The Penguins seem to be trapped in their own version of ‘Groundhog Day’ over the past two weeks.

Win a big game against a division rival, talk about how you think that win might serve as a turning point for your season, lose the ensuing game to sap any momentum.

That last part played out again Thursday night, as the Penguins fell, 4-0, to Carolina.

They had hoped their 5-1 win in Philadelphia Tuesday — arguably their most complete effort of the season — would serve as the spark this team desperately needed heading into the second half of their schedule. Instead, the Hurricanes put on a clinic, smothering the Penguins’ still-listless offense and striking when they got their opportunities.

“It’s hard to sit here and explain what’s going wrong,” Matt Murray said. “We’re not going to make excuses. We just have to be better.”

The Penguins haven’t won back-to-back games since Dec. 1 and 2, and those two were against the last-place Sabres. They haven’t put together a three-game winning streak that didn’t include the Sabres since Oct. 14-20.

The inability to string wins together is especially frustrating given how cathartic their recent victories have felt. Both shootout wins against Columbus in late December felt like turning-point games at the time, as did the win against the Flyers. The Penguins followed all three with losses.

“We haven’t put games together,” Crosby said. “We’ve had one good game, [one bad game], exactly the way our record shows. If we knew the reason, I think we’d find a way to put them together. I think the main thing is just our compete level and finding that nightly, we haven’t been able to do that.”

When asked if the Penguins’ emotion was where it needed to be Thursday night, Crosby responded with a flat “no.”

That’s a bit surprising, given how relatively big the standings implications were for a game in early January.

With the loss, the Penguins are now three points behind the Hurricanes for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. A win would have propelled them into a wild card and started off the second half of their schedule with an upward trajectory.

“We know what the situation is,” Crosby said. “It’s a team we’re fighting against in the standings, so these points are important. It’s a divisional game. It’s not good enough.”

Specifically, the offense was once again not good enough Thursday night.

After not being shutout for the first 36 games of the season, the Penguins have now been blanked twice in the last six games — both at home, this time by Cam Ward, who finished with 22 saves.

The offense seemed to be fixed when they put up five goals against the Flyers and got contributions from up and down the lineup. Not so fast.

Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel had just three shots on goal between them.

Mike Sullivan gave some credit to the Hurricanes’ disruptive defensive system, but also admitted there are some problems with what should be a high-powered offense on the Penguins’ bench.

“We’ve got to do a better job supporting the puck, hanging onto pucks and making the right decisions in the critical areas of the rink so that we give ourselves an opportunity to generate some offense,” Sullivan said.

Murray played well enough to keep the Penguins in the game for most of the night. He had a number of good saves in the first and second period to keep his team in striking distance.

But the Hurricanes finally broke through midway through the second and, as has been uncharacteristically characteristic of them this year, the Penguins failed to generate any pushback after the Carolina goal. The Hurricanes added another in the second, and Sebastian Aho scored twice in the third to put the game away.

“This was a big game for us,” Justin Schultz said. “We knew it was a big two points. I think they outworked us and we’ve got to regroup here quick and get ready for tomorrow night.”

That might be easier said than done, as winter weather on the East Coast prevented the Penguins from flying to New York directly after the game, as they normally would for a back-to-back. Instead, they’ll fly out Friday morning and turn around to face the Islanders that night.

The NHL standings don’t care about the Penguins’ travel issues, though, and another loss tomorrow against an Islanders team just one point ahead of them could put them further behind the eight-ball.

“I think that at some point we’ve got to raise our level,” Crosby said. “If you keep doing the same thing, you can’t expect different results. We’ve got to find a way to get to another level here or else we’re going to be on the outside looking in here for a while.”

Sam Werner: swerner@post-gazette.com and Twitter @SWernerPG

First Published: January 5, 2018, 2:45 a.m.