LOS ANGELES — Just hours after Tristan Jarry was honored with his second career All-Star Game nod, the Penguins skaters gave the goalie a great chance to show why.
And not in a good way.
During an uninspiring 6-2 loss at Crypto.com Arena, the Penguins were out-shot, out-chanced and badly out-played. Pittsburgh entered the game as one of the NHL’s hottest teams since mid-November. But that would have been hard to tell, as the club turned in one of its worst showings of the entire season.
“It was just a struggle all night long for our group,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “Give L.A. credit. They played extremely hard. But we've got to be better.”
The Penguins, who entered the game as the NHL’s second-best defensive club, allowed a season-worst 45 shots on net. The quality was even more troubling than the quantity. At 5-on-5 play, the Kings doubled up the Penguins on high-danger chances, producing 18 to Pittsburgh’s nine, according to Natural Stat Trick. Including special teams, the Kings racked up a total of 25 high-danger chances.
While Jarry gave up six goals, he was, arguably, the Penguins’ best player through the first 40 minutes. Forced to make a number of Grade-A saves early just to keep Pittsburgh in the game, Jarry was up to the task when peppered repeatedly with quality scoring looks. Sullivan called Jarry’s evening “terrific,” after he finished the game with 39 saves.
"I thought he was awesome all game,” forward Teddy Blueger said. “We kind of hung him out to dry a little bit ... We didn't help him at all."
However, the flood gates finally opened in the third period. Just as Penguins forward Radim Zohorna scored his first goal of the season and it appeared Pittsburgh could escape the L.A. smog with at least one point, the Kings punched back, scoring three times during a minute-and-a-half span to seal the game.
The Penguins (21-10-5, 47 points) entered this road trip riding an NHL-best 10-game winning streak. They’ve now lost twice in the past three games.
“We had many good games in a row and we were out playing opponents,” forward Dominik Simon said. “Today, it was a really bad game from us.”
Puck luck was on the Penguins’ side early. Nearly five minutes into the first period, Kris Letang chased down the biscuit in the corner and backhanded it on net from below the goal line. Kings goalie Jonathan Quick was a second slow sliding over, as the puck hit off his skate and bounced into the net.
The goal was one of the few things that went right for the Penguins all night.
Later in the first, a series of unfortunate bounces tied the score at 1. After a sloppy sequence from the Penguins’ second line, the puck settled in the slot. Kings forward Anze Kopitar ripped the shot on net that changed directions off of Kasperi Kapanen’s skate in front.
In the second period, the story remained the same, with the Penguins playing sloppy and Jarry bailing the team out. The goalie made a point-blank save on Trevor Moore. Then, later in the period, Jarry pushed out to make a stellar stop on Alex Iafallo on a Kings power play.
The Kings eventually took their first lead of the game with 5:28 remaining the second period. On the power play, Dustin Brown recorded his 700th career point when he beat a sprawling Jarry.
Between periods, the Penguins acknowledged that the first 40 minutes were a struggle. Yet, they were still just one goal away.
Just 1:37 into the final frame, they got it. Blueger dished a beautiful pass from below the goal line that found Zohorna alone in the slot. He one-timed the puck past Quick’s blocker side to tie the score at 2.
“I thought it was going to give us a lot of juice for the for the rest of the period,” Sullivan said. “And hopefully we were going to try to scratch and claw and see if we could get something out of this game, knowing that we didn't have our best.”
Not so. Just when it looked like the Penguins might win a game in which they were largely out-played, the Kings ripped off a trio of goals in short succession.
Just a minute-and-a-half after Zohorna’s goal, Kings defenseman Mikey Anderson beat Jarry on a long-range shot from the point. Just 10 seconds after that, Viktor Arvidsson made it 4-2. And just 1:13 after that, Kopitar netted his second goal of the game to make it 5-2.
All told, the three goals were scored less than 1:30 apart.
To add one more late dagger, Sean Durzi found the back of the net with less than two minutes left.
“We just weren't able to find our game,” Blueger said. “In those situations, you probably need to simplify more and then just play hard. Just kind of find some gritty goals or find some momentum through physicality or whatever it may be. We didn't really do that. We never really got a hold of the game.”
The Penguins have now completed four legs of a six-game road trip. The 12-day swing continues in San Jose on Saturday before wrapping up in Las Vegas on Monday.
Mike DeFabo: mdefabo@post-gazette.com and Twitter @MikeDeFabo.
First Published: January 14, 2022, 6:13 a.m.
