This game was supposed to be all about the goalie.
And it was.
Just not that goalie.
Sure, Casey DeSmith got some attention -- including a mildly positive review of his work from Mike Sullivan -- during and after the Penguins' 6-3 loss to the Canadiens Saturday night at PPG Paints Arena, but it was the guy at the other end of the ice on whom the spotlight shined brightest.
That's to be expected when a goaltender faces 50 shots in 60 minutes. Especially if he turns aside 47 of them, as Jake Allen did.
"Give him credit," Sullivan said. "He played really well. We threw a lot of pucks at him tonight."
Which, he acknowledged, is not to suggest that Allen was tested as severely as he could have been.
"We could have had a little bit more net traffic and made his sight lines more difficult, but we could probably say that most night," Sullivan said. "We put a fair amount of pucks at him tonight. It wasn't from a lack of opportunities that we didn't score. It was just one of those nights when we couldn't find the back of the net."
In fairness, neither team did until 15:34 of the second period, when Jonathan Drouin beat DeSmith on a breakaway.
That was the first of three Montreal shots that eluded him -- the Canadiens' final three goals were scored after he had been replaced by an extra attacker late in the third period -- and while DeSmith didn't lose this game for the Penguins, neither did he play well enough that they could win it.
"I thought he was solid," Sullivan said. "The goals they got were good goals. They would have been real good saves if he were to make any of them. I thought he made the saves he was supposed to make."
That's a rather tepid endorsement of DeSmith's 28-save performance, but probably is the best that reasonably could be expected of a goaltender who had spent 12 of the previous 13 games at the far end of the bench.
While DeSmith's work against Montreal isn't going to prompt Sullivan to second-guess his decision to call on Tristan Jarry so often this season, Allen's play reinforced his spot atop Montreal's depth chart, at least until Carey Price returns to the mix.
The Penguins didn't manage to beat Allen until 2:33 of the third period, when Evan Rodrigues threw a wrist shot past him from above the right hash mark during a power play.
That tied the game, 1-1, but not for long.
Just 32 seconds later -- while details of the Rodrigues goal still were being announced to the crowd of 17,985 -- the Penguins left Christian Dvorak unchecked in front of DeSmith. He was all alone, except for the puck, which was on his blade until he casually flipped it past DeSmith to put the Canadiens in front to stay.
"I thought we got ourselves back into it," Sidney Crosby said. "Then they score (on the) next shift."
A stop Allen made on Rodrigues a little more than 5 1/2 minutes into the third had to be rather deflating for the Penguins, too.
They were down, 2-1, when Rodrigues corralled a Crosby rebound in front of the crease, and threw it back at the net.
It ended up in Allen's glove, a stop similar to the one Frank Pietrangelo made on Devils center Peter Stastny during the 1991 playoffs.
That one will forever be known in Penguins lore as "The Save." Allen's stop on Rodrigues won't be remembered so fondly, Not around here, anyway.
"I thought that was going to be a tap-in," Rodrigues said. "I just tried to get it off as quick as I could, because I didn't think he'd be able to get there, and he makes an unbelievable save."
That was one of the Penguins' final opportunities to tie the game, but their deficit on the scoreboard wasn't an accurate reflection of how the game was playing out. Score this game like a boxing match, and the Penguins almost surely get a decisive victory.
"There are games during the year that you might not deserve to win, and you end up with two points," Rodrigues said. "And there are games that you know you deserve to win, (and you don't). I think today was one of those. We had 50 shots, we controlled (offensive-)zone time and didn't get the two points."
They did, however, got some praise for their effort from Sullivan.
"To a man, I thought we competed really hard," he said.
The Penguins had done that a lot while winning their previous five games, and it seemed reasonable to believe that a similar effort would be enough to dispatch an opponent that was 0-6-1 in its previous seven games on the road.
But there were just enough soft spots in their defensive game that the Canadiens were able to generate the offense needed to take full advantage of Allen's strong play.
"I thought we played well, but there were obviously a couple of errors that happened and they capitalized on them," Mike Matheson said.
Sullivan suggested that his team didn't always approach its defensive duties with the appropriate vigor.
"I don't think we were as stingy at our net-front," he said. "There was a phase in the game when it opened up on both sides, and we ended up trading chance-for-chance. We've always been believers that's not a formula for consistent success.
"Some of the chances that we gave up were a little bit higher quality than we would like. We have to make sure we defend the scoring area a little bit harder, a little bit better, with more numbers. We could have maybe cut down on a goal or two if we did."
And that would have translated to one or two fewer they needed to get past Allen. Had that been the case, the Penguins might well have embarked on a four-game western road trip Sunday with a six-game winning streak, rather than misgivings about the two points they failed to grab Saturday.
Nonetheless, Sullivan said "the team has a good feeling around it right now," That's understandable, since the Penguins have scrambled back into serious playoff contention.
"We've played some really good hockey the past couple of weeks," Rodrigues said. "Put this one in the rear-view and get ready for Calgary."
MORE FROM THE GAME
• The Penguins killed all four Montreal power plays, raising their league-best penalty-killing rate to 90.9 percent. They have killed 19 consecutive power plays, and have not allowed a man-advantage goal in the past seven games.
* Rodrigues had a gash on his left cheek, courtesy of a blow he absorbed on a follow-through by Montreal's Josh Anderson. "It was a follow-through, so it was no penalty," Rodrigues said.
• Kris Letang was assessed a dubious tripping minor after he dumped Canadiens left winger Michael Pezzetta with what appeared to be a textbook hip check in the neutral zone midway through the second period. Letang vigorously protested referee Michael Markovic's ruling, predictably to no avail.
• Crosby had a goal and two assists, equaling his output in his previous eight games. "It's nice to see it go in," he said. "Obviously, I'd rather it be in a win." Sullivan said that "I think he's getting stronger with every game that he plays and I think he'll continue to get that way."
• Jake Guentzel's assist on Rodrigues' goal stretched his scoring streak to eight games, a career-high and the longest active one in the NHL.
• Crosby had a miserable start on faceoffs, winning just one of eight during the first period, but rebounded somewhat to finish 11-15.
• Rodrigues not only scored his team-leading eighth goal, but recorded 12 shots on goal. That's the third-highest total in franchise history, surpassed only by Ron Stackhouse (14 on April 3, 1976) and Pierre Larouche (13 on Feb. 21,1976).
• There were 61 hits credited in this game, none of which were attributed to Brian Dumoulin. He might have been involved in the most memorable contact of the evening, though, as he collided with Crosby in the Montreal zone during the third period, knocking him to the ice.
• The Penguins and Canadiens combined to score five times between 17:23 and 19:23 of the third period, the fourth-shortest amount of time in league history that two teams have needed to generate that many goals.
THE ESSENTIALS
THE THREE STARS
As selected at the PPG Paints Arena:
1. Josh Anderson, Canadiens
2. Jake Allen, Canadiens
3. Evan Rodrigues, Penguins
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• Evgeni Malkin is recovering from offseason knee surgery. He has been skating with skills coach Ty Hennes.
• Bryan Rust has missed two games because of an unspecified lower-body injury.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan's lines and pairings:
Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby-Evan Rodrigues
Jason Zucker-Jeff Carter-Kasperi Kapanen
Dominik Simon-Brian Boyle-Danton Heinen
Zach Aston-Reese-Teddy Blueger-Brock McGinn
Brian Dumoulin-Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson-John Marino
Mike Matheson-Chad Ruhwedel
And for Dominique Ducharme's Canadiens:
Tyler Tiffoli-Christian Dvorak-Josh Anderson
Jonathan Drouin-Jake Evans-Brendan Gallagher
Arttturi Lehkonen-Nick Suzuki-Cole Caufield
Michael Pezzetta-Ryan Poehling-Joel Armia
Ben Chiarot-Jeff Petry
Alexander Romanov-David Savard
Mattias Norlinder-Sami Niku
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins will not practice Sunday, but will travel to Calgary for a game against the Flames Monday at 9:08 p.m. Eastern.
THE CONTENT
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