep track of time,” Sennecke told Aly Lozoff on Victory+. “I saw it go in. I didn’t even think about the time. Was it 0.1 or something like that? Perfect.”
Ville Husso continued his inversion in overtime, making 45 saves, and after Leo Karlsson calmly finished the shootout, Husso stopped all three Pittsburgh shooters to seal the victory.
“It might not have been our best game,” Husso said, “but still finding a way to win is a big part of this team. It’s fun to be a part of.”
Jackson LaCombe and Troy Terry scored top goals in the second period to tie the game and give the Ducks the lead.
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It was Anaheim’s 10th comeback win of the season, second in the league in that category behind Philadelphia’s 11 wins. The Ducks are now 9-9-1 when conceding the first goal, the second-most wins in that category and behind the Flyers’ 11 wins.
Anaheim (19-10-1, 39 points) remains atop the Pacific Division and is off to its best start since the 2014-15 season with a three-game trip to New York City, which begins Thursday against the Islanders.
Senek steals
Every game is a new showcase for the 19-year-old rookie, and when it comes to accolades, Beckett Senek got more on Tuesday.
Senek had already scored his 25th point of the season earlier in the game, assisting on Jackson LaCombe’s tying goal from a sharp angle in the second period. In just his 30th game of the season, he became the fastest junior in Ducks history to reach the career mark, surpassing Mason McTavish’s 44-game stretch in 2022-23.
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Then came the last-second heroics.
With 10 seconds left, Jacob Trouba spun behind the Ducks net, hit the puck against the right boards and past Sidney Crosby at the Ducks blue line. Carter Gauthier caught the ball at the Penguins blue line and fed it to the onrushing Senek.
Senek got past two Penguins defenders and tossed the puck to the front of the net, where a skating Erik Karlsson swiped the puck with his glove and Arturs Silovs was in the net. With 0.1 minutes left in the game, the puck leaked out of the baseline, the Ducks celebrated, and Pittsburgh’s celebration horn also sounded.
In overtime, Senek also showed off his physicality and defensive ability, knocking Crosby down while fighting for the ball at the mouth of the net.
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Senek’s goal was his 10th of the season, becoming the Ducks’ third rookie with 10 or more goals in 30 games (Bobby Ryan, 14 goals in 2008-09, Paul Kariya, 12 goals in 1994-95) and the seventh rookie in NHL history to score a game-tying goal in the final second of the regular season. He was the first to do so while short-handed.
Senek currently has 26 points, tying him with Kariya for the second-highest score as a Ducks rookie in his first 30 games, surpassing Trevor Zegras’ 25 points and trailing Ryan’s 29 points.
Senek had a goal and an assist in his third straight game on Tuesday, tying Zeglas and Ryan Getzlaf for the second-longest multi-point streak by a Ducks rookie. In the 1994-95 season, only Kariya had more than six hits.
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After losing two of their top two netminders, Lukas Dostal and Petr Mrazek, Vilhuso has started five straight games and six of the last seven games.
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With those goaltenders injured, the Ducks have stepped up their efforts to limit the number of shots on goal, recording 18, 22, 34, 20 and 21 shots in the past five games.
On Tuesday, however, Husso turned in 47 shots and countless quality shots, but Husso was the hero again, standing on his head in overtime and hitting another perfect shootout to earn the team the Mumbai Mighty Ducks coach’s jacket as the game MVP.
Half of Husso’s six starts went to shootouts, and he won all three, including a perfect three-on-three night in Pittsburgh. Husso hit a season-high 44 field goals, his most since Dec. 6, 2022.
Dostal joined the Ducks on this trip and while still on injured reserve, Wednesday will mark two weeks of his two- to three-week recovery schedule. Mrazek, who was injured last Sunday, will also need two to three weeks.
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Husso’s string of performances may raise the question of who will be the backup goalkeeper when the dust settles on fitness.
territorial war
Despite the exciting drama at the end of the game, the body of work was still far from Anaheim’s best.
where the ducks end up Almost Historic Total Domination Against the Blackhawks At home on Sunday, the Penguins held the territory with a 78% expected goals rate, 61.68% field goal percentage, 69.35% scoring chances and 85.71% high-danger chances in Tuesday’s five-on-five contest. That doesn’t include their league-best five power play chances.
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Pittsburgh also had complete control over one specific area of the ice (if not the most important area). The Penguins often caused some confusion by having at least one player parked in front of the net while another swooped in for deflections, rebounds and other opportunities.
The team took advantage of this area of the ice last month against the Ducks’ zone defense, exposing deficiencies in Anaheim’s offense or net staff.
The Ducks don’t engage with the opposing team’s front line players like other defenses do to keep themselves able to block shots or deflect zone pressure.
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Pittsburgh’s second goal came out of this situation, with Radko Gudas guarding the frontcourt, but with Drew Helleson defending on the wing, the game became a two-on-one downfield. Tommy Novak rebounded a pass from Erik Karlsson and beat Helleson into the net, and Novak grabbed the rebound himself and scored from below the goal line.
On the other end of the ice, the Ducks couldn’t get to the net all night until Senek’s game-tying goal.
This is an area of focus for the Ducks, especially on defense, and one that Ducks coach Joel Quenneville has mentioned multiple times over the past two weeks.
“I think that’s where you get the rewards in this game,” Quenneville said after a Black Friday win over the Kings. “It’s in front of the net, on the greasy target, or within four feet of the net. I think that’s where most of the puck goes in anyway, so that’s where the rewards are.”
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