The Pittsburgh Penguins saw their six-game winning streak get snapped after falling to the Calgary Flames 2-1 at PPG Paints Arena on Saturday night.
“They did a good job. They compete hard,” Captain Sidney Crosby said on the Flames’ performance. “Not a lot of time and space. That’s hockey. Games aren’t always going to be up and down. We’ve got to find ways to create different ways. We did at times, but it was difficult for us to sustain that the way we have. So, we’ve got to find ways to be able to do that.”
Before puck drop, Head Coach Dan Muse announced that forward Bryan Rust would not dress as he is day-to-day with a lower-body injury. Tommy Novak took Rust’s spot on the first line, and Kevin Hayes drew back into the lineup to center the third line.
“I mean, as soon as you lose any player, it’s kind of a hard thing,” Anthony Mantha said. “Other guys get chances, and tonight, it didn’t go our way. But it’s not just one player that would have made a difference, necessarily. It’s not easy.”
The Penguins were unable to match the energy and tempo that the Flames had in the first period. Just under three minutes into the game, an offensive turnover led to a Connor Zary breakaway, who was able to get it past Arturs Silovs for the early 1-0 lead.
“I don’t think that we came out like we did lately in the first period,” Mantha said. “We were second on every puck. If there was a battle, we weren’t coming out with it. Lately, obviously, we’ve been doing the opposite of that, and it’s been really good for our team.”
Pittsburgh started to find its legs in the second period and generated more scoring chances against Flames netminder Devin Cooley. After strong puck retrieval in the neutral zone, Evgeni Malkin set up Egor Chinakhov for a one-timer that he lasered in the back of the net to tie the game 1-1.
With the loss to Rust, the team changed the personnel on the power play, with Ben Kindel getting promoted to the top unit. While they came close on multiple chances, the Penguins were unable to score on the two power play opportunities in the second period.
“We had a couple of looks,” Crosby said. “We had some new guys together. Just making sure that we execute. That’s the difference. We had some good looks, and that’s what it comes down to.”
The Flames were able to reclaim their one-goal lead on the first shift of the third period when Matt Coronato’s wrist shot off the rush got past the blocker side of Silovs.
“We got a big goal there in the second (period) and got some momentum off that,” Crosby said. “Unfortunately, we give up one (on) the first shift in the third (period). Games are going to have momentum flows. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to build off that second period momentum.”
As the Penguins continued to apply pressure to the Flames, they thought they tied the game at 2-2 off a play from Novak. After review, the officials deemed it to be a no-goal due to goaltender interference.
“I think it looks bad, but being in the play, I felt like I did my best to try to avoid the goalie and I got pushed into him,” Crosby said on the play. “The explanation had something to do with being in the crease, but you’re allowed in the crease as long as you don’t impede the goalie. I was trying to get through there and got pushed back into him.”
While the chances were there, time ran out as the Penguins could not get one past Cooley, who stopped 27 out of 28 shots.
With the Penguins flying to Boston for their matchup against the Bruins tomorrow in TD Garden at 5:00 PM, the team will look to put this one in the rearview mirror.
“We need to be ready, obviously,” Mantha said. “Refocus, rehydrate, play way better collectively, battle, and just get going.”
“You want to forget quick and you want to get to Boston and try to erase that one, and go back on the winning side,” Kris Letang said.
More from Head Coach Dan Muse on Saturday’s game against the Flames:
Thoughts on the goalie interference call? How much did you consider challenging it?: Every challenge that happens in the league you look at, and they're all a little bit different, but we're always evaluating. Yes, we did consider it, but didn't think that we had a chance. We thought — I felt — like we'd be just going on the penalty kill. They're not easy decisions. But that's what I felt at the time, that this was an extremely low chance of coming back for us based on what I've seen in the league.
The team found their footing in the second period, what went wrong to start the third period?: We got away from what was working in the second. The odd-man rushes, obviously, not just on the goal-against, but then also the follow-up shifts afterwards, where we allowed multiple ... [can't tell what he said in the middle] opportunities. And so now it's just more momentum there on their way. We got away from it. I didn't think we were able to really find it there until maybe a little bit more in the back half of the third period. But we got to play more consistently than we did there in the first period. I didn't look at it as a lack of work. I thought it was a lot of execution, sometimes positional play, just getting off of it. We gave them a lot there at the start of the game, and then we gave them a lot there at the start of the third.
How has Chinakhov been acclimating to the second line with Malkin?: Anytime you're playing with new guys, it takes a little bit of time, but you can see they're working off of each other, looking to find each other there offensively. Guys learning each other's tendencies, and so Egor, it's been good.
What is your assessment of Silovs’ performance?: You saw how many odd-man rushes he had to face. He kept the game close for us. Early in the game, he had to make some huge saves. The last one there, we get pushed — there's a screen, it looked like from my angle, like both a screen there with them and a little bit on us, just because we gave them space. We gave them numbers. They drove it in. They got traffic. Start of the game, it's way too much he had to see in terms of the quality chances that were coming at him, and he battled and kept the game close for us.
