GAME RECAP: Penguins 6, Oilers 2

EDMONTON, AB – The Pittsburgh Penguins scored three times during a 37-second span in the first three minutes of regulation and never looked back on their way to securing their third straight victory on Thursday night in a 6-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place.

Anthony Mantha scored twice on Tristan Jarry before captain Sidney Crosby added another tally only 15 seconds later to complete a three-goal stretch in 37 seconds for the Penguins early in the first period, setting the tone for a complete victory over the Oilers to secure the sweep of an Alberta back-to-back.

"You always want to beat your old team," Jarry said. "It doesn't matter who or when, but it always does mean a little extra. I think we obviously have to change some things. We have to get some better in some areas, and I think if I could keep one or two of those out early, it gives us a better chance."

Despite Jake Walman scoring shorthanded 5:14 into the second period to extend his point streak to four games, the Penguins scored two more times in the frame through Rickard Rakell and Evgeni Malkin to increase the lead to 5-1 before Yegor Chinakov and Matt Savoie traded goals in the final frame.

Walman has one goal and three assists over his four-game point streak, while Savoie now has goals in back-to-back games after registering his ninth goal of the campaign in the defeat.

The Oilers fall to 25-19-8 on the season and will be back in action on Monday against the Washington Capitals to continue their eight-game homestand.

"There are 30 games left," McDavid said. "We're coming down the home stretch here. There are no February games this year, so it's like we're at the end of February. The sense of urgency's got to go up, and our group's playoff race is real tight, and we gotta find a way to get points here, especially at home."

FIRST PERIOD

It certainly wasn't the ideal start to this one, and it hasn't been a strong start to Edmonton's season-longest homestand.

"Obviously, not the start to the homestand we were looking for, so we gotta have a good one on Saturday," McDavid said.

Just 37 seconds is what it took the Penguins to score three times in the game's opening three minutes, catching the Oilers off guard in a forgetful first period at Rogers Place on Thursday off a fast pair of goals from Anthony Mantha and a terrific deflection from Sidney Crosby to fall behind 3-0 early in this one.

Mantha scored twice in a 22-second span to make it 2-0 for the Penguins, but in reality, it was a painful few minutes for the Oilers that saw them take a timeout to debate a coach's challenge on Pittsburgh's first goal before they found themselves giving two more quick ones as the hole got deeper.

"It's tough," Jarry said. "You just want to keep going mentally. You have to be strong, and you just have to keep going with the next save. There's always a chance. Teams give up goals here and there, and I think we have to keep pushing until the very end. It doesn't matter the score."

The Penguins opened the scoring 2:20 into the first period on a back-door redirection from Mantha after he narrowly avoided going offside at the blueline before converting Justin Brazeau's feed to the back post over the right pad of Tristan Jarry.

"It was probably an eighth of an inch," Knoblauch said. "It might have been offside, but the frame that we had couldn't confirm that. It was very close."

Head Coach Kris Knoblauch took his team's timeout to look at a potential offside against Mantha on the zone entry, but after they elected not to challenge, play resumed before the Penguins quickly doubled their lead when Mantha was sprung on a breakaway to slide home his second 22 seconds later.

Former Oilers defenceman Brett Kulak was plus-2 with an assist in the first three minutes of his first trip back to Rogers Place with the Penguins.

"Obviously, not a great start," McDavid said. "Playing catch-up is tough in this league, and you look pretty bad when you're doing it, so that wasn't our best right from the start."

The lead then quickly became 3-0 for the Penguins only 15 seconds later on a sublime redirection from Sidney Crosby, chopping at defenceman Ryan Shea's low shot-pass from the slot to change the puck's trajectory and put it over the glove of Jarry before the contest was three minutes old.

"The first shift we had in the offensive zone, we had a couple of shot attempts and then made some mistakes," Knoblauch said. "We lost coverage on the first one. They were set up behind the net and their guy beat ours up the ice to create an odd-man rush. I remember the third goal. Just a high tip not having coverage there. But obviously, giving up three goals in the first five minutes is not good. We weren't ready."

The Oilers were lucky not to be down by four near the 13-minute mark when Blake Lizotte rattled the crossbar on a three-on-one before they were able to earn some chances late in the frame, but lacked the finishing touch they needed for a quick goal to get themselves back in the gmae before the intermission.

With the Oilers on the penalty kill, McDavid drew a slash from Crosby on a shorthanded odd-man rush to even things up, before Mattias Ekholm was guilty of holding onto the puck too long on a three-on-one during Edmonton's follow-up power play to let the their great chance to get on the board go uncapitalized.

Later on their power play, McDavid made a terrific toe drag inside the left circle to dangle one Penguins' defenceman, but his backhand towards the blue paint didn't result in Zach Hyman batting the puck past Arturs Silovs.

Edmonton's best chance before the intermission came on a breakaway for Hyman, whose backhand attempt struck the post and fell loose on the goal line, but Draisaitl wasn't able to get to the rebound in time before it was pushed back under Silovs to cover it up.

SECOND PERIOD

Despite a shorthanded tally from Jake Walman to give the Oilers something to work with, it was more of the same from the Penguins later in the frame, building their lead to 5-1 after 40 minutes off goals from Rikard Rakell and Evgeni Malkin to put themselves on course for a back-to-back sweep in Alberta.

Walman made it 3-1 off an odd-man break for the Oilers 5:19 into the second period by ripping Mattias Janmark's drop pass over the left pad of Silovs, scoring his first goal since registering a pair of tallies on Nov. 10 in a 5-4 win over the Blue Jackets and increasing his point streak to four games (1G, 3A).

The 29-year-old became the second Oilers defenceman in the past 20 years to score multiple shorthanded goals in a single season – joining Darnell Nurse in the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons – and is also the 12th Oilers defenceman to score two shorthanded goals in a single season.

The Penguins were playing the second of a back-to-back after beating the Flames 4-1 in Calgary, led by Stuart Skinner's 19 saves in the victory, and the former Oilers netminder would've liked what he'd seen from his new team after they continued to own the play in their second game in 48 hours.

Even after the Oilers got on the board, Pittsburgh continued to press Edmonton – even forcing Connor McDavid into mistakes like the one he made in his own zone by getting pick-pocketed by Tommy Novak and needing Tristan Jarry to bail him out with a terrific glove save.

McDavid admitted that the urgency wasn't there for the Oilers on Thursday, starting with him believing that his last two performances weren't his best.

"Well, it starts with me," he said. "I think the last two, probably not my best. I could've been better. When I'm better, usually the whole group responds, so that starts there. Even back to practice, I thought our puck play's been really bad. Not really connecting on passes. So when you're playing that way, it looks slow and clunky, and I thought we've looked that way for the last two games."

Despite Jarry's save, the Penguins made it 4-1 on a delayed penalty at 7:31 of the frame on a wrist shot through a screen from Rickard Rakell.

Evan Bouchard then struck the crossbar for the Oilers before Evgeni Malkin scored 1:58 after the Penguins' fourth goal by poking the puck off McDavid's stick at his own team's blueline and skating in on a breakaway that he slid under Jarry for the 5-1 advantage.

Thursday marked only the second time this month (Jan. 3 vs. PHI) that the Oilers were charged with more than three goals against in regulation.

"Very disappointing, especially for Jarry," Knoblauch said. "How many breakaways, two-on-ones and grade-A scoring chances? You look at the shots against and the type of chances that we gave up, they were not easy for our goaltender.

"It kind of reminded me of the way we were playing at the beginning of the year. We would outshoot teams, we'd spend more time in the offensive zone, but the chances we were giving up were pretty inexcusable. I think our team is very confident we'll be able to rebound after poor games, and the other night we played 40 terrible minutes and still put in a strong third period. But it wasn't enough to come from behind."

THIRD PERIOD

Matt Savoie's consolation tally was all the Oilers could salvage from the final period of a forgettable night versus Crosby & the Penguins.

"I think everyone looks at our team as some high-offensive team because we have some good players," McDavid said. "But the recipe for our group has been a sound defence. That's the way we've had success, and obviously, we got away from that tonight."

Less than three minutes into the frame, Yegor Chinakov made it 6-1 for the Penguins with a wicked wrist shot that hit the bar inside Edmonton's net behind Jarry and came out in a flash, but the referee was quick to spot it and motioned for the goal.

There was still time for Savoie to record a consolation tally for goals in back-to-back games and his ninth goal of the season, snapping it past the glove of Silovs from the left circle with 6:03 left in regulation, but it was his side's last meaningful action in a 6-2 defeat that marked their second consecutive loss.