Musings: Penguins Earn Five of Six Points on Road Trip

The Penguins put forth one of their more complete efforts on Sunday in Dallas, and came away with a point in a 3-2 shootout loss at American Airlines Center.

“Structurally, I think we didn't give them much,” defenseman Kris Letang said. “They had to work really hard to get their chances. So, I think overall, it was a good display of hockey. But at the end of the day, it's frustrating when you're in a position like we were.”

That being said, the Penguins came away with five of six points on this three-game road swing after beating Philadelphia, who had been on an 8-2-2 run; Tampa Bay, who had won seven of eight; and nearly coming out on the right side of the score against Dallas, who is now on a 10-game point streak (8-0-3). The Stars tied it late before winning in a shootout.

“I think we played some really good teams over this road trip, and I think we played some really good games,” said goaltender Tristan Jarry, who is now 9-2-1 on the season. “So, I think just building off of that and seeing what we can take from it.”

The Penguins had some lineup changes going into this one. Evgeni Malkin is day-to-day with an upper-body injury and did not play, while Justin Brazeau (14 games missed, upper body) and Noel Acciari (12 games missed, upper body) both returned to action. That meant Boko Imama got reassigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, and the lines looked like this:

Novak-Crosby-Rust

Mantha-Hayes-Brazeau

McGroarty-Kindel-Koivunen

Dewar-Lizotte-Acciari

Wotherspoon-Karlsson

Shea-Letang

Graves-Dumba

It was good to see Acciari reunited with Blake Lizotte and Connor Dewar, as that line had been terrific together early in the season. They connected for a goal late in the first period, with Acciari making a great play in the neutral zone to get the puck over to Lizotte. He found Dewar in the slot, who chipped it past Jake Oettinger to give Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead.

“He plays the game the right way,” Jarry said of Acciari. “He plays a north-south game, and he blocks shots and he separates the puck from the body a lot. He's one of those players that gets into the hard areas, and I think he prides himself in that game, and I thought he played really well tonight.”

After the Stars evened the score early in the second, Tommy Novak tipped a point shot from Letang to put Pittsburgh back in front.

The coaching staff moved Novak up alongside Sidney Crosby and Bryan Rust, and he certainly took advantage of the opportunity. Novak has said making plays offensively is his strongest asset, and the 28-year-old forward has been doing that as of late, with six points (2G-4A) in his last five games.

“I just tried to work,” Novak said. “Playing with those two, just try to forecheck hard for them and keep plays alive. So, I thought we had some good shifts.”

The Penguins held Dallas to just 10 shots in the first 40 minutes of play, which is particularly impressive considering the caliber of their opponent.

“I thought we had a lot of offensive zone time,” Jarry said. “We were hanging on to pucks. And obviously, when we got into our end and it came down to it, the guys were doing a great job getting in front of pucks, blocking, getting pucks out. And I think that's what a lot of the success for our game was today.”

The Stars were able to pull Oettinger after Pittsburgh’s fourth line iced the puck, and capitalized against some tired Penguins. They got the equalizer with less than two minutes to play. After a back-and-forth overtime where Jarry was terrific, Mikko Rantanen scored the only goal of the shootout in the third round to give Dallas the win.

“We were right there,” Jarry said. “I think they obviously had us hemmed in for quite a while on that six on five goal, it could have went either way. I think we did a good job in overtime. We were trading chance for chance, and that could have went either way. And then obviously in the shootout, it can go either way, too. So, I think it's a hard-earned point, but you obviously always want to come out with two.”

The Penguins return to Pittsburgh for a season-long five-game homestand that begins Tuesday against Anaheim.