Harkins' goal ends franchise record 12-round shootout over Canadiens

MONTREAL -- When the shootout between the Penguins and Canadiens reached 12 rounds Wednesday night at Bell Centre, a minor concern crept into the mind of Mike Sullivan.

"We were running out of players," he observed afterward.

With the Canadiens electing to shoot first and the shootout moving to decisive individual rounds after the first three, the fate of the game was in the hands of each Penguins shooter that stepped over the boards as the shootout dragged on. 

Montreal forward Josh Anderson went first in the 12th round, and skated toward the net at a snail's pace before being stopped by Alex Nedeljkovic. The Penguins answered with fourth-line forward Jansen Harkins, who buried his first-ever NHL shootout attempt past Samuel Montembeault to give the Penguins the 4-3 win:

The Penguins also got shootout goals from Kris Letang, Sidney Crosby and Lars Eller, while Jake Guentzel, Evgeni Malkin, Reilly Smith, Erik Karlsson, Jeff Carter, Valtteri Puustinen, Radim Zohorna and Vinnie Hinostroza were all stopped.

Harkins' goal ended the longest shootout in Penguins history, surpassing the previous high of nine rounds set on Nov. 14, 2005, in a loss to the Islanders, per Bob Grove.

Harkins said afterward that throughout the first 11 rounds of the shootout, he was just hoping that someone would score and end it before he had an opportunity to shoot. When his turn finally came, what came to mind was the advice of his father, former NHL forward Todd Harkins.

"I just shot the puck," Harkins said. "The dads are here, and he's always telling me to shoot more. So I mean, I wasn't going to go down deking, that's for sure."

Nobody looked happier than Todd in the dads' suite on the team's annual dads trip, where Noel Acciari's father, Michael, predicted the winner as Harkins skated up the ice, and then the rest of the dads mobbed Todd in celebration:

Harkins acknowledged that he had "a bit of nerves" since he "hadn't been on the ice in awhile" in the game. With the Canadiens getting four power plays in the game and the Penguins getting three (capitalizing on two), special teams dictated a lot of the ice time. When it was a tie game heading into the third period and overtime, the fourth line just wasn't seeing much ice time. Harkins saw just two shifts in the third, with his last one coming midway through the frame. His 4:24 time on ice was a season-low by about a minute and a half.

While Harkins would have been a worthy recipient of the team's MVP Jofa helmet, Tuesday's recipient Carter gave the nod to Nedeljkovic, who certainly put the work in to earn it:

Nedeljkovic stopped 39 of 42 shots faced, many at opportune times. He stopped nine of 10 shots faced on the four penalty-kills. The Penguins were outshot 11-3 in the third period and 9-1 in the overtime, and Nedeljkovic stopped every one of them to keep the game tied. He stopped all but three of the 12 Montreal shooters in the shootout.

"Ned just held his ground there. He was amazing," Harkins said.

Nedeljkovic said that throughout his entire career, he thinks the longest shootout he's ever been part of was five or six rounds. Going 12 rounds was "intense," he said, in part due to the 21,105 fans packing the place.

"It was a lot of fun," he said. "I like playing in this building. It's a lot of fun. It's always a great atmosphere. And it was really loud. ... (The crowd) was pumped, they were excited. There's nothing like making a big save like that and just kind of quieting the crowd."

There was a moment midway through the shootout when it looked like Nedeljkovic might not be able to continue. Montreal forward Christian Dvorak shot first in the sixth round, and Nedeljkovic forced him to go wide. But in the process, Dvorak collided with Nedeljkovic, and his knee appeared to make contact with Nedeljkovic's head. Nedeljkovic was slow to get up, but was able to stay in the game. Afterward he downplayed the impact, saying he just "bit my tongue, nothing crazy."

"We just collided," he said. "It was weird play. He made a move, I felt like I was all over it. Maybe a little too much. Just kind of took away too much space and just collided."

The win improved the Penguins' record to 13-12-3 and brought them within two points back of the last wild card spot in the tight Eastern Conference standings. That goal from Harkins secured a huge extra point, and served as a bit of a rallying point for his teammates.

"It's a big moment for him personally, and for our hockey club as well," Karlsson said. "It's fun to see when guys down the lineup get the chance and they get the game-winner."

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE THREE STARS

As selected at Bell Centre

1. Sidney Crosby, Penguins C
2. David Savard, Canadiens D
3. Alex Nedeljkovic, Penguins G

THE IN-GAME INJURIES

• Penguins: None

• Canadiens: None

THE LINEUPS

Sullivan’s lines and pairings:

Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Drew O'Connor
Reilly Smith - Evgeni Malkin - Valtteri Puustinen
Radim Zohorna - Lars Eller - Vinnie Hinostroza
Jansen Harkins - Jonathan Gruden - Jeff Carter

Ryan Graves-Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson-Erik Karlsson
P.O Joseph-John Ludvig

And for Martin St. Louis' Canadiens:

Cole Caufield - Nick Suzuki - Juraj Slavkovsky
Sean Monahan - Jake Evans - Josh Anderson
Joel Armia - Christian Dvorak - Brendan Gallagher
Michael Pezzetta - Mitchell Stephens - Jesse Ylonen

Mike Matheson - David Savard
Kaiden Guhle - Justin Barron
Jayden Struble - Johnathan Kovacevic

THE SCHEDULE

THE FEED

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