Back on March 1, the Penguins pasted Vegas, 5-0, in one of our more impressive victories of the season.
Last night, the Golden Knights returned the favor at T-Mobile Arena. At their opportunistic, sharpshooting best, our hosts pounced on our mistakes and scored six goals on 17 shots to win going away by a 6-2 count.
Although the Pens never led, the game was reasonably competitive through 40 minutes.
After the Golden Knights snagged a two-goal lead on tallies by Colton Sissons and Pavel Dorofeyev, Rickard Rakell struck from the doorstep for the Pens at 8:26 of the second period.
In an unfortunate harbinger of things to come, Mitch Marner countered just 54 seconds later to make it 3-1, Vegas.
Again the Pens punched back, with rookie Ben Kindel directing home a sharp, cross-ice feed from Anthony Mantha at 16:22. His 16th goal of the campaign.
Sadly for the black-and-gold, there would be no miraculous comebacks on this night. Vegas methodically pulled away in the third period on goals by Dorofeyev (4:35), Jack Eichel (6:20) and an empty-netter by Brayden McNabb (19:01).
Puckpourri
Among the few positives, defenseman Ryan Shea registered a two-assist game to go with a plus-1. Still can’t get over how much faster he appears and how improved he is this season (plus-25).
Bryan Rust (an assist) reached the 50-point plateau for the third season in a row and fifth time in his career. Not bad for a former third-round pick originally pegged as a bottom-six energy guy. So glad we didn’t trade Rusty.
Needless to say, it wasn’t Arturs Šilovs finest hour in goal. In stark contrast to the 22-save shutout he posted the last time the two teams met, Šilovs yielded five goals on only 16 shots for a ghastly .688 save percentage.
Following an extended string of excellence, the 24-year-old netminder has yielded 13 goals on 69 shots over his last three starts. An .812 save percentage.
As the old saying goes, no man is an island and Šilovs certainly had “help” in the goal-yielding department. Ilya Solovyov (minus-2) had a particularly rough game, with two glaring mistakes leading directly to goals for the Golden Knights. Normally reliable, Parker Wotherspoon (minus-2) handled the puck as if it were a live grenade.
In a rare poor showing, our plucky fourth line of Blake Lizotte (minus-3), Connor Dewar (minus-3) and Noel Acciari (minus-2) was a combined minus-8. Erik Karlsson, superb of late, likewise finished a minus-3, as did Tommy Novak.
The Pens’ team defense has suddenly and dramatically become frayed around the edges, allowing a whopping 22 non-shootout goals over our last five games. A result of the team pressing to create offense in the wake of the dual absences of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin?
Perhaps.
Speaking of, we’re now 3-3-3 in nine games without Sid and 7-6-6 without Geno, including 1-1-2 during his current suspension.
It goes without saying we need the big boys back, post haste.
Standings-wise, it’s become mission critical as five Eastern teams, including the Pens, Islanders and Red Wings (79 points each), Bruins (78 points) and Blue Jackets (77 points) are clustered within two points of each other.
One of these teams isn’t going to make the postseason. Given the way we’re trending…
…up next, a visit to the Mormon state to take on the Mammoth on Saturday night.
Grave(s) Assignment
The Pens sent Ryan Graves to the Baby Pens on a conditioning assignment. Alexander Alexeyev has been recalled to take his spot as the spare defenseman. The hulking ex-Cap (6’4” 213) has three goals and seven points in 29 games at Wilkes, to go with a plus-4.
