Phil Kessel made his first major impact in a Pittsburgh uniform Saturday at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena as the Penguins (4-4-0, 8 pts) knocked off the Predators (6-1-1, 13 pts) in overtime.
The Western Conference points leader lost for just the second time this season, but still earned a point thanks to former Penguins winger James Neal tying the game 1-1 in the third period. Pittsburgh’s Chris Kunitz had the game’s only goal up until that point when he made it 1-0 at 15:04 of the second period. It was his first goal of the season and was assisted by Evgeni Malkin and Matt Cullen.
Neal scored his sixth of the season at 11:27 of the third, assisted by Mike Ribeiro and Barret Jackman, ending Marc-Andre Fleury’s shutout bid that lasted over 50 minutes.
Pittsburgh survived a late power play for Nashville, allowing the game to head to overtime. Kessel scored just 41 seconds in, assisted by Malkin. It was Kessel’s third goal of the year. He led the team in shots on goal with six.
Fleury earned the victory by stopping 38 shots, totaling a .974 save percentage. Nashville outshot Pittsburgh 39-25 but had no opportunity to even get a shot in during the brief overtime period before Kessel ended the game. Pekka Rinne allowed two of the 25 shots he faced to sneak by.
Despite the victory, Pittsburgh continued to struggle mightily on the power play, going 0-3 and falling to just eight percent (2-25) through eight games.
The Penguins are sixth of eight in the Metropolitan Division and next play on Wednesday at 8 pm versus the Washington Capitals. The game will be nationally televised on NBC Sports Network from DC’s Verizon Center.
