TAMPA, Fla. — The Penguins entered Wednesday’s game at Tampa Bay as the second-least penalized team in the NHL, forced to kill barely more than two opposing power plays per game. But they were saddled with a pair of short-handed situations over the final two minutes alone.
So maybe it was irony. Or maybe bad luck. Or maybe water finding its level.
Whatever it was, it was the difference, as Tampa Bay’s Victor Hedman scored the decisive goal with less than a minute remaining to hand Pittsburgh a 3-2 loss.
The Penguins have now lost three in a row to fall to 6-4 on the young season.
“It’s tough,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “You’d hope to gain some momentum down the stretch. You end up trying to kill penalties. I thought for the most part the penalty kill was terrific most of the night. We may have given up one chance and it was in the net.”
With the score tied at 2 late in the third, Penguins’ Marcus Pettersson snapped his stick. Forward Zach Aston-Reese tried to get the stick in the hands of his defenseman. However, the referees deemed that he flipped the stick to a teammate, a violation of a very seldom-used rule.
Rule 10.3 states, in part, “A player will be penalized if he throws, tosses, slides or shoots a stick to a teammate on the ice, or if he picks up and plays with an opponent’s stick.”
The Penguins were able to kill of the first penalty. However, Jake Guentzel committed a hooking penalty moments later. This one, Pittsburgh couldn’t kill. Hedman ripped a slap shot from just inside the blue line past goalie Tristan Jarry.
“I saw Steven Stamkos get the puck, then pass it up to Hedman,” Jarry said. “As he was shooting, I was just trying to look through bodies and I just couldn’t find it.”
The untimely penalties spoiled what was a career night for Jarry.
Playing on the second half of the back-to-back, Jarry was matched up against one of the premier goaltenders in the league in Andrei Vasilevskiy. The reigning Vezina Trophy winner inked a lucrative eight-year extension this offseason that will pay him $9.5 million per year when it goes into effect next season.
Jarry, who makes $700,000 this year, is nowhere close to Vasilevskiy’s tax bracket. But he proved that he certainly belongs on the same ice. The Penguins backup stopped 45 of 48 shots, including several outstanding Tampa opportunities.
“He was great,” Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said. “They had some momentum at different points. He was solid all the way through.”
In some ways, Jarry’s performance helped keep the Penguins in the game against a potent foe.
Tampa Bay took a 1-0 lead mid-way through the first period. Jarry made a grade-A kick save. However, the Lightning won the puck back to Nikita Kucherov at the point. He fired a shot and Alex Killorn provided the redirection.
The Penguins tied the score at 1 at just over five minutes into the second period. Brandon Tanev used his speed to circle the net and flick a shot over Vasilevskiy’s shoulder.
Pittsburgh took its first lead of the game when Dominik Simon zipped down the left wing and was hauled down. As the referee raised his hand for a delayed penalty, he scooted a cross-ice to Sidney Crosby. The Penguins captain one-touched a pass to Guentzel, who finished off the dizzying display of passing by burying his sixth goal of the season.
However, Tampa Bay tied the score at 2 just over seven minutes into the third period. Luke Witkowki absorbed a massive hit below the goal line from Jack Johnson but was able to deliver a pass in front. Ryan McDonagh one-timed it and Cedric Paquette provided the deflection to beat Jarry.
That’s when the Penguins committed back-to-back penalties that proved costly.
The Penguins had one last attempt. With the goalie pulled, Kris Letang ripped a shot that Vasilevskiy gloved right at the whistle. After a lengthy review, the referees deemed it did not cross the goal line.
Crosby said he personally believed the puck crossed the line.
“It might be wishful thinking, but there’s got to be some way they can definitely tell,” Crosby said. “You’ve got to know for sure, obviously. There’s different angles that they have that we don’t get to see, but it looks like it’s in his webbing and for a split second it looks like his webbing is over the goal line. Maybe they can’t tell based on it being in his glove. I’d like to think there’s some technology out there that could tell you it’s over the goal-line or not.”
Mike DeFabo: mdefabo@post-gazette.com or on Twitter @MikeDeFabo.
First Published: October 24, 2019, 3:08 a.m.
