Pittsburgh’s ‘March of the Penguins’ towards a hopeful return to the Stanley Cup playoffs included a pair of dramatic comebacks from multi-goal deficits earlier this week. On Thursday night at T-Mobile Arena, the Penguins couldn’t muster up the mojo to create more late-game magic, falling to the Vegas Golden Knights by a 6-2 margin.
Playing the second game of a season-long five-game road swing, the Penguins struggled all evening with turnovers. Those miscues became costly with Vegas’ high-powered offensive guns ready to pounce on seemingly each misstep. Early third-period goals by Pavel Dorofeyev and Jack Eichel turned a 3-2 advantage for Vegas into what became an insurmountable 5-2 lead that evaporated all hopes the Pens had of staging another late rally.
“I think way too many turnovers at both blue lines,” said defenseman Ryan Shea, who assisted on both Pittsburgh goals. “I think that it was especially more (troublesome) at the offensive blue lines. We kind of just shot ourselves in the foot.”
Disappointingly for the Penguins, the turnovers were an issue in all three periods. But coming off a strong second period that saw Pittsburgh turn 2-0 and 3-1 Vegas leads to just a 3-2 Pens’ disadvantage heading into the final frame, the Pens appeared to have clawed their way back in the game. But that momentum evaporated when Pittsburgh came out flat in the third period. Considering the way the final frames had unfolded the previous two contests, this third period performance was a surprise.
“We came out at the third period flat,” Shea said. “The second period is kind of the template we need to play with. You could see we were on them. That’s what is going to happen, we are going to get opportunities. Then in the third, we just came out flat.”
While the Penguins came out with a decent start to the game, firing five of the first six shots in a tightly-contested opening stanza, the second period was without question their best. Pittsburgh outshot Vegas, 8-6, and scored both of its goals, twice inspiring hope that more late-game dramatics might be forthcoming.
Trailing 2-0, the Egor Chinakhov-Rickard Rakell-Bryan Rust unit combined with defenders Shea and Kris Letang on an excellent puck possession shift that culminated with Rust finding Rakell for a one-handed tip in to put the Penguins on the board.
Less than a minute later, the Golden Knights re-opened their two-goal advantage when another Pittsburgh turnover ended with Mitch Marner taking a give-and-go pass from Dorofeyev to find himself one-on-one with goalie Arturs Silovs. Marner turned the puck from his backhand to his forehand while sliding on his belling, pushing the puck into an empty cage for a gorgeous goal, and a 3-1 Vegas lead.
The Penguins kept pressing after the Marner goal. In the later stages of the period, Shea made a great transition pass to the blade of a streaking Anthony Mantha down the left side. Mantha shielded the puck from Braeden Bowman, then found Ben Kindel back door for the rookie’s 16th goal of the season. With the assist, Mantha established a new career high with his 49th point. Kindel’s goal would be as close the Penguins would get.
Dorofeyev’s second tally of night on a one-timer from the middle of the slot and Eichel’s laser from between the circles summed up the numerous high-danger opportunities the Penguins gave up throughout the evening.
“You look at the goals, I know I’ve used this term before, they were loud,” said head coach Dan Muse. “I think the biggest takeaway from the defensive side is we have to cut down on those big ones.”
The Penguins won’t have to wait long for a chance to cut down on those big ones. After a day off on Friday, Pittsburgh treks along on its five-game road swing against five teams all currently occupying playoff positions. Next up will be the Utah Mammoth on Saturday night at 9:00 PM ET. Things won’t get easier, as Utah is fighting to maintain its position inside the Western Conference playoff picture, aiming to give its fans in Salt Lake City their first NHL Stanley Cup playoff exposure.
