Stars Align, Bop Penguins, 6-3 (with a Little Help from Their Friends)

Excuse me ahead of time for the lack of pithy preamble. This is one of those times when life got in the way, so my recap will be a tad bare bones.

The Penguins lost, 6-3, yesterday to the Stars at PPG Paints Arena.

Anthony Mantha staked us to a 1-0 lead at 2:12 of the first period on a deflection of an Erik Karlsson drive from center point.

The Stars knotted the score at 2:10 of the second period on a tally by Justin Hryckowian off a goal-mouth scramble. At our bounce-back best, we regained the lead just 48 seconds later on a Karlsson snipe from the high slot.

Then the Pens self-destructed…with a little help from their friends. We yielded a pair of power-play goals to Stars studs Jason Robertson (7:12) and Mikko Rantanen (10:12) to relinquish the lead.

The worm-turner occurred 86 seconds later. Stars defenseman Lian Bichsel wrenched the stick out of Karlsson’s hands, in full view of a referee stationed in the corner, before circling back to center point and beating Stuart Skinner with a long-range blast.

EK65 was beside himself over the non-call, but such is life for the black-and-gold these days.

We managed to claw back to within a goal at 8:54 of the final period, thanks to a masterful bit of work by who else but Karlsson. After stealing the puck from Hryckowian along the wall, the silky Swede played keep away at the right point to allow the play time to set up. Then he fed countryman Elmer Söderblom in the right circle. The towering winger ripped off a shot from the top of the right circle that deflected off Noel Acciari’s stick and past Jake Oettinger.

Coach Dan Muse opted to go to the whip early, pulling Skinner with just over three minutes to play. Big Stu had barely exited the net when Mavrik Bourque split the uprights from 170 feet away. Bourque would pot a second-empty netter at 18:50 to make the final count 6-3.

Puckpourri

Beginning with a call on Mantha for high-sticking ex-Pen Michael Bunting midway through the first period, the Pens were whistled for five-straight infractions, culminating in the two power-play goals by the Stars. I’m not saying those penalties weren’t deserved, but, jeez Louise, it would be nice to have a call go our way once in a while. Sometimes it feels like we’re playing 5-on-7.

I’ve seen the impact of Blake Lizotte’s absence minimized by commenters on other sites. But the naked truth is, the Pens are killing penalties at a positively porous 63.6 percent clip during Lizzo’s current seven-game absence. Even worse over the last five games (53.3 percent).

For the record, we’re 31-12-12 with Lizotte, 5-9-4 without him. By comparison, we’re 5-4-3 without Sidney Crosby and 9-8-4 without Evgeni Malkin, both of whom sat out yesterday.

Rutger McGroarty took Sid’s place, slotting on the revived Kid Line with Ben Kindel and Ville Koivunen. The trio was generally effective (71.43 Corsi, 46.41 xGF%) if not productive, an all-too-familiar refrain. Avery Hayes and Joona Koppanen were returned to the Baby Pens.

I’ve run out of superlatives to describe Karlsson’s play. The preternatural defender has an otherworldly nine goals and 25 points in his last 16 games, including eight multiple-point outings in his past 11 contests!

Erik the Great’s now eighth in the league among defensemen in scoring with 60 points (13+47). He’s in a groove like I’ve rarely if ever witnessed. The games are just flowing through him.

Bryan Rust’s career-best, nine-game points streak was snapped. Justin Brazeau is pointless in his last seven games and has a lone assist in his past 10. Following his hot start, Big Braz has only four goals in 31 games in the New Year.

The Pens managed just 12 shots on goal against our stingy foe to the Stars’ 26. Remarkably, we had a 10-8 edge in high-danger chances.

Muse broke out of his rotation system and opted to give Skinner a second-straight start, with mixed results.

Coupled with the Isles’ 5-2 victory over the Panthers, the loss dropped the Pens (36-21-16, 88 points) into third place in the Metro. It could’ve been a whole lot worse. The CBJ, Sens and Red Wings lost as well.

Up next, critical back-to-back matchups against the Isles on Long Island on Monday and the Red Wings at home on Tuesday that may very well determine our playoff fate.

Needless to say, it’s imperative we rise to the occasion.