Saturday night in the desert featured a game between opposites in the NHL world. The Pittsburgh Penguins as we are defending champions and battling for the best record in the league. The Arizona Coyotes, on the other hand, are out of the playoffs and only one team has fewer points than them in the entire league.

On paper, this one seemed like a nice easy road win. Especially for the Penguins who maintain a 5-0-2 clip in the last seven games.

Two stories emerged for the Pens going in. One would Sidney Crosby get finally get his points and get to 1000. Arizona seemed like as good as place as any to accomplish this feat.

Second, Would the Penguins fill-ins at forward be able to contribute and lead to a Penguins win? As we know, no Malkin, Sheary, Rust meant newcomers in the lineup.

Josh Archibald would make it his 2016 debut for the Pens and play in his second career NHL game.

For Arizona, they come in trying just to put a solid game together. Playing a little better over the last few games they are 4-2-1. In this one, they would look to be the team to play spoiler against the mighty Pens.

Arizona tried to steal some Pittsburgh mojo by honoring Pitt product Larry Fitzgerald before the game. They would need it as the crowd there were lots of Pittsburgh fans in attendance.

Mike Smith would man the net for the Coyotes and Marc-Andre Fleury for the Penguins

No scoring occurred in the 1st period of action.

Josh Archibald (1) gave the Pens a 1-0 lead, but Arizona climbed back with goals by Tobias Rieder (12) and Martin Hanzal (11) to take a 2-1 second period lead.

In the 3rd Hanzal (12) would again tally for a 3-1 lead.

Pittsburgh would tie the game on goals by Archibald (2), and Phil Kessel (19) with the goalie pulled to force OT.

Connor Murphy (1) would score in overtime to give the Coyotes the 4-3 OT win.

Smith would get the W stopping 28-31 shots, and Fleury took the loss denying 21-25

As mentioned the first period featured no scoring, but it wasn’t light in scoring chances.

5 minutes in Jake Guentzel would come in on a breakaway but would be denied by Mike Smith.

With 7:47 left Christian Dvorak would almost score as he slipped one through Fleury but Trevor Delay cleared it from the crease before it went into the net.

Patric Hornqvist would have a breakaway on his own just a few moments later, but Smith would also deny him. Hornquist did get pressured by the defense a little as he came in on a play that could have been a penalty.

In the 2nd period, the scoreboard would finally be lit as the Penguins took the 1-0 lead.

Archibald would bang home a backhand rebound for his first of the year.

The play started with Archibald finding Tom Kuhnhackl in the slot. Kuhnhackel fired, and the shot was saved, but Eric Fehr was able to get the puck back to the goal.

Again, Smith saved the shot but the rebound came right to Archibald, and he lifted the backhand for the for the 1st goal of the game.

Down 1-0 Reider would tie up the game. A pretty straight forward goal as Reider just game down the board and fired a laser of a wrist shot past Fleury.

Justin Schultz committed a bad turnover on this one that led to the chance for Reider, and he did not miss.

A little later on the power play, Martin Hanzal would give the Coyotes the 2-1 lead.

Radim Vrbata simply fired stationary wrist shot toward the net and the rebound came right down to Hanzal who simply collected and on the backhand just slid the backhand under the pad of Fleury.

Hanzal’s big body played a part in this goal

Almost 4 minutes into the 3rd period the puck would again bounce the Coyotes way, and again Hanzal would be on the end of some luck.

A simple shot to the net by Oliver Ekman-Larsson pinballed around the crease of the Penguins. Neither Matta nor Fleury could locate and Hanzal again just slid the puck under the outstretched arm of Fleury.

Matta didn’t make it any easier by tackling Fleury on the play as he tried to locate the puck. That tally made it 3-1 Coyotes.

It looked like doom and gloom for the Penguins here, but Mike Smith let them back in.

Shorthanded Smith came out to try to play the puck but got a little too fancy with it. He was not pressured at all and had plenty of time but turned it right over to Archibald right in front of the goal.

Not going to be an easier score for any player than this one and Archibald’s second had the Penguins within one goal.

Just awful play by Smith

Pittsburgh would pull the goalie as they looked to tie the game with under 15 seconds.

Letang broke his stick on a shot to the goal, but it would lead to the score. The puck took a different route to end up in the Coyotes net. It went off the broken stick, deflected off another player, off Phi Kessel’s skate, off the post and then Kessel buried it in the back of the net.

A weird play for sure but one that seems to happen at the end of games with the goalie pulled.

In OT, it looks as though the Penguins had won as Nick Bonino walked in and had his backhand stopped, but Bonino regathered and slid the puck past Smith.

A clearer look showed though that the whistle had blown and the goal did not count.

Cue Connor Murphy and his first goal in 50 games for the win.

He simply came down the wing and fired a shot that beat Fleury short side for the Coyotes win. Bad goal by Fleury there although it did look like it might have changed direction as it hit a Penguins player trying to stop the shot.

4-3 win for the Coyotes and the duel in the desert was over.

ANALYSIS

Fighting back from 2 down on the road to get the point is a small victory. Even though it is against one of the worst teams in the league, a point is a point. And getting one on the road you can’t complain

Despite the gaffe that led to the Archibald goal, Mike Smith made a bunch of great stops. Underrated goalie. He uses his big body well and moves for such a large man.

One the trade front, I think I could get with Martin Hanzal in a Penguins uniform. Big body, decent skill and a guy who could do some Hornquist type things. Maybe him and Smith in a package?

Three goals scored simply by pucks being thrown towards the net and rebounds coming free to people. The lesson as always is that a puck towards the net is never a bad play.

The Penguins could use Malkin back in the lineup. Teams are gearing up to stop Sid, and without Geno, that is much easier. Although at this point health is probably more important than points so get better Geno!

What’s next

Penguins: Home vs. the Vancouver Canucks (24-25-6) on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m.ET

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