- The Penguins blew a four-goal lead to the Canadiens in their home opener
- Evgeni Malkin joined Gordie Howe in the record books at age 40
- Read below and watch video of the late Montreal rally and the overtime winner
The Penguins built a 5-1 lead on the Canadiens. They still needed overtime to win.
Tommy Novak beat Jakub Dobes from the right circle 1:33 into the extra frame, finishing a 2-on-1 feed from Evgeni Malkin to give Pittsburgh a 6-5 win in Saturday’s home opener at PPG Paints Arena. It was Novak’s second goal of the night.
Novak was asked about letting a lead like that slip away.
“Anytime you kind of give up a lead like that, it feels good to come through with the two points,” Novak said. “That’s huge.”
Watch the overtime winner:
Pittsburgh looked to be cruising after the second period. Declan Carlile, Samuel Girard, Novak and Ben Kindel all scored in the middle frame, with Kindel’s power-play tip making it 5-1 at 15:32.
Montreal clawed back from there. Nick Suzuki scored late in the second, and Cole Caufield added his second of the night early in the third to make it 5-3. An Egor Chinakhov goal that would have restored the three-goal cushion got wiped out on an offside challenge.
With Dobes pulled, Suzuki set up two goals in 24 seconds. Chris Kreider one-timed his pass from behind the net with 1:08 left for his first goal as a Canadien:
Then Ivan Demidov tapped in a feed through the crease at the right post with 44 seconds to go:
Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis talked about how the game got away from his team early. “Once the brain goes, it’s hard to prevent stuff,” St. Louis said. “That’s why you want to play a much simpler game.”
Suzuki finished with a goal and three assists, and Lane Hutson picked up three helpers. On the other side, Malkin had a goal and two assists. The 40-year-old became just the second player that age in NHL history to score in each of his first two games of a season, joining Gordie Howe in 1968-69.
Sidney Crosby’s assist on Girard’s goal was the 1,109th of his career, tying Joe Thornton for seventh all time. Andrei Kuzmenko also made his Penguins debut after a leave of absence following the death of his father.
Mario Lemieux dropped the ceremonial puck before the game to mark the franchise’s 60th season, in a fitting rematch of Pittsburgh’s first-ever home game against Montreal in 1967.
Two games in, the Penguins are 2-0 after a 7-0 rout of the Flyers on Wednesday. Novak, who signed his extension this summer, is making that deal look like money well spent.
