Penguins' winning streak snapped with loss to Maple Leafs

The Pittsburgh Penguins have been extremely streaky this season.

Heck, forget the season.

How about since just around Halloween?

Over the past 33 days, they have endured a seven-game losing streak as well as a five-game winning streak.

But the Penguins have been remarkably consistent in one fashion. And in no good way.

They’ve largely been rotten in the second game in sets of contests on back-to-back days.

And they stayed true to that trend on Saturday with a 4-1 home loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs at PPG Paints Arena, a setback that snapped their season-best five-game winning streak.

The defeat dropped the Penguins’ mark in the second game of back-to-back sets to 1-4-1. In those contests, the Penguins have been outshot by the opposition by a considerable margin, 214 to 162.

Roughly 24 hours after they claimed a one-sided 4-1 road win against the rival Philadelphia Flyers, most of their players were hesitant to place blame on weariness or enervation that might exist in playing consecutive games in such a finite span.

But at least one of them did acknowledge the possibility. And it was arguably the best player to wear a black and yellow jersey on Saturday night.

“It’s hard on these guys,” said Penguins goaltender Casey DeSmith, who offered a valiant effort in making 37 saves on 41 shots. “They played hard. We played great last night. Played really hard. Fatigue is a real thing.”

The Penguins’ lousy start was quite real on Saturday as they allowed a goal all of 40 seconds into regulation thanks to a sloppy line change.

As the Penguins’ first line and top defensive pairing casually meandered to the bench with all the urgency of a bale of anemic box turtles, Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews quickly transitioned a puck from the center red line up the left wing, springing Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner on a breakaway.

Attacking the net, Marner danced across the front of the crease, jammed up DeSmith with a deke and tucked a nifty forehand shot past DeSmith’s left skate for his sixth goal of the season. Matthews and forward Calle Jarnkrok had assists.

Penguins coach Mike Sullivan was curt in explaining the malfunction.

“It’s a bad line change,” Sullivan said. “And we need more awareness.”

First-liner Jake Guentzel was a bit more expansive.

“A miscommunication,” Guentzel said. “We all five changed. They made a nice play, a quick (pass) up. That just can’t happen that early in the game.”

The Penguins appeared to get on the scoreboard at 8:03 of the second period when forward Rickard Rakell shot a puck that was loose in the crease into the cage while hunched over goaltender Erik Kallgren. But referee Kelly Sutherland whistled play dead and signaled no goal.

After a brief conference with all four-on-ice officials as well as league staffers off ice, Sutherland took to the public address system and announced, “The puck is deemed dead as there was not continuous motion of the shot. The whistle was blown to kill the play. No goal.”

Shortly after that, the NHL issued a statement explaining “the referee informed the Situation Room that he had deemed the play dead when he lost sight of the puck behind Erik Kallgren.”

Rakell indicated he received an explanation that was more in line with Sutherland’s announcement.

“I heard the whistle before I shot the puck when I saw it was loose at the time,” Rakell said. “The referee told me if the puck was still in motion the goal would have counted but it stopped so they (had) to call it off.”

Meanwhile, Sullivan offered little objection to how the sequence unfolded based on the officials losing track of the puck.

“Obviously, the puck is loose,” Sullivan said. “The referees didn’t see it. You’d hope they see it and not blow the whistle. That’s their call. If they don’t see it, they’ve got to blow the whistle. That’s how it was.”

Regardless of the NHL’s inability to explain the ruling cohesively, the Penguins declined to suggest it had a role in the route this game took.

“There was a lot more factors than just that (non-goal),” forward Jason Zucker said. “We weren’t very good tonight.”

That was evident less than two minutes later when the Maple Leafs took a 2-0 lead thanks to rookie forward Pontus Holmberg scoring his second goal at the 9:55 mark.

After Penguins defenseman Marcus Pettersson misfired on a pass attempt behind his own net to defensive partner Kris Letang, Marner jumped all over Letang, knocking him down. Claiming possession in the right corner, Marner slid a pass to the slot for Holmberg who wired a wrister over DeSmith’s glove. The only assist went to Marner.

“I saw him coming,” said Letang, who protested the lack of a penalty to officials. “I was bracing for a hit and his foot just clipped my heel and I kind of lost my balance.

“One of those things that happens.”

Another Maple Leafs goal happened only 55 seconds after that. From the left corner of the offensive zone, Maple Leafs forward Michael Bunting rimmed the puck along the end boards to Matthews behind the net. Shrugging off a check from Rakell, Matthews fed a short-area pass from the left of the cage to the slot for Nylander who leaned down to a knee and snapped off an immediate one-timer past DeSmith’s blocker for his 12th goal. Matthews and Bunting tallied assists.

The Penguins spoiled Kallgren’s shutout bid when Rakell found a legal goal – his ninth of the season – at 11:38 of the final period. Driving the puck up the right wing, Guentzel pulled up near the corner and tried to push a forehand pass to the point but had it blocked by backchecking Maple Leafs forward Pierre Engvall’s stick. The puck caromed low in the right circle where Rakell swiped it with a forehand shot past Kallgren’s blocker on the far side. Guentzel and forward Sidney Crosby collected assists.

Any notions of a comeback were snuffed out at 14:36 of the third period thanks to Matthews’ 10th goal of the season. After Zucker lost the puck in the left corner of the offensive zone, Bunting took possession in the left circle and pushed it up ice, fighting through checks by Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin as well as defensemen P.O Joseph and Jeff Petry. Despite being tripped by Bunting on the right half wall of the Penguins’ zone, Bunting had the presence to deal a forehand pass to the slot for an unguarded Matthews who rocketed a wrister past DeSmith’s blocker. Bunting earned the lone assist.

DeSmith probably did more than enough to earn a better result. As it was, his record dropped to 3-5-1 despite him stealing a handful of goals against an opponent that was far better than the Penguins for most of the contest.

“Casey played awesome,” Guentzel said. “We left him out to dry a couple of times but he made some big saves for us, kept us in the game all night.”

The Penguins don’t have to contend with a set of games on back-to-back nights until Dec. 9 and 10 when they face the Buffalo Sabres in a home-and-home series.

As for Saturday’s game, the Penguins found a way to maintain a bad trend seemingly right off the opening faceoff.

“We didn’t have a good first (period),” Letang said. “Right from the get-go, we didn’t apply pressure, we didn’t execute, we didn’t have any details in our game.

“When you play a team like that, it’s going to be hard to come back.”

Notes:

• The Penguins were 3 for 3 on the penalty kill and extended a streak of not allowing an opposing power-play goals to seven games. Over that stretch, they are 17 for 17 on the penalty kill.

• Penguins forward Bryan Rust was held without a point for the 11th time in his past 12 games. Over that stretch, he has generated only two points (one goal, one assist).

• The Penguins’ scratches were forward Kasperi Kapanen and defenseman Chad Ruhwedel.

• Marner is a Penguins killer almost just on assists. In 17 career games against the Penguins, he has 17 points (three goals, 14 assists).

• Marner has points in 16 consecutive games. Hockey Hall of Fame forward Darryl Sittler holds the franchise record for the longest scoring streak with an 18-game stretch he put together in the 1977-78 season.

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