The Penguins’ top line was outstanding Tuesday in their meeting against the Florida Panthers.

All three players – Jake Guentzel, Sidney Crosby and Bryan Rust – scored goals.

It was a dominant showing by one of the top top lines in the NHL.

As for the Panthers, they could only get one goal from their first line.

And one from their third line.

And one from their top power-play unit.

Also, one from their top defensive pairing.

A balanced attack by the Panthers led them to a comfortable 4-3 victory at PPG Paints Arena on Tuesday. As for the Penguins, they stumbled once again thanks in part to a dearth of scoring from any components of their roster that inhabit the bottom three quarters of their line combinations.

“I don’t know the key there,” said Penguins fourth-liner Brock McGinn. “But I think we’ve got to do a better job at rolling our lines and everybody putting in the work and following the systems. When we do that, we can hem teams in the offensive zone and tie them in. That’s when we get our opportunities to go out there and score. We just all have to be committed to go out there and do it.”

The Panthers certainly met the required commitments in the first period and raced out to a 2-0 lead.

Third-liner Sam Reinhart put his team up, 1-0, 12:43 into regulation. Working the puck up ice from the neutral zone, Reinhart gained the offensive blue line, dashed through a handful of defenders in Penguins jerseys and attacked the net.

Backchecking Penguins forward Kasperi Kapanen momentarily broke up the sequence, but as the puck hopped up in the air, Reinhart maintained focused and swatted a shot that glanced off the left side of goaltender Tristan Jarry’s mask before finding the cage. The Penguins protested, claiming Reinhart struck the puck with a high stick, but the score stood as Reinhart’s 19th goal of the season. There were no assists.

It became a 2-0 game less than two minutes later at the 14:38 mark. Corralling a loose puck at the center point of the offensive zone, Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad snapped a wrister through traffic that beat Jarry’s blocker for his 15th goal. Forwards Aleksander Barkov and Carter Verhaeghe netted assists.

“There’s no real excuse for it,” Crosby said of the early deficit. “We’re putting ourselves in a tough spot going down against a really good hockey team like that. There’s no great explanation. We’ve just got to be better, especially from the start, to give ourselves a chance. We’ve battled back a lot of times in the second period, have (had) good second periods. It’s still tough. You’re putting yourself in a tough spot having to do that consistently.”

Good fortune supplied the Penguins with their first goal 3:07 into the second period.

During something of a disjointed line change, defenseman Brian Dumoulin settled a puck at the left point of the offensive zone and slid a cross-ice pass to defenseman Marcus Pettersson in front of the home bench. From there, Pettersson fed the puck to the slot for Rust, who looped around to the right circle and forced a pass to the front of the crease for forward Zach Aston-Reese. Ekblad broke up the sequence but inadvertently deflected the puck into his own cage past goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky’s blocker. Rust was credited with his 19th goal of the season off assists from Pettersson and Dumoulin.

Sound precision supplied the Penguins with their second goal nine seconds later. Lined up for a faceoff in the Panthers’ left circle, Crosby cleanly beat Barkov on the draw and moved the puck directly behind him, where Guentzel immediately chopped a one-timer over Bobrovsky’s right shoulder on the near side for his 28th goal. Crosby tallied the lone assist.

A power-play score put the Panthers back up, 3-2, at 7:02 of the middle frame. From the right circle of the offensive zone, Barkov ripped a heavy wrister on net that Jarry booted to the opposite circle. Settling the puck, Panthers forward Jonathan Huberdeau smoothly distributed it to the slot for linemate Anthony Duclair, who ripped a wrister past the right leg of defenseman Kris Letang and Jarry’s right skate for his 23rd goal. Assists went to Huberdeau and Barkov.

Verhaeghe’s 18th goal put his team up by two at 11:11 of the third period. With the Penguins being aggressive in the offensive zone late in hopes of generating offense, Verhaeghe emerged with the puck at his own blue line and generated a two-on-one rush with Barkov against Pettersson. As Verhaeghe gained the Penguins’ zone, Pettersson took away the pass and yielded a shot to Verhaeghe, who scorched Jarry’s blocker on the near side with a wrister. Forward Maxime Mamin had the only assist.

The Penguins clawed their way back within one goal at 17:51 of the final period. With Jarry pulled for an extra attacker, Rust beat Panthers defenseman MacKenzie Weegar to puck dumped into the Panthers’ right corner. That allowed forward Jeff Carter, as a supporting forechecker, to claim possession then zip a cross-ice pass from to the left of the cage for Crosby, who tapped in 19th goal. Assists went to Carter and Rust.

Any notions of a comeback never materialized out as the Penguins could only generate one shot for the remainder of the contest.

Jarry’s record fell to 27-12-6 as he made 25 saves on 29 shots.

The Panthers, leaders of the Atlantic Division, coasted to a third consecutive win by finding offense from several portions of their lineup.

In contrast, the Penguins benched the equivalent of an entire line during the third period in a vain hope of generating goals from someone other than Guentzel, Crosby or Rust. Evan Rodrigues (three shifts), Kapanen (two shifts) and Dominik Simon (one shift) saw little ice time in the final 20 minutes of regulation.

“I’m trying to make decisions behind the bench here game to game that’s going to give our team the best chance to win,” Sullivan said. “I made that decision to go with the guys that we went with because we felt like we needed to get more throughout our lineup just as far as more threats from different lines. We didn’t feel like we were getting it.

“We’ll see where it goes moving forward, but we’re trying to find combinations that we can put together that gives us balance, that gives us an opportunity to put guys in positions to be successful. Everybody has got to take ownership for their own game, and they’ve got to bring their best game forward. As a coaching staff, we’ll try to do our best to put these guys in positions to be successful.”

Notes:

• After being activated from injured reserve earlier in the afternoon, Penguins forward Teddy Blueger returned to the lineup. He had missed 16 games due to a broken jaw.

Blueger logged 13:45 of ice time on 21 shifts, including 1:41 on the penalty kill. He recorded two shots on three attempts and was 6 for 11 (55%) on faceoffs.

“His conditioning level was really high,” Sullivan said. “He’s worked really hard to prepare himself and I thought he played well. He understands that he hasn’t played in a while. He kept the game simple and that’s an important aspect where you’re not trying to do too much and you put yourself and your teammates in a tough spot because of it. He made good decisions with the puck. He always has good awareness defensively. He was pretty good in the faceoff circle, for the most part. For the first game back after being off for as long as he has, I thought it was a real solid effort.”

• Penguins assistant coach Todd Reirden returned to the bench after being sidelined for nine games due to a knee injury that required surgery.

• McGinn and Rust each appeared in their 400th career games.

• This was the 100th all-time regular season meeting between the Penguins and Panthers. The Penguins are 54-35-4-7 in the series.

• The Penguins’ scratches were forwards Kasper Bjorkqvist, Brian Boyle and defenseman P.O Joseph.

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