Penguins fall to Stars, winning streak snapped at 10

The Pittsburgh Penguins keep losing players.

And they finally lost a game.

With forwards Brock McGinn and Bryan Rust the latest members of the roster sidelined after testing positive for covid-19, the Penguins dressed an irregular lineup of 11 forwards and seven defensemen Saturday and suffered a come-from-ahead 3-2 loss to the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center.

The defeat snapped a winning streak of 10 games, the fifth-longest streak in franchise history. The Penguins’ last defeat was a 5-2 road loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Dec. 1.

While losing for the first time in over a month was surely an unappetizing sensation, the nature of this loss was particularly bitter as the Stars scored all three of their goals in the final 24 minutes of regulation.

“It’s tough,” Penguins defenseman Marcus Pettersson said to media in Dallas. “It was right there for us. Our start was good. Timely goals by them late. It was right there. It’s really tough. We’ve been playing some good hockey. We’ve got to look at what we can do better and move on.”

The Penguins played well early Saturday claimed a two-goal lead within the first seven minutes of play.

Their first goal came 6:02 into the first period from an unusual source in defenseman Brian Dumoulin. Taking a pass at the left point of the offensive zone, Dumoulin slinked his way up the boards and into the left circle. Lifting his right leg, Dumoulin sniped a far-side wrister past goaltender Jake Oettinger’s glove for his second goal of the season.

It became a 2-0 game only 24 seconds later. Off the left half wall of the offensive zone, Pettersson lifted a wrister towards the cage. Separating from Stars defenseman Ryan Suter, Penguins forward Kasperi Kapanen established position above the blue paint and deflected the puck past Oettinger’s glove for his eighth goal.

“To be honest, I saw it at the very last second,” Kapanen admitted. “I thought (Pettersson) would have shot it earlier, and (Pettersson) pretty much shot it at my stick and it went in. Sometimes, when you go to the net, you get bounces like that.”

The Stars finally got on the scoreboard towards the end of a fiercely contested second period when forward Denis Gurianov scored his sixth goal off a rebound from a blocked pass with a wrister from the right circle.

Things were tied 2-2 at 14:59 of the third period when Stars forward Joe Pavelski converted another rebound above the crease with a forehand shot for his 13th goal.

The winner came 75 seconds later when Stars forward Roope Hintz also scored his 13th goal with a backhander during a frantic goalmouth scramble.

Goaltender Tristan Jarry made 29 saves on 32 shots as his record fell to 17-6-4.

The Penguins fell having lost two of their more important players before the game while also playing for the third time in less than four days (and in three cities).

They refused to cite those factors as reasons for Saturday’s defeat.

“Sometimes, that’s how it goes,” Dumoulin said. “We’ve gotten some bounces that have gone our way. Tonight, those ones, we just missed on. But we were right there. Our effort was tremendous. We’ve been playing a lot of hockey here, especially with this travel. We brought it tonight for most of the game.

“But it’s definitely not a setback. I thought we played hard.”

Note: Without a reserve forward immediately available, the Penguins dressed defenseman Mark Friedman, who played for the first time since Nov. 13. A healthy scratch for the previous 20 games, Friedman had 6:44 of ice time on 14 shifts and recorded two penalty minutes. … Penguins forward Jeff Carter returned to the lineup after missing three games because of covid-19. The veteran had an assist, three shots on four attempts, won 7 of 13 faceoffs (54%) and clocked 21:11 of ice time on 27 shifts. … Penguins defenseman Juuso Riikola was promoted from the taxi squad and served as a healthy scratch.