The Canadian’s bad habits undermined his chances of winning and chance finally decided the winner, Wednesday evening at the Bell Centre, according to the Montreal head coach.
Jansen Harkins decided in the 12th round of shootouts and the Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Habs 4-3.
The Canadian scored three goals in the first period for the first time this season and he led after 20 minutes of play for only the seventh time since the start of the campaign.
However, he squandered leads of 2-0 and 3-1. Harkins then made the difference after Josh Anderson missed his attempt for the Canadian, ending a long and entertaining shootout.
“Overall, we played well enough to win the game, but when you shoot yourself in the foot like that, you leave things a little bit to luck,” said Martin St-Louis, referring to turnovers in the second period and punishments that he described as “not good”.
Sidney Crosby was imperial for the Penguins with two goals and an assist. He took advantage of his visit to Montreal to climb to 13th place among the best scorers in NHL history with 1,533 points.
“He remains an excellent player, even at his age,” said goaltender Samuel Montembeault of the 36-year-old Nova Scotian. He is the most complete player in the NHL and a good leader for their team. »
David Savard, Jayden Struble and Sean Monahan scored for the Canadian (12-13-4). Montembeault stopped 27 shots.
Jake Guentzel also hit the target for the Penguins (13-12-3). Erik Karlsson had two assists and Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 39 shots.
The Canadian will play one last home game in 2023 on Saturday, when the New York Islanders are the visitors at the Bell Centre.
The emperor’s walk
Savard kicked off the hostilities by scoring on the third shot on goal of the game, the Canadian’s second, after 6:24 of play. He intercepted a long errant pass from Karlsson, then advanced into the slot before surprise Nedeljkovic on the glove side.
Struble doubled the Canadian’s lead at 12:21. He did it twice to push a delivery from Jesse Ylönen towards the slot behind the goalkeeper.
The Penguins responded 1:27 later. Crosby threaded the needle on a return after a Drew O’Connor throw.
This goal allowed him to join Paul Coffey in 14th place among scorers in NHL history.
The Canadian restored his two-goal cushion with 4:40 left in the first period. Monahan scored on the power play. Pushing behind the goal line a long shot from Mike Matheson which had escaped Nedeljkovic.
The Habs received three minor penalties in the second period and the Penguins took advantage of the opportunity to level the odds by scoring twice.
Guentzel scored at 5:36 with a good one-timer following a pass from Crosby.
The famous 87 then tied the game at 11:02, when his shot deflected against Matheson before beating Montembeault.
This time, Crosby joined Mark Recchi for 13th place in NHL scoring.
The Canadian played with fire even if he was able to retreat to the locker room still in a 3-3 deadlock. Guentzel hit the post to Montembeault’s left, then another goal scored by Crosby was disallowed as the clock had just reached zero.
“These are a bit of youthful mistakes, but sometimes we have to simplify things when exiting the zone,” St-Louis said. In general, our game was good, but in those moments, we didn’t force them to cross the ice and tear down our structure. It’s like we’re giving it to them on a silver platter. »
The Habs threatened early in the third period, during a power play. Nedeljkovic, however, made some great saves at the expense of Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky and Christian Dvorak.
Nick Suzuki, for his part, saw his shot skim the crossbar a little later in the engagement.
The Canadian was also unable to take advantage of a numerical advantage in overtime. A shootout session was therefore necessary to decide between the two teams.