Pittsburgh Penguins forward Conor Sheary joined a somewhat select but certainly futile group of company during Saturday’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Montreal Canadiens in Game 1 of their qualifying-round series at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena.
He became the seventh player in franchise history to attempt a postseason penalty shot but missed. His attempt extended a streak of six consecutive unsuccessful postseason penalty shots for the franchise.
The first attempt in franchise history was the only successful one. Forward Jaromir Jagr scored on New York Rangers goaltender John Vanbiesbrouck in Game 5 of the Patrick Division final May 11, 1992
On Saturday, with the score tied 2-2 at 16 minutes, 57 seconds of the third period, Sheary drew a hooking infraction against Canadiens defenseman Brett Kulak and was awarded a penalty shot.
Approaching Canadiens goaltender Carey Price, Sheary gave a subtle shoulder juke, then fired a wrister wide to the left of the net.
While the ice was hardly ideal since the teams were playing in the venue’s third game of the day in early August, Sheary refused to cite the environment as reason for his miss.
“Obviously, I can’t blame it on the ice,” Sheary said Sunday in a video conference from Toronto. “We did a little pre-scout before on Price. I had a shot in mind. When I tried to do the fake shot and tried to release it, it kind of fumbled on me and obviously I missed wide.
“I’m not going to blame it on the ice. It was just kind of a bad move, I guess.”
The Canadiens had their own penalty shot attempt as well early in the overtime period at the 6:46 mark. After drawing a holding infraction from Penguins defenseman Jack Johnson, Canadiens forward Jonathan Drouin completely missed the puck on his attempt at a backhand shot.
Drouin’s attempt was the fourth overtime penalty shot in postseason history, all of which have been unsuccessful.
The last postseason contest to involve multiple penalty shots took place nearly a century ago in Game 1 of the 1923 Stanley Cup Final between the original Ottawa Senators franchise and the Edmonton Eskimos of the Western Canada Hockey League. All three attempts in that game were unsuccessful as well.
Note: Penguins coach Mike Sullivan reported no absences from Sunday’s practice at Toronto’s Ford Performance Centre but declined to identify any potential lineup changes in advance of Monday’s Game 2.
