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Pens woes continue on the road

Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Casey DeSmith reacts after giving up an overtime goal to the Ottawa Senators in an NHL hockey game Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2023, in Ottawa, Ontario. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)

Tkachuk scored 25 seconds into overtime, and the Ottawa Senators beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-4 on Wednesday night.

Alex DeBrincat, Tim Stutzle, Drake Batherson and Shane Pinto also scored for Ottawa (20-21-3), which went 4 for 9 on the power play. Tkachuk also had three assists, and Cam Talbot stopped 16 shots.

“It’s pretty tough to assess a game like that when half the game is special teams. There was no flow, there was no 5-on-5,” Pittsburgh Penguis coach Mike Sullivan said.

Evgeni Malkin had a goal and two assists for Pittsburgh (22-15-7), and Sidney Crosby had three assists. Jason Zucker, Mark Friedman and Rickard Rakell also scored, and Casey DeSmith made 35 saves.

“Except for the last one, I thought I played well. The last one was not good,” Penguins goalie Casey DeSmith said. “It went through me, kind of snuck through my armpit.”

Tied 3-3 in the third period, the Senators scored their fourth power-play goal at 10:58 when Pinto beat DeSmith with a wrist shot.

Rakell replied with a power-play goal of his own at 12:33. It was his 16th of the season.

Friedman gave Pittsburgh a 3-2 lead when he beat Talbot with a long-range shot 3:07 into the second period. It was Friedman’s first goal of the season and No. 4 in 49 career NHL games.

Batherson then tied it again with his 14th at 9:19 of the second. Tkachuk set up the goal with a backhand pass in front for Batherson.

“Well, we battled hard, but we didn’t get it done,” Sullivan said. “We gave up four goals against. It’s not good enough. We battled hard. But when you spend a third of the game trying to kill penalties, it puts an awful lot of burden on those guys.” Malkin tied it at 2 when he jammed home a rebound from a Ty Smith point shot 15:23 into the opening frame.

Earlier in the period, Ottawa made the most of a double minor penalty against Jeff Carter, scoring twice. Stutzle skated around Crosby and scored his 20th of the season at 9:44. DeBrincat tied the game two minutes prior on a feed from Batherson.

Worth noting

Josh Norris returned to Ottawa’s lineup after missing 38 games with a shoulder injury. It marked his first time back in the lineup since Oct. 22. … Senators forward Mathieu Joseph, who missed 17 games with a lower-body injury, was a healthy scratch. Joseph’s brother, Pierre-Olivier, plays for the Penguins and expected more than 50 friends and family to be in attendance.

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