Penguins Run Into Red-Hot Goalie in Shutout Loss to Flames

WHAT HAPPENED

OVERALL ASSESSMENT

The Penguins knew they had a big challenge in the red-hot Calgary Flames. They're a confident, well-balanced team that is playing extremely well, and it showed in their start, as they gained a 7-1 edge in shots in the opening minutes of play.
But the Penguins recovered and went on to generate a ton of scoring chances in the contest -they just happened to go up against a goaltender who stood on his head.
Markstrom entered this contest having surrendered just one total goal in his past two starts, including a shutout on Oct. 21 against Detroit, and got another blanking tonight. And it's one he really had to earn, as the 31-year-old netminder was forced to come up with some huge stops on quality chances from the Penguins.
"He was really good tonight," head coach Mike Sullivan said. "You have to give him credit. He made a lot of big saves. We had a number of high-quality chances throughout the course of the game that we couldn't convert."
"I think their goalie definitely made a huge difference in the game," defenseman Mike Matheson said. "There were a few that could have made it 1-1, there were a few that could have made it 2-1. That's a totally different game."
It was the second straight contest the Penguins have faced a hot goalie after going up against the league's best in Andrei Vasilevskiy in Tuesday's 5-1 loss to Tampa Bay, and neither game was as lopsided as the score made them look. Tonight the Penguins trailed just 1-0 after two periods, but the Flames were able to break the game open in the third as Pittsburgh started to press.
"I said to the guys after the game, I just thought we don't have to open the game up, we still have a lot of time left," Sullivan said. "For me, that's one of the lessons we can take out of this one, just making sure that we stick to the game plan and just stay the course. We got to play the right way. We can't turn into a high-risk hockey team, and I thought we did that a little too early in the third."
While the Penguins have done an absolutely incredible job in the absence of so much star power and offensive production with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jeff Carter, Bryan Rust and Kris Letang all sidelined for a third straight game, it's a night like this where you wish you had one of those game breakers/difference makers in the lineup.
Especially with players like Jake Guentzel being a little snakebitten right now, as he hasn't scored in his season debut on Oct. 14 at Florida. He said afterward that he's got to be better and try to help as much as he can in terms of production.
"When you're missing these guys, you need to do a little extra," forward Dominik Simon said. "But still, you can't replace them. You just have to play hard as a group. Definitely we're missing these guys a lot, for sure, but can't blame the loss on that. I think we had a lot of chances. They didn't go in."
Particularly on the power play, as the Penguins got some golden opportunities there. Right after Gaudreau opened the scoring at the 7:22 mark of the first period, Pittsburgh was awarded one. And then just 19 seconds in, Jason Zucker bled from a high stick, which meant they had a 5-on-3 advantage for 1:41, plus 2:19 on a 5-on-4 advantage after that.
"Would definitely like to get one or two there for sure," Guentzel said. "I think we just got to stick with working on the little things, just make sure we're moving and not stagnant out there and that we shoot the puck and create rebounds from that way."