ST. LOUIS, MO - APRIL 14: Pittsburgh Penguins right wing Anthony Mantha (39) shots the puck past St. Louis Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington (50) for a goal during an NHL game where the St. Louis Blues hosted the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday April 14th, 2026, at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis MO (Photo by Rick Ulreich/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Pregame

It’s a very Game 82 lineup for the Penguins; there’s no Crosby, Malkin, Rust, Chinakhov, Rakell, Karlsson, Letang, Wotherspoon or Girard as all the top-6 forward/top-4 defenders set their sights on the playoffs. Recent signee Jake Livanavage makes his NHL debut and Rafael Harvey-Pinard makes his Penguin debut after toiling away all season in the AHL.

Our lineup for the regular season finale 👇 pic.twitter.com/4ILKE6Xp9U
— x – Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) April 15, 2026

First period

The Blues are on their front foot for most of the first half of the period, taking control of the puck for the majority of the time but the Penguins weather that storm.

Rutger McGroarty gets the scoring started almost out of no where when an offensive draw by Kevin Hayes pops over to him and McGroarty quickly fires the puck by Jordan Binnington. 1-0 Penguins.

Rutger nets one right off the faceoff 🔥 pic.twitter.com/ljsB2zaCA0
— x – Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) April 15, 2026

St. Louis gets the first power play of the game, right as it’s ending Avery Hayes pressures Logan Mailloux at the blueline and wins the puck away. Hayes is off to the races and snipes Binnington’s glove side to extend the lead to 2-0 on what offiically goes into the books as an even strength goal but really got started as a shorthanded play.

Avery puts one home 👏 pic.twitter.com/gC4ldhZdpR
— x – Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) April 15, 2026

St. Louis was about to breakout on up to a 3-on-1 rush but Oskar Sundqvist can’t get the puck past Kevin Hayes. Hayes stretches to just barely keep the play onside and quickly moves it down to Anthony Mantha with the Blues out of sorts. Mantha adds to his career-high in goals with number 33 by blowing a shot by Binnington’s blocker. 3-0.

That's a whopping 3️⃣3️⃣ goals this season for Mo! pic.twitter.com/PikITPSTUz
— x – Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) April 15, 2026

The Blues get on the board courtesy of Ilya Solovyov and Ryan Graves crossing their wires. Graves goes behind the net to make himself available as an option but the puck rolls off Solovyov’s blade to the middle of the ice. That’s trouble, a quick pass finds Jimmy Snuggerud wide open and he fires one by Stuart Skinner to bring the score to 3-1.

20 goals of the season as a rookie for Jimmy Snuggerud. #stlblues pic.twitter.com/F2aigVC4YJ
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) April 15, 2026

Good start for the Pens and the unrelated Hayes boys. Kevin nabs two primary assists, Avery scores a goal to help Pittsburgh to an early 3-1 lead after 20 minutes.

Second period

Elmer Soderblom with a power move for the ages. Ben Kindel gives the big guy a good pass and then he drives to the net with authority wearing the 6’1”, 204 pound defender Tyler Tucker like a cape. While that was happening, Soderblom managed to pull the puck through Michael Kesselring and around Binnington and slam it into the net. Wow. 4-1 Pens lead.

GLUE GUY GOAL! 🤩 pic.twitter.com/i5vWoeRr1x
— x – Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) April 15, 2026

Sundqvist gets on the board to bring the Blues back to within two goals. Livanavage gets turned around and didn’t protect the middle of the ice on Alexey Torpochenko’s shot, Jack St. Ivany was shading over to help cover and Sundqvist was unmarked for the followup. Nothing egregious but certainly a ‘welcome to the NHL’ moment.

OH SUNNY DAY! pic.twitter.com/i04FgRWhZd
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) April 15, 2026

The goalfest continues and the Blues get within one goal. The Pens get running around on their defensive coverages a little bit and a fortunate St. Louis bounce has the puck end up on Mailloux’s stick. He wheels to the left, steps into space and shoots it in. 4-3.

Maill-oux like another goal? #stlblues pic.twitter.com/tIc1r8OInH
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) April 15, 2026

The game gets pretty heated considering the non-existent skates, the Pens get a power play after Harvey-Pinard got mauled in front of the net. No dice. Later another post-whistle scrum puts Mantha in the penalty box and this time the Blues score on it to tie the game. Snuggerud nets his second of the night from right in front. 4-4 game.

Make that 21 goals this season for Jimmy Snuggerud. #stlblues pic.twitter.com/TLqftqf1Ae
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) April 15, 2026

Well, once down 3-0 and then 4-1, the Blues weren’t packing it up early by any means at home. They claw back to tie the game back up heading into the third period.

Third period

Arturs Silovs takes over at the start of the third. He makes a couple of nice saves then gives up a goal within five minutes. The play breaks down and Livanavage can’t step up to block a shot from Dylan Holloway. 5-4 Blues in front for the first time.

TWO THREE-GOAL DEFICITS ERASED AND NOW WE HAVE THE LEAD!!! #stlblues pic.twitter.com/hn3ppbWWoJ
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) April 15, 2026

The collapse for the Pens continues, Binnington starts a breakout that catches Solovyov and Graves waaaay too wide when Graves makes a false step forward to pressure a guy he wouldn’t have got to if he had three more seconds. Pavel Buchnevich is the receipent with a breakaway and his shot hits the mark to the top corner of Silovs’ blocker. 6-4.

Two-goal leads are #EasyToCelebrate @budlight | #stlblues pic.twitter.com/rqB1ohmucp
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) April 15, 2026

Dan Muse uses his timeout to settle things down and shout at his team a little, but it looks like that horse has already left the barn and cleared the field at this point.

The Pens get a power play, Avery Hayes scores just after it ends after a great individual effort that sees him get a zone entry, shot, and follows up on the rebound to knock it in off Binnington. 6-5 game.

GOALIE ASSIST FROM ARTURS SILOVS!!! 🍎

And Avery Hayes has his second of the night…

📺: @espn ➡️ https://t.co/m0LyTCHYnH pic.twitter.com/vhTe9S6Av7
— NHL (@NHL) April 15, 2026

Pittsburgh pulls the goalie to try and tie it up, doesn’t work when Holloway ices the game on an empty net goal with 1:43 to go and set the score at 7-5.

Some thoughts

Overall a fine debut from the youngster Livanavage to jump from college to the big time. He got a two-year entry level contract starting in 2025-26, so the first year was going away regardless but it was good to see him get a game in the big league. The scouting report was pretty accurate: he’s a great skater that can do a lot with puck retrievals. He’s very small (officially listed at 5’10, which must have been the same measuring tape that said 5’8 Max Talbot was 5’10). He made a few plays that show a nice defensive mindset going to tie up sticks of opponents on the backside of the play with a few choppy moments that are bound to happen along the way. Naturally he showed needing the learning curve that he can’t always hold pucks and skate out of danger in the top league and let the passing change the point of attack quicker than his legs, nothing unexpected. It’ll be interesting to see just how much he’ll be in the mix for an NHL lineup spot next preseason. One would think Livanavage still probably has some time in Wilkes-Barre in his future but this probably won’t be his only NHL appearance given the skillset.
This might be the end of the line for Kevin Hayes, great to see his perseverance rewarded with a couple of assists against one of his former teams. He handled this season impeccably despite what had to be the frustrations of barely getting to play.
Liked to see McGroarty score and noticed he was with the first group of some regular penalty killers (Acciari, Shea and Clifton). McGroarty’s immediate path ahead looks like a lower line winger, adding some PK work to his portfolio could be big for his progression as he aims to find a full-time NHL niche. Much of the same applies for Avery Hayes, who made a bigger impact with the short-handed group tonight. The overall game was meaningless for the team but these kinds of individual opportunities won’t be forgotten moving forward with how coaches and management see what happens with players like this getting some chances they otherwise wouldn’t.
Not to be outdone, Soderblom left a reminder that he’s going to be in the picture and take up a lot of room somewhere on the bottom lines next season too. It’s almost sacrilege to describe a goal as Lemieux-esque but the thought came to mind if only for a big guy paying no mind to a defender all over him and making a nice move to score. Someone like Chinakhov really set the bar high on impressive debuts as a castoff trade but Soderblom’s 5G+5A in 20 games from a low minute role exceeded expectations in a major way.
Loopy after midnight thought: gotta wonder if anyone in NHL history has ever scored two goals in the same game that came within five seconds of a PK ending AND five seconds after a power play ends like Avery Hayes did today.
Felt sorry Stuart Skinner had to be in there for this game, Silovs too for that matter. Not much the goalies could do on a lot of it with the breakdowns in front of a substandard defensive team. The Pens surely wanted to get Skinner some action before the start of the playoffs, today’s game didn’t lend itself to being a nice launching point for a goalie to go into the postseason. Putting Silovs in for the third period does prime an interesting angle for just which goalie will be playing the next game, though his performance was no better (and arguably worse). Hopefully the goalies can turn the page and not put too much stock in a write off game.
Speaking of that, not sure if the Penguins were out of their post-deadline recalls but maybe they should have thought of bringing up Joel Blomqvist or Sergei Murashov to play in this throwaway game. Obviously it makes sense of the benefit of getting the goalies in a rhythm and some playing time late, the trade off is putting them in an impossible situation where the bottom can drop out, which happened tonight. Both goalies already dealt with a three-week Olympic break, what’s a one week game break after that? Every other player of the team of significance got at least a game where they didn’t have to dress (apologies to Tommy Novak and Justin Brazeau), perhaps that strategy should have extended to the netminders too.
Gotta admit, it’s darkly humorous the Pens’ season ends blowing a three-goal lead. Not worth any consternation given that more than half the team was out, just made sense on some levels.
Getting season debuts from Livanavage and Harvey-Pinard put the total number of players to appear in a game for the Penguins at 40 this season, the most in the league this season. They had some injuries and certainly no hesitation about shuttling players in and out of the lineup all over the place. Now, ironically, they’ll hope for someone like Blake Lizotte to heal up soon and health for everyone else to get as much stability as they can for the rest of the way.

And now, we get to the good part. The Pens can take the rest of the week to gear up for their Saturday or Sunday home playoff game against the Flyers. Another regular season is in the books, thanks to all who have come along for the journey!

Michael Kesselring

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