Penguins fall out of playoff position with loss to Senators

It has been a while since any entanglement between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Ottawa Senators had postseason ramifications.

Perhaps the last meeting these two had that carried any kind of gravity within those parameters was the fiercely combated 2017 Eastern Conference final the Penguins barely claimed in seven games that spring.

Just over half a decade later, a game on the first day of spring had considerable consequences for each outfit as it pertained to even qualifying for the 2023 playoffs.

A 2-1 loss by the Penguins at PPG Paints Arena on Monday — their fourth consecutive defeat — served as a significant broadside blow to their sagging hopes of even clinging to a wild-card seed in the Eastern Conference.

Monday’s outcome — coupled with the Florida Panthers claiming a 5-2 road win against the Detroit Red Wings some five hours to the northwest — dropped the Penguins out of the playoff position.

The Panthers (36-27-7, 79 points) inched ahead of the Penguins (34-26-10, 78 points) for the final wild-card spot. As for the Senators (34-31-5, 73 points), the victory provided some badly needed oxygen to their drowning aspirations.

“Everybody scoreboard-watches a little bit this time of year,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “It’s human nature. But we’re focusing on what we can control in our game. The reality is we’ve got opportunities in front of us here. We’ve got to grab some points. We knew this was going to be a fight to the end for a playoff spot.”

The Penguins played as if they were going to grab an easy win. They possessed the puck for much of the contest and bombarded the Senators in terms of shots, claiming a lopsided 49-21 advantage in that metric.

“We controlled the play for the most part,” Penguins forward Sidney Crosby said. “We got pucks to the net. We can still make it a little tougher on the other team’s goalie and get some more traffic.”

In this case, the other team’s goalie was journeyman Dylan Ferguson, whose only NHL experience before Monday came in the form of a smattering of minutes in mop-up duty with the Vegas Golden Knights in November of 2017.

An emergency recall from Belleville of the American Hockey League on Sunday due to incumbent goaltenders Anton Forsberg and Cam Talbot each being on injured reserve, Ferguson, who won the ECHL’s Kelly Cup with the Fort Wayne Komets in 2021, stopped 48 shots — many of which came off the sticks of a handful of All-Stars and future inductees into the Hockey Hall of Fame — to earn his first career win.

“(Ferguson) played a pretty good game,” Penguins rookie defenseman P.O Joseph said. “Sometimes, you’ve just to tip your hat to the goalie.”

The Penguins’ goalie, Tristan Jarry, didn’t play terribly either, even in another defeat that dropped his record to 20-10-6.

And given his struggles as of late, his fairly reliable performance was not a minor development in this contest. Heck, just finishing a game has become something of an accomplishment for Jarry, who has been pulled in four of his previous 10 starts.

While not overly taxed, Jarry’s most notable moment in this contest was a denial of Senators All-Star forward Brady Tkachuk on a breakaway at 8:35 of the second period.

“I thought he was real good tonight,” Sullivan said. “That’s a different type of a challenge when you don’t see a lot of pucks, then they come down and they get a couple of pretty good looks. The breakaway save was a real good save. He made a couple of good saves on the penalty kill right before their goal. He just looked sharper in the net. His movement, his posture, tracking pucks, things of that nature, some of the subtleties of his game, I thought they were much better.”

The Penguins were largely the better team in the first period and controlled shots 18-7 but still gave up the first score 16:46 into regulation when defenseman Thomas Chabot scored his ninth goal of the season.

Corralling a loose puck in the Penguins’ left circle, Senators forward Claude Giroux dished a pass to Chabot above the opposite circle. With a clear avenue to the cage, Chabot maneuvered toward the crease and lifted something of an off-speed wrister past Jarry’s blocker on the far side. Giroux and rookie linemate Ridley Greig had assists.

After a scoreless second period, the Penguins finally figured out Ferguson when forward Rickard Rakell registered his 25th goal at 14:39 of the third period.

Jumping on an errant puck on the left half wall of the offensive zone, Joseph banked a pass off the end boards to the right corner for Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin, who one-touched a forehand pass to the slot. Rakell accepted the puck and pumped a wrister that slipped between Ferguson’s glove and the right post. Malkin and Joseph tallied assists.

A power-play goal by Senators forward Drake Batherson at 17:51 of the final frame proved to be the difference.

The score came through unfortunate circumstances for the Penguins, specifically penalty-killing forward Bryan Rust.

From above the right circle of the offensive zone, Senators rookie defenseman Jake Sanderson clapped a one-timer that staggered Rust, who blocked the shot with his right arm. Hindered, Rust tried to backhand clear the puck but wasn’t able to put enough strength on his attempt, which was intercepted by Sanderson at the right point.

Coolly, Sanderson slid the puck down low in the right circle for Tkachuk. Surveying his options, Tkachuk centered the puck to the crease. With Penguins defenseman Brian Dumoulin late on a poke-check attempt, Batherson swatted a forehand shot that hit off the left post, skidded along the goal line then struck the opposite post before deflecting off of Jarry’s left skate and into the cage. Tkachuk and Sanderson had assists.

Rust took full responsibility for his unsuccessful clear despite his impairment.

“I’ve got to get the puck out,” Rust said. “I don’t care if my arm is falling off. I’ve got to get that puck out of the zone down the ice.”

Now, the Penguins have to find a way to get back into a playoff position with a brief two-game road trip against two Western Conference powers, the Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars, on Wednesday and Thursday.

Regardless of the caliber of the opponent or what realm of the league they inhabit, every game carries significant weight for the Penguins as they try to give themselves a chance to play games deep into this spring.

“We’ve got to start winning games here,” Rakell said. “We don’t have too many games left.”

To be specific, the Penguins have 12 games left in the regular season.

They liked how they played in their 70th game Monday and see it as a schematic to follow for the remainder of their schedule.

“I thought we played well enough to win (Monday). We didn’t,” Sullivan said. “Sometimes, that happens. If we can continue to play that way and get the types of looks that we got tonight, I think we’ll get the results moving forward.”

Notes:

• With Marcus Pettersson designated to long-term injured reserve on Monday due to an undisclosed ailment, the Penguins dressed a MacGyverian blue line that included journeyman Taylor Fedun, summoned from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL, also on Monday, under emergency conditions.

It marked Fedun’s first NHL game since he played a postseason game in the so-called “bubble” of the 2020 postseason with the Dallas Stars during the pandemic. To be precise, he last saw NHL action in a 4-1 “home” loss to the Colorado Avalanche of Game 6 of a second-round postseason series in the quarantined zone in Edmonton that included Rogers Place.

On Monday, Fedun logged 10:34 of ice time on 14 shifts and had two shots on four attempts as well as one blocked shot.

• Fedun became the 30th player in franchise history to wear No. 4 in a game of consequence. His predecessors:

Noel Price, Bob Blackburn, Dave Burrows, Dale Tallon, Paul Baxter, Marty McSorley, Phil Bourque, Greg Fox, Chris Dahlquist, Dwight Schofield, Larry Murphy, Gord Dineen, Greg Andrusak, Greg Hawgood, Corey Foster, Kevin Hatcher, Jeff Norton, Bobby Dollas, Jamie Pushor, Mike Wilson, Dan Focht, Cory Cross, Noah Welch, Jordan Leopold, Zbynek Michalek, Mark Eaton, Rob Scuderi, Justin Schultz, Cody Ceci

• To illustrate how dominant the Penguins were at times with puck possession on Monday, they had a lengthy shift in the offensive zone late in the second period that resulted in Senators defenseman Artem Zub logging a shift that lasted an epoch of 4:36. With the benches on the far end of the ice in the middle frame as well as a few icing infractions against the Senators, Zub was unable to get a change.

• Ferguson’s only other NHL action came in an 8-2 road loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Nov. 14, 2017. As a member of the first-year expansion Vegas Knights, Ferguson replaced starting goaltender – and future member of the Penguins – Maxime Lagace. In 9:14 of action that night, Ferguson stopped one of two shots.

Former Penguins forward Mark Letestu scored on Ferguson in that contest.

• Ferguson, who opened the season with the Toronto Marlies of the AHL, donned his blue Marlies-themed pads for Monday’s contest. He was dealt to the Belleville Senators on Feb. 24.

• Batherson continues to be a Penguin killer. In seven career games against the Penguins, he has 11 points (five goals, six assists).

• Attendance for the game was 17,080, the second-lowest figure for a home game this season. The low-water mark remains 17,035 for a contest against the Maple Leafs on Nov. 15.

In all, the Penguins have had 13 sellouts in 35 home games this season.