Pittsburgh thought it had the game with 25 seconds on the clock. Ben Kindel, back in the lineup for the first time since a medical scare on the team plane 10 days earlier, had just backhanded a loose puck past Sebastian Cossa to put the Penguins ahead 3-2.
The lead lasted 24 seconds. Cooley, a Pittsburgh native, swatted a bouncing puck out of the air at the left side of the net with a single second showing to complete a hat trick and force overtime.
Sergachev settled it 3:27 into the extra period, snapping home the rebound of a Barrett Hayton shot from the slot past Arturs Silovs for a 4-3 Utah win on Thursday night.
Cooley’s night in his hometown
Cooley opened the scoring at 4:40 of the first period and struck again at 14:11 to put Utah two up before Pittsburgh had taken a shot that counted.
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Erik Karlsson pulled one back in the second and Rickard Rakell added a shorthanded goal in the third, before Kindel’s late tap-in appeared to have swung the night Pittsburgh’s way.
The equalizer was Cooley’s seventh goal of the season and the fourth hat trick of his NHL career. At the age of five, he had been part of Sidney Crosby’s Little Penguins Learn to Play Hockey program in the city.
Kindel back on the ice after plane scare
Kindel had been off the ice since collapsing on the Penguins’ team plane shortly after takeoff from Salt Lake City on October 20. The club said at the time that the 19-year-old forward had suffered a vasovagal episode, a sudden drop in heart rate and blood pressure, roughly 10 minutes into the flight. The plane turned back and he was taken to the University of Utah Hospital for evaluation.
Kindel played 18:53 on his return, scored the go-ahead goal and added an assist.
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“It’s just nice to score a goal for the team and chip in when I can,” Kindel said.
Penguins’ slow start continues
Sebastian Cossa finished with 31 saves for Utah; Silovs stopped 30 for Pittsburgh. The Mammoth improved to 9-5-0; the Penguins fell to 5-6-2 and are back below .500.
Evgeni Malkin, who returned to the lineup after missing Saturday’s win over Nashville with an illness, picked up two assists but was blunt about where the night went wrong.
“We need to play, like, so much harder, whole five guys. It’s a little bit tough that we lost,” Malkin told reporters.
Utah’s veteran defenseman Andrew Peeke picked up an assist in his 400th NHL game.
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