Sennecke, Husso each steal a point in Ducks' dramatic shootout win over Penguins

PITTSBURGH – A robbery was televised live from Pittsburgh on Tuesday night.

The Penguins controlled the most important areas of the ice all night and grabbed the go-ahead power play goal with four minutes remaining for a 3-2 lead over the visiting Anaheim Ducks. With 17 seconds left, Pittsburgh was set to go on the power play, simply salt away the victory and exact some small revenge after losing in the Ducks’ home opener on a similarly late power play mark.

However, when the final horn sounded the first time in Pittsburgh, it was the Ducks celebrating a point recovered, and when the final horn sounded the second time, it was Anaheim walking out of PPG Paints Arena with two points and a 4-3 shootout victory.

“It was nice to get a win there,” Ducks goaltender Ville Husso said on the Victory+ broadcast. “A little unlucky bounce there on that third goal there, but kept going. Amazing comeback win for sure.

Beckett Sennecke scored his 10th goal of the season and his first career shorthanded goal with just 0.1 seconds remaining, as Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson swept Sennecke’s bid into his own net to tie the game, 3-3

Sennecke’s goal tied Scott Niedermayer’s on Nov. 21, 2008 for the latest game-tying goal in Ducks franchise history.

“I wasn’t really keeping track of the time,” Sennecke told Aly Lozoff on Victory+. “I saw it go in. I wasn’t even thinking about the time. It was 0.1 or something like that? Perfect.”

Ville Husso continued to stand on his head in overtime in a 45-save effort, and after Leo Carlsson cooly put home his shootout-opening attempt, Husso stopped all three Pittsburgh shooters to claim the victory.

“It’s probably not our best game,” Husso said, “but still finding a way to win is a huge part of this team. It’s fun to be part of it.”

Jackson LaCombe and Troy Terry scored top-shelf strikes in the second period to tie the game and put the Ducks in front, respectively.

This was Anaheim’s 10th comeback victory of the season, second in the league in that category behind Philadelphia’s 11. The Ducks are now 9-9-1 when allowing the first goal, second-most wins in that category also behind the Flyers’ 11.

Anaheim (19-10-1, 39 points) stays on top of the Pacific Division and takes its best start since 2014-15 into a three-game stretch in New York City, beginning with the Islanders on Thursday.

Sennecke Steals

Every game is a new showcase for the 19-year-old rookie, and when it came to accolades, Beckett Sennecke earned plenty more on Tuesday.

Sennecke had already collected his 25th point of the season earlier in the game with a primary assist on Jackson LaCombe’s sharp-angle equalizer in the second period. In just his 30th game of the season, he became the fastest Ducks teenager to ever hit the career mark, passing up Mason McTavish’s 44 games in 2022-23.

Then came the final-second heroics.

With 10 seconds left, Jacob Trouba wheeled behind the Ducks net, got the puck up the right boards and through Sidney Crosby at the Ducks’ blue line. Cutter Gauthier received the puck at the Penguins blue line and fed a hard-charging Sennecke.

Sennecke fought through two Penguins defenders and threw the puck at the net front, where a sliding Erik Karlsson swept the puck with his glove under a sprawling Arturs Silovs in net. The puck leaked over the line with 0.1 remaining, and the Ducks celebrated while Pittsburgh’s celebratory horn blared.

In overtime, Sennecke also put up his physical and defensive ability, boxing out Crosby on a netmouth scramble for a loose puck.

Sennecke’s goal was his rookie-leading 10th of the season to become the third Ducks’ rookie with 10 or more goals through 30 games (Bobby Ryan, 14 in 2008-09, and Paul Kariya, 12 in 1994-95) and the seventh rookie in NHL history to score a game-tying goal in the final second of regulation. He’s the first to do so shorthanded.

Sennecke’s 26 points is now tied with Kariya for the second-most by a Ducks rookie through his first 30 games, passing Trevor Zegras’ 25 and sitting behind Ryan’s 29.

Tuesday also marked Sennecke’s third straight game with a goal and an assist tying Zegras and Ryan Getzlaf for the second-longest mult-point streak by a Ducks rookie. Only Kariya put up more with six in 1994-95.

Brick Huss’

Without their top-two netminders Lukas Dostal and Petr Mrazek, Ville Husso has carried the load with five straight starts and six of the last seven.

With those goaltenders out to injury, the Ducks have stepped up in limiting the number of shots on goal allowing 18, 22, 34, 20 and 21 shots to reach the goaltender in the previous five games.

However on Tuesday, Husso saw 47 shots and numerous high-quality looks, but again, Husso came out a hero, earning the team’s Coach Bombay Mighty Ducks jacket as game MVP by standing on his head in overtime and posting another perfect shootout.

Half of Husso’s six starts have gone to the shootout, and he’s won all three, including a perfect 3-for-3 evening in Pittsburgh. Husso made a season-high 44 shots, his most since Dec. 6, 2022.

Dostal joined the Ducks on the trip, and while still on injured reserve, Wednesday will mark two weeks into his two-to-three week recovery timeline. Mrazek, who was injured last Sunday, is also on a two-to-three week timeline.

With Husso’s string of performances, maybe it brings up the question of who the back-up goaltender will be when the dust settles on the health front.

Territorial Warfare

For all the thrilling theatrics the end of the game provided, the body of work was still far from Anaheim’s best.

Where the Ducks came off a nearly historic all-areas domination against the Blackhawks at home on Sunday, the Penguins held the territorial edge at five-on-five on Tuesday with 78% of the expected goals, 61.68% of the shot attempts, 69.35% of the scoring chances and 85.71% of the high-danger chances. That’s not even including five opportunities for their league-best power play.

Pittsburgh also maintained a complete hold on just one specific area of the ice on , if not the most important. The Penguins constantly had at least one player parked at the front of the net to cause some chaos, with another player swooping in for deflections, rebounds and other opportunities.

It’s an area of the ice that teams have taken advantage of against this Ducks zone defense in the last month, exposing a flaw in either Anaheim’s approach or personnel at the front of the net.

The Ducks don’t engage with the other team’s netfront players as much as other defenses might to keep themselves available to block shots or shift the pressure of the zone.

Pittsburgh’s second goal came in that situation, as Radko Gudas defended the front, but it became a two-on-one in front with Drew Helleson caught out on the flank. Tommy Novak beat Helleson to the net for the rebound off Erik Karlsson’s point shot, and Novak collected his own rebound to score from below the goal line.

On the other end of the ice, the Ducks could not work their way into the net front all night, until Sennecke’s game-tying goal.

It’s an area of emphasis for the Ducks, especially defensively, and Ducks coach Joel Quenneville has referenced it several times in the last two weeks.

“I think that's where you get rewarded in this game,” Quenneville said after the Black Friday win over the Kings, “is that at the net, greasy goals, or no more than four feet away from the net. I think that's where the majority of the pucks go in anyway, so that's where the rewards are”