Kevin Gorman: Penguins' Tom Kuhnhackl was a post away from being a hero

Tom Kuhnhackl didn't have time to think about becoming the Penguins' hero by scoring the winning goal. He had only a split-second to shoot.

The fourth-line left wing hadn't scored a point in the Stanley Cup playoffs, as secondary scoring served as startling statistic that shadowed the Penguins forwards.

This was a perfect chance to score: In overtime. In Game 6 of a second-round series the Penguins trailed by one game. In a must-win for the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions.

It was the chance of a lifetime for Kuhnhackl: a blind shot from the right dot. When his wrister ricocheted off Washington Capitals defenseman Brooks Orpik's stick, Kuhnhackl didn't see that it hit the far post.

Then the home crowd gasped and groaned, causing Kuhnhackl to look up.

"I heard the reaction of the crowd and saw on the Jumbotron that it hit the post, so that was unfortunate," said Kuhnhackl, who described it as "bitter, disappointing."

"If that goes in, everyone's happier now, and we go back to Washington in the morning."

Tom Kuhnhackl off the post pic.twitter.com/HTF9tLe1Rn

— Ian Oland (@ianoland) May 8, 2018

There will be no Game 7 against the Capitals, the Metropolitan Division rivals whom the Penguins had beaten in the second round on the way to the Cup in 2009, '16 and again last year.

Can you "3elieve" it?

Capitals center Evgeny Kuznetsov left the Penguins and sold-out PPG Paints Arena speechless, scoring on a breakaway at 5 minutes, 27 seconds of overtime for a 2-1 victory to clinch the best-of-seven series, four games to two.

"I don't have the words right now," Kuhnhackl said. "Obviously, I'm really disappointed. It would have been nice to go to a Game 7."

That's playoff hockey.

That the breaks went against the Capitals so often in this rivalry had started to wear on their room. But a talented cast overcame the three-game suspension of winger Tom Wilson, the upper-body injury to center Nicklas Backstrom and a rookie-laden lineup to hand the Penguins their first playoff defeat in 10 series.

The Capitals played a systemic game, crowding Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel and Evgeni Malkin and allowing the Penguins few scoring chances, if any.

That was the problem. The top line carried the even-strength scoring, and the bottom six forwards provided little in the way of offense.

Aside from Kris Letang's tying goal in the second period, the best chance came at 2:54 of overtime. Riley Sheahan found Kuhnhackl in the right circle, and the Penguins were inches away from a win.

"I don't think it gets any closer than that," Kuhnhackl said. "That's how hockey is sometimes."

If there was such a thing as a curse, the Capitals reversed it. If the Penguins had enjoyed puck luck on their way to a three-peat, it ended soon after Kuhnhackl's shot.

"When you get that far, that's one post. An inch the other way, and we're going to Game 7," said Orpik, a pivotal player on the Penguins' 2009 Cup champions. "Sometimes you need those breaks. We didn't get that the last couple years.

"You just keep hearing that about all our sports teams, that we can't by the second round. Mentally, that definitely affects guys. As much as you try to block it out, guys keep hearing that. If we had lost tonight, that's all we would have heard for the next 48 hours."

Instead, they heard the clank of puck off the post.

Capitals coach Barry Trotz talked about ending the playoff suffering and cleaning the skeletons out of the closet but claimed supreme confidence after Kuhnhackl's shot missed the net.

"You can't print what I'm going to say what was in the back of my head: Holy what?" Trotz said. "Your heart drops a little bit. When he hit the post, I was going, 'We got this.' I just knew we had it."

Kuhnhackl couldn't find the words, either. He just kept saying how "disappointing" it was to miss that shot and to lose that game.

"That's the word that probably hits it the best," Kuhnhackl said. "We were so close. It could have went either way."

This was a new feeling for the Penguins to absorb, a season ending not with another Cup celebration but a handshake line on their home ice, offering congratulations to the Capitals, of all the NHL's teams.

A game and a season that ended with Kuhnhackl reliving a blind shot that came so close, a chance to be a hero but one that hit the post.

"Seriously," Kuhnhackl said. "That would've been nice to get that one off the back and help the team out, but that's how hockey is sometimes."

The Penguins wanted it to go one way, but it went the other, with a bounce and an series-ending loss that was simply unbelievable.

Kevin Gorman is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at kgorman@tribweb.com or via Twitter @KGorman_Trib.