Sidney Crosby's late-game heroics overcome Dostal, Ducks in road trip finale

PIITSBURGH -- The Anaheim Ducks turned the puck over to the worst possible Pittsburgh Penguin in the worst possible place at the worst possible time on Thursday.

Sidney Crosby single-handedly busted another stellar performance by Lukas Dostal with a game-tying deflection in regulation and a nasty set of moves in close off a turnover in overtime to lift the Penguins over the Ducks, 2-1, at PPG Paints Arena.

Dostal stopped 44 of 46 shots to salvage one point in the finale of the East Coast road trip for Anaheim (4-4-2, 10 points). The Ducks captured three of a possible eight points on the four-game swing.

The Ducks return to Orange County to kick off a six-game homestand on Sunday against the Chicago Blackhawks. Anaheim will be home for nine of its 12 games in November.

Pittsburgh (4-7-1, 9 points) soundly dominated the pace of play to snap a six-game winless streak. The Penguins outshot Anaheim, 46-23, and overwhelmingly got the better of the Ducks in overall shot attempts (98-51) and high-danger scoring chances (23-9), according to Natural Stat Trick.

Crosby tied the game early in the third period, as he reached out to pull in a wide shot from Matt Grzelcyk with a deft deflection back to and through Dostal.

In overtime, the future Hall-of-Famer pounded on a turnover forced by Cody Glass, pinning Ducks rookie Cutter Gauthier against the boards at the Anaheim blue line. Crosby coasted in, stopped at the top of the crease, deked Dostal the wrong direction and roofed the game-winner.

Alex Nedeljkovic made 22 saves for Pittsburgh.

Anaheim was in this game once again on the back of Dostal, who posted his second consecutive game of 40-plus saves and third this season. Dostal saved 2.87 goals above expected, according to MoneyPuck, and he continues to lead the league in that category with 13.6 GSAx overall.

The 24-year-old Czech leads the NHL in shots faced, saves and save percentage.

Dostal’s brick wall allowed Anaehim to take and hold onto the lead in the first period. With just over four minutes left in the opening frame,  Alex Killorn wristed home a zinging feed from Trevor Zegras behind the net for the 1-0 advantage. Gauthier picked up the secondary assist.

It was Killorn’s second goal of the season and the first against a goaltender, with his previous tally coming as the empty net icing in a win over San Jose last week.

This was Zegras’ second game back at center, and the threesome of Zegras, Killorn and Gauthier were the only Ducks forward line with positive possession numbers. Zegras, Killorn and Gauthier earned over 55% of the overall shot attempts while on the ice together.

In the late stages, Gauthier had two shots at the go-ahead goal with the first being knocked aside by the loose stick of Nedeljkovic on a goal-mouth scramble and the second being blocked aside on a breakaway.

Gauthier continues to sniff around for his first career NHL goal. The rookie out of Boston College led the Ducks with four shots and 10 shot attempts and in individual expected goals. Gauthier leads the Ducks in shots on goal and individual expected goals, but the 20-year-old has yet to score. Gauthier has four assists–one primary and three secondary.

Nedeljkovic stopped a point-blank attempt by Pavel Mintyukov with three seconds remaining to send the game to overtime.

Game Notes

• Troy Terry’s eight-game point streak was snapped with a scoreless night. Terry leads the Ducks in goals (5) and points (5).

• Anaheim was 0-for-2 on the power play to bring its season total to 4-for-31 with the man advantage. The Ducks are 29th in the NHL with a 12.9% power play conversion rate.

• The Ducks were 3-for-3 on the penalty kill. Anaheim is 18th in the NHL with 77.8% rate with a man down.

Road Trip Notes

• Anaheim went 1-2-1 on its first extended road trip. The Ducks are 2-3-2 away from Honda Center.

• The Ducks outshot the New York Rangers, 33-32, in the opening game of the trip, but former Los Angeles King Jonathan Quick picked up his 30th win against Anaheim and 395th career victory.

• The Ducks have not beat the Rangers at Madison Square Garden since 2014.

• In New Jersey, former Duck Stefan Noesen picked up two goals in the second period, including the go-ahead marker, in a 6-1 Anaheim loss. The Devils’ four second-period goals are the most allowed in a single period this season by the Ducks. 

• Anaheim snapped a six-game losing streak to the New York Islanders on Tuesday. It was the Ducks’ first win on Long Island since 2019 and their first at UBS Arena.

• The Ducks scored two power play goals for the second time this season at the Islanders.