Penguins: one defeat before CH

The Montreal Canadiens face a team that has lost its last three games on Saturday night.

In fact, the Pittsburgh Penguins suffered another loss on Friday. They were defeated in a shootout by the Florida Panthers 3-2.

The Florida club achieved its two successes with a one-man advantage. Sam Reinhart and Evan Rodrigues were the authors. Oliver Ekman-Larsson also shone with two assists.

The Panthers had quite a scare in the second period of this matchup. Their captain, Aleksander Barkov, was injured and had to temporarily leave the game. The forward's head hit the boards after being hit by Penguins defenseman Kristopher Letang.

However, Barkov later returned. It was only his second game, as he missed three games earlier this month with a lower-body injury.

Letang received an interference penalty after already receiving a penalty for bringing down Rodrigues a few seconds earlier. Because of this numerical advantage, the Panthers scored their second goal.

The Pens' nets were the work of Jake Guentzel and Evgeni Malkin. The first benefited from numerical superiority. It was also her team's only goal with the man advantage, as they took eight chances to play with one more field player than their rivals.

Barkov and Reinhart scored goals in the shootout, while Guentzel was the only player on the losing team to put the puck behind the red line in this final phase of the game.

Penguins: one defeat before CH

Getty Images via AFP

A hat trick for Marchessault

In New York, Quebecer Jonathan Marchessault scored three times in the Vegas Golden Knights' 5-2 win over the New York Rangers.

These were the 23rd, 24th and 25th goals of his season and the second time he hit the needle three times in a game in 2023–2024. It was also his fifth hat trick of his National League career.

Marchessault wasn't the only La Belle representative to stand out in the game, as Nicolas Roy provided two assists.

Other Golden Knights scorers included Keegan Kolesar and Sheldon Rempal, while the Rangers' goals came from Blake Wheeler and Kaapo Kakko.