Penguins Blank Panthers 4-0, Spoiling Cooper Black's Record-Setting NHL Debut

The Florida Panthers ran out of legs and out of luck in Pittsburgh on Thursday night. Arturs Silovs stopped all 26 shots he faced, Nick Robertson scored twice and the Pittsburgh Penguins beat Florida 4-0 at PPG Paints Arena, spoiling the NHL debut of Panthers goaltender Cooper Black, who became the tallest goalie ever to play in a regular-season NHL game.

The loss dropped Florida to 5-4-2 with 12 points and capped a rough back-to-back that began with a 5-1 defeat in Ottawa less than 24 hours earlier. After a three-game winning streak at home and in Columbus, the Panthers have now lost two straight on a four-game road trip and were shut out for the first time this season.

How the Penguins built the lead

Pittsburgh, which arrived home on a four-game losing streak after a winless swing through Chicago, Colorado, Vegas and Utah, scored first at 15:19 of the first period. Robertson finished a wrist shot for his fifth goal of the season, with assists from Connor Dewar and Kris Letang.

Hendrix Lapierre doubled the lead at 9:59 of the second period, finishing a rush feed from Ville Koivunen, with Evgeni Malkin picking up the second assist. Malkin then made it 3-0 less than two minutes into the third period, scoring his sixth goal of the season off assists from Lapierre and Spencer Stastney. It was Malkin's third goal in four games, according to The Associated Press, and Florida's team site noted the 40-year-old center now has 23 goals in 52 career games against the Panthers.

With Black pulled for an extra attacker late in regulation, Robertson sealed it with an empty-net goal at 17:34 of the third, his sixth of the season, assisted by Dewar and Blake Lizotte.

A record night for Cooper Black

Black's start was historic regardless of the score. The Panthers list the 25-year-old rookie at 6-foot-9, which made him the tallest goaltender to appear in an NHL regular-season game. Before Thursday, the mark was shared by four goalies listed at 6-foot-7: Ben Bishop, Mikko Koskinen, Ivan Fedotov and Mads Sogaard, according to the club. (An earlier Panthers notebook listed Black at 6-foot-8; the team's game-day story and the AP both used 6-foot-9.)

Black made 17 saves on 20 shots in 57 minutes, 5 seconds, according to the ESPN box score. The AP described him as sharp early while the Panthers, playing their second game in two nights, struggled to find their legs. Black, a Michigan native who signed with Florida as an undrafted free agent in 2024 and agreed to a two-year, two-way contract extension on June 8, was recalled from the AHL's Charlotte Checkers after starter Jacob Markstrom was hit by a puck at practice Monday. Coach Paul Maurice said Markstrom would miss 10 to 14 days with an upper-body injury.

In three AHL starts with Charlotte this season, Black went 2-1-0 with a 2.67 goals-against average and a .919 save percentage, according to the Panthers. He also stopped 14 of 16 shots over two periods in a preseason win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sept. 24, a performance Maurice later pointed to. "That's a big lad, and he moves like an athlete," Maurice said before the debut, according to the team's website.

Silovs and the Penguins shut the door

At the other end, Silovs was only sporadically tested, as the AP put it, but he handled everything. The Florida team site credited him with seven high-danger saves. It was his second shutout of the season and fourth of his NHL career.

Florida outshot Pittsburgh 26-21 and was far more physical, finishing with 32 hits to the Penguins' 10. Garnet Hathaway led the Panthers with six hits, and Bokondji Imama and Brady Tkachuk added five apiece. But the Panthers committed 23 giveaways, hit several posts, according to the club, and lost the faceoff battle 34-28. Sam Reinhart led Florida with six shots on goal, Sam Bennett had four, and Lars Eller won six of 10 draws.

Power play goes cold

Special teams offered no rescue. Florida went 0 for 4 on the power play, including a four-minute advantage that carried from the second period into the third, while Pittsburgh went 0 for 3. That was a sharp turn for a unit that entered the night converting 20.8 percent of its chances, according to the Panthers' pregame notes. Hathaway was assessed four penalty minutes for Florida and Uvis Balinskis two.

Seth Jones led all Florida skaters in ice time at 23:03, and Aaron Ekblad logged 21:25. Defenseman Gustav Forsling played 18:51 and was listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury on ESPN's injury report after the game.

The game drew 14,898 to PPG Paints Arena, according to ESPN.

A heavy back-to-back

The Pittsburgh stop came on the heels of one of the most emotional nights of the young season. On Wednesday in Ottawa, Brady Tkachuk returned to Canadian Tire Centre for the first time since the Senators traded their former captain to Florida on June 21 in a deal built around draft picks. He scored a power-play goal off a feed from his brother, Matthew Tkachuk, but the Senators won 5-1 as fans booed him throughout and chanted at him, according to the AP. Tim Stutzle, Claude Giroux, Shane Pinto, Warren Foegele and Stephen Halliday scored for Ottawa, and tempers flared in the third period, when Bennett fought Ridly Greig.

Coming off that night, the Panthers never established their identity in Pittsburgh. Before the game, Maurice had said of the Ottawa loss: "The defining feature of our game is our forecheck. I don't think we ever got to it." The same problem resurfaced against a Penguins team that had allowed at least five goals in each of its previous four games. Pittsburgh coach Dan Muse shuffled his lines for a spark, and it worked.

The Tkachuk brothers, who had combined for a torrid stretch entering the trip, were held off the scoresheet. Brady Tkachuk had three shots on goal and five hits in 17:22, and Matthew Tkachuk was minus-2 in 18:17. Florida also remains without captain Aleksander Barkov and winger Brad Marchand, both on injured reserve, according to ESPN's injury report.

What's next for the Panthers

Florida continues the road trip Sunday, Oct. 25, at the Chicago Blackhawks, with a 3 p.m. ET start at United Center, and then visits the Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday, Oct. 28. The Panthers return to Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise to host Winnipeg on Friday, Oct. 30, before a home date with the Detroit Red Wings on Nov. 3.

The goaltending picture remains the storyline to watch in South Florida. With Markstrom out, Akira Schmid, who made 25 saves in Ottawa, and Black are carrying the load. Pittsburgh, now 4-6-1, hosts the Nashville Predators on Saturday. The Penguins visit Sunrise on Dec. 11 for the second of their three meetings with Florida this season.