Penguins Blow Lead, Suffer Crushing Groundhog Day OT Loss to Islanders

You can blame this one on me.

I had the lead-in to my Penguins-Islanders game summary all thought out. I was even going to include a photo of the Kool-Aid Man to reference the fact that I was starting to believe in this team (aka drink the Kool-Aid). I even waited till the end of the second period to commit it to paper, just to be sure we weren’t going to blow our lead.

Then I wrote it down and we blew our lead. The PenguinPoop curse is alive and well.

The old hockey adage that a 3-1 lead is the most difficult to protect proved painfully prescient last night. After skating circles around the visiting Islanders for two periods, we let the lead slip away late in regulation and bowed, 4-3, in overtime on Brock Nelson’s breakaway goal.

To allow this game to slip through our collective fingers is…well…I just can’t come up with adjectives to describe this latest fiasco of a loss. Let’s just say you can’t count on anything with this team. Especially when it comes to protecting a lead.

Once upon a time, all was well…even jolly…at the Paint Can. After yielding an early power-play goal to Anders Lee, the Pens came storming back. Jake Guentzel sliced through the slot to deflect a Marcus Pettersson lob past Ilya Sorokin to knot the score at 11:07.

Heck, we even turned the tables for a change by scoring a late goal at 18:24 to grab the lead. After relieving Adam Pelech of the puck, Evgeni Malkin carried the biscuit behind the Isles’ cage before slipping a pretty pass to Jason Zucker between the circles. Our little ball of fire ripped it home for his 22^nd goal of the season.

We padded our lead midway through the second period on a disputed (and rare) tally by mucker Josh Archibald. The plucky winger appeared to redirect a long-range blast by Brian Dumoulin past Sorokin with his glove. The Isles protested, but for once lady luck (and the Kool-Aid Man) seemed to smile on our boys and the goal stood.

Alas, fate would soon execute a dramatic U-turn.

Play-by-play man Steve Mears noted that the Islanders had outscored us, 6-0, in previous third periods. A trend that, unfortunately, was soon to continue.

BAD GOAL ALERT.

Sure enough, with 5:29 left in regulation, Drew O’Connor overskated an outlet pass in the neutral zone. Hudson Fasching pounced on the loose puck and worked a give-and-go with Casey Cizikas. Fighting through a check by Mikael Granlund, the nondescript winger slipped the puck past Tristan Jarry at the left post.

A bad goal…actually a horrible goal…to allow. One that breathed new life into our foes.

As much as I wanted to believe we’d regroup and close it out, well… Shortly after Jeff Carter advanced the puck toward the empty Isles net with a high stick, a horse named Lee shrugged off the checking efforts of Dumoulin and Kris Letang and struck on a deflection through Jarry’s wickets. In the process, flushing two excellent periods of hockey down the commode.

Intent on regaining our mojo and securing the second point, we threw caution to the wind and went full-throttle offense in overtime. We threw everything but the proverbial kitchen sink at Sorokin, but true to form he blunted Grade-A chances by Jeff Petry and Bryan Rust.

Just past the two-minute mark, Rickard Rakell skated behind the Isles’ net and tried to feed countryman and pal Pettersson, who jumped into the left circle. Sorokin somehow nudged the would-be pass to Nelson, who streaked up the ice and torched Jarry stick side for the game winner.

Puckpourri

Thanks to a strong third period, the Isles held a 68-60 edge in shot attempts. The Pens held the high ground in shots on goal (36-28), scoring chances (32-20) and high-danger chances (16-9).

Truly a shame we lost. I thought so many of our guys played well. Malkin, in particular, was absolutely dominant…the most forceful he’s been since before his knee injury a couple of seasons back. Likewise, Petry had a mammoth game with two assists and 11 hits, although he did commit three giveaways.

With seven goals in his past six games, Zucker’s positively on fire.

Although we allowed a power-play goal, I thought our PK looked much improved with Granlund and Nick Bonino. “Bones,” in particular, excels at clearing the puck.

Granlund and Rust returned to the lineup. Alex Nylander, who played so well in his debut, was returned to the Baby Pens. Dmitry Kulikov bumped Pierre-Olivier Joseph to the press box.

On the flip side, Jarry appeared shaky. On the Fasching goal, he was slow to react and move to the post. To my eye, he was also playing deep in his net and struggled to regain his skates after going down, particularly as the game progressed. Not to make excuses, but I wonder if he’s 100 percent?

Initially, I thought Pettersson’s overtime pinch was brutally ill-conceived. But if Sorokin doesn’t get a stick on the puck and “The Dragon” scores, he’s a hero. As they say, hockey’s a game of inches.

The past three games against the Islanders were a lot like the comedy classic Groundhog Day. We thoroughly outplayed them early, grabbed leads…and couldn’t hold ‘em. We did everything but win.

Lee (seven) and Nelson (five) combined for a dozen goals against us this season. Large humans both, they simply overpowered our defense.

On Tap

The Pens (32-22-10, 74 points) host the Flyers (24-30-11, 59 points) and the Rangers (36-19-9, 81 points) in weekend Metro matinee matchups.

We trail the Isles by two points in the race for the top Eastern Conference wild-card spot.