Pregame
The Penguins rotate Ville Koivunen back into the lineup and give Filip Hallander the night off. Sergei Murashov gets the start for his first appearance of the season.
The Jets bring the following lineup to the table, including ex-Penguin Jack St. Ivany who gets to make his debut for Winnipeg against his former club. In net, Clay Stevenson makes his first appearance for his new team.
First period
Rookie Viggo Bjorck took a penalty two minutes into the game having to hook into Ben Kindel to deny a scoring chance, the Penguins don’t do much with the early power play.
Later on Murashov makes his first big save of the game following a failed clearing attempt by Connor Dewar ended up resulting in a nice chance on the doorstep for Gabe Vilardi before Murashov’s quick lateral move sealed up the bottom of the net.
An Erik Karlsson turnover gives Vilardi another look, his shot goes off maybe Murashov and then definitely the post and the score stays 0-0.
The Penguins assortment of defensive bumbles and getting out of their own zone keeps piling up. The Jets get a few more really good chances by picking off various passes and mishandlings but Murashov is reading the play beautifully and square to everything coming his way. He’s sharp and it’s a good thing because that’s the only reason the period ends as a scoreless one.
The Pens started pretty well, then things soured big time. Shots end up 12-11 WPG through 20 minutes. Pittsburgh played a little too casual and hurried in the early going to find much success.
Second period
The teams trade chances early, Sidney Crosby gets a redirection in front of the net and then Kyle Conner hits the iron and sets up Mark Scheifele but Murashov robs him with a glove save.
The Pens get the second power play of the night, Josh Morrissey is off for tripping. Even the officials are sloppy, messing up the time and causing a long delay to get it right. The Pens aren’t any better, as they continue to show no sharpness or ability to make a pass or hold the puck very well.
Pittsburgh is able to score the first goal after all that. Ben Kindel wins an offensive zone faceoff and gets to the front of the net. Declan Carlile sends in a fluttering shot where the puck started way high but then dipped down low enough for Kindel to deflect it past Stevenson. The refs wave the goal off at first but a video review overturns that iniital call since Kindel’s stick was below the crossbar of the goal. 1-0 Pens.
Blake Lizotte takes the first Pittsburgh penalty of the game with a boarding minor. Winnipeg gets some zone time and a few looks on quick passing plays but are unable to score.
The Pens hold on to get to the locker-room up by a goal. Another Dewar failed clearing attempt ended up on Neal Pionk’s stick, his shot going off the crossbar and out of play in the last minute.
Shots are 22-21 PIT after two, hasn’t been the prettiest (to say the least) yet they’re up by one goal after two periods.
Third period
The Pens’ first line has a good shift but can’t score. Winnipeg does soon after. They shoot on the rush, Murashov makes a save and kicks out a rebound that Karlsson can’t corral and ends up pushing back towards the net. Alex Iafallo is there to slam it home. 1-1 game with 15:17 to go.
Winnipeg is able to build on that momentum and take their first lead. Dylan DeMelo jams Nick Robertson up at the blueline, the Pens can’t clear the puck and are in trouble from then. Iafallo, having himself a period, drives hard to the net. Murashov sprawls to deny that effort but the puck ends up sitting in the crease for Adam Lowry to drive hard to the crease and put it in. 2-1 Jets.
Pittsburgh’s able to fight back and turn the table to tie the game. It’s another great play by Kindel, who knocks down the Winnipeg pass and Ville Koivunen collects it. Koivunen sends it down low to Kindel who makes a great touch pass back to Declan Carlile. Carlile picks his spot on the blocker side and it’s 2-2.
The tie game only lasts nine seconds before Winnipeg re-establishes their lead. Morrissey gets a pass over to Cole Perfetti and his shot beats Murashov. 3-2 now as the gates come open on the scoring in a hurry in the third.
Murashov gets pulled for an extra attacker with about two minutes to go. The Pens take a timeout with 1:21 remaining to rest their players for a final push. They get a few looks but can’t solve Stevenson before the clock runs out.
Some thoughts
- Some interesting line matching, the Jets started the game with their checking line (Adam Lowry) so the Penguins kept Erik Karlsson off the ice at the beginning of the game so that he could match up against the top scoring line (Mark Scheifele). The Pens didn’t run from starting the Crosby line against the Jets’ top checkers.
- Boy, this one was a slog, especially through the first two periods. And that’s putting it kindly. The Penguins were credited with 12 official giveaways in the first half of the game, which was charitable since it could have been double that. Nothing was working for them. Players who usually can move the puck like Erik Karlsson, Tommy Novak and Sam Girard (who combined for seven of the first 12 official giveaways) were in shambles. It wasn’t just those three, it was endemic all over the lineup. Once on the power play in the second period, Crosby won the draw but the puck slowly skidded back. Crosby pulled up and didn’t skate to the puck, neither did anyone else in a black jersey. Kinda crazy how a team clicking enough to score 13 goals over the first two games of season can look like a bunch of beer leaguers that have never played together in no time flat. The beautiful game!
- Everything was a struggle for Karlsson in particular. It can be jarring on his off nights to see him fight the puck, the first goal against was a bit of bad luck but given how the first 40 minutes went, it’s no surprise the puck went off his stick with him unable to get it out of danger.
- Did you check that line on the ice for the first goal of the game? Kindel was with Dewar and Lizotte, a little spot shift for all (and to help manage the minutes of players in this case of Lapierre, Kuzmenko and Koivunen from the bottom lines that weren’t up to much). Kindel won the faceoff, soon after the puck was in the net. Paid off to mix and match and get some of the more important/better-playing bottom six guys extra time. Always nice to see a little wrinkle by the coaching staff to search for a little something missing.
- The success of that goal led to the change lasting a little longer, as you might expect, to shuffle combinations around for the rest of the night. Hendrix Lapierre and Koivunen got shifts with Crosby, Koivunen was out there with Kindel on the second goal due to a line change in progress.
- Murashov did have a 21-save shutout in his second NHL start last season, so tonight might not be a clear-cut ‘best game ever’ for him so far, but it was pretty darn good. Maybe you’d like to see a save on the third goal in the situation just seconds after the team rallied to tie, though a goalie can only be expected to do so much on a given night.
- Much like his run in Wilkes-Barre last spring, sometimes Murashov can be a little over-active in aggressively leaving his crease in the attempt to help the team when they’re struggling defensively, it didn’t burn him tonight due to his athleticism to recover. That’s something to watch for the future, though at this point it’s a hallmark in his game that he might try to do a little too much with good intentions to do what he can to help out.
- Kindel had two really nice plays on his goal and assist, it’s early yet but man he looks well on his way towards taking that next step into becoming a really solid player in the league. That’s about where the positives stop on this game, though shoutout to Carlile for scoring a goal for the second game in a row, doubling his NHL career goal total in the last 48 hours.
- Third periods still look like an adventure this season based on the last two games. Granted, the Pens were mighty fortunate to be up 1-0 (and not conceded a goal, thanks largely to Murashov) going into the third and it wasn’t a massive collapse tonight. Then again, they gave up three goals in the last period and lost because of it, which is a troubling continuation adter last year and especially last game’s 5-1 mess turning into 5-5. It’s not very comfortable for the Pens holding leads yet again, having given up six goals in the third periods of the last two games to get back into uncomfortably familiar territory.
Given the situation of playing a home game against what could be a lower level (or middle of the road) team, who were on the second-half of a back-to-back, the result is disappointing for the Pens. You can’t say it was an unworthy outcome either, which is where the disappointment hits hardest. The team was sloppy and surely left everyone from players to coaches to fans frustrated by being unable to play clean or even connect with simple, routine plays at times. Can’t say that was expected after the fast start of what they showed in the early games, though such is life sometimes as performances ebb and flow from night to night. It was pretty obvious that the Penguins weren’t on their A-game in this one and they end up with their first loss of the season as a result. Now with a first small taste of some adversity, we’ll look for how the bounce back goes in a rivalry game on Wednesday night on the road against the Capitals.
