Harkins' goal ends franchise record 12-round shootout over Canadiens

The Penguins also got goals from Kris Letang, Sidney Crosby and Lars Eller in the shootout, while Jake Guentzel, Evgeni Malkin, Reilly Smith, Erik Karlsson, Jeff Carter, Valtteri Puustinen, Radim Zohorna and Vinnie Hinostroza were all stopped.

Harkins' goal ended the longest shootout in Penguins history, surpassing the previous high of nine rounds set on Nov. 14, 2005 in a loss to the Islanders, per Bob Grove.

Harkins said afterward that throughout the first 11 rounds of the shootout, he was just hoping that someone would score an end it before he had an opportunity to shoot. When his turn finally came, what came to mind was the advice of his father, former NHL forward Todd Harkins.

"I just shot the puck," Harkins said. "The dads are here, and he's always telling me to shoot more. So I mean, I wasn't going to go down deking. That's for sure."

Nobody was happier than Todd in the dads' suite at the game, the first game of the Penguins' dads trip this season. Noel Acciari's father Michael predicted the winner as Harkins skated up the ice, and then the rest of the dads mobbed Todd in celebration for the goal:

Harkins laughed afterward that he had "a bit of nerves" since he "hadn't been on the ice in awhile" in the game. With the Canadiens getting four power plays in the game and the Penguins getting three (capitalizing on two), special teams dictated a lot of the ice time. When it was a tie game heading into the third period and overtime, the fourth line just wasn't seeing much ice time. Harkins saw just two shifts in the third, with his last one coming midway through the frame. His 4:24 time on ice was a season-low by about a minute and a half, and nearly half of his season average of 8:29.

While Harkins would have been a worthy recipient of the team's MVP Jofa helmet, Tuesday's recipient Carter gave the nod to Nedeljkovic, who certainly put the work in to earn it:

Nedeljkovic stopped 39 of 42 shots faced, and many of them came at opportune times. He stopped nine of 10 shots faced on the four penalty-kills. The Penguins were outshot 11-3 in the third period and 9-1 in the overtime, and Nedeljkovic stopped every one of them to keep the game tied. He stopped all but three of the 12 Canadiens shooters in the shootout.

"Ned just held his ground there, he was amazing," Harkins said.

Nedeljkovic said that throughout his entire career, he thinks the longest shootout he's ever been part of was five or six rounds. Going 12 rounds was "intense," he said, in part due to the 21,105 fans packing the Bell Centre. Nedeljkovic enjoyed silencing them after each of the saves.

"It was a lot of fun," he said. "I like playing in this building. It's a lot of fun. It's always a great atmosphere. And it was really loud. ... (The crowd) was pumped, they were excited. There's nothing like making a big save like that and just kind of quieting the crowd."

There was a moment midway through the shootout when it looked like Nedeljkovic might not be able to continue. Canadiens forward Christian Dvorak shot first in the sixth round, and Nedeljkovic forced him to go wide. But in the process, Dvorak collided with Nedeljkovic, and his knee appeared to make contact with Nedeljkovic's head. Nedeljkovic was slow to get up, but was able to stay in the game. Afterward he downplayed the impact, saying he just "bit my tongue, nothing crazy."

"We just collided," he said. "It was weird play. He made a move, I felt like I was all over it. Maybe a little too much. Just kind of took away too much space and just collided."

The win improved the Penguins' record to 13-12-3 and brought them just two points back of the last wild card spot in the tight Eastern Conference standings. That goal from Harkins secured a huge extra point in the standings, and served as a bit of a rallying point for his teammates. They like to see guys like Harkins get rewarded.

"It's a big moment for him personally, and for our hockey club as well," Karlsson said. "It's fun to see when guys down the lineup get the chance and they get the game-winner."