Injury-plagued Penguins, now minus Malkin, lose to Ducks in shootout after last-second goal

A goal scored at the last second of regulation — literally — sent the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 4-3 shootout loss against the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday night.

Ducks rookie forward Beckett Sennecke was credited his 10th goal of the season at the 19:59 mark of the third period while short-handed to force overtime.

With goalie Ville Husso pulled for an extra attacker, the Ducks stormed the Penguins’ cage, and defenseman Erik Karlsson appeared to inadvertently push the puck into his cage with 0.2 seconds left in regulation.

Ducks forward Leo Carlsson scored the lone goal in the shootout.

Rookie goaltender Arturs Silovs’ record slipped to 4-4-5 after he unofficially stopped 25 of 28 shots in regulation and overtime, then allowed one goal on two attempts in the shootout.

Penguins forwards Tommy Novak, Sidney Crosby and Ville Koivunen were unable to convert on their shootout attempts.

The Penguins came into Tuesday’s game facing health-related absences in seemingly every corner of their lineup.

Superstar forward Evgeni Malkin and sturdy fourth-liner Blake Lizotte landed on injured reserve earlier in the day with undisclosed maladies.

Tuesday’s game was the second consecutive contest Malkin has missed following a scratch in Sunday’s 3-2 road shootout loss to the Dallas Stars.

At 39, Malkin is enjoying a resurgent winter in his 20-year NHL career. He entered the day second on the team with 29 points (eight goals, 21 assists) in 26 games.

“It’s not easy to replace (Malkin),” Crosby said after Tuesday’s morning skate. “Pretty much can’t. I think it’s just by committee. He’s been playing great hockey for us, so we’re all going to have to step up and get some points here and play some good hockey until he’s back.”

A surprising source opened the scoring when Penguins forward Noel Acciari accrued his first goal of the season 9:49 into regulation.

Lining up for a draw in Anaheim’s left circle, Danton Heinen, who replaced Lizotte on the fourth line, was waved away by linesman Dan Kelly and replaced by Acciari, who muscled Carlsson off the puck. Penguins forward Connor Dewar was lined up on the upper left hashmark and kicked the puck with his right skate back to Acciari, who hesitated for a moment before shuffling a forehand shot through the legs of Ducks defenseman Pavel Mintyukov and to the far side by Husso’s glove.

Duck defenseman Jackson LaCombe tied the score with his fourth goal at 5:17 of the second period with a wrister off a rush up the Penguins’ left wing boards.

The visitors took their first lead of the contest at 14:10 of the second frame via forward Troy Terry’s eighth goal off a defensive zone turnover by Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson.

Novak scored his fifth goal at the last minute — almost literally — to tie the score at 19:40 of the second.

Off a furious cycle on Anaheim’s end boards, Penguins defenseman Ryan Shea emerged with the puck behind the cage and slid a pass to the right point, where Karlsson golfed a one-timer. Husso fought off the puck with his blocker but surrendered a rebound to the right of the crease. Novak fired a wrister off the first rebound and was denied by Husso, then got creative and flicked a second rebound off of Husso’s backside and into the cage. Novak extended a scoring streak to four games.

The Penguins reclaimed the lead at 16:05 of the third period when forward Anthony Mantha collected his ninth goal with a man advantage.

Stepping in for Malkin on the top power-play unit, Mantha took a pass low to the right of the cage. He tried to force another pass through the crease to Bryan Rust, but Husso broke up the sequence with his stick, only to deflect it into his own cage.