RALEIGH, N.C. – Welp, at least the Penguins won’t have to see these pesky Carolina Hurricanes again this season unless the two teams meet in the playoffs.
The Hurricanes rolled over the undermanned Penguins at PNC Arena on Saturday, winning, 2-1, to sweep the season series between these two Metropolitan Division foes. The game was more lopsided than the final score would indicate.
They controlled play at 5-on-5 and allowed the Penguins to score just once on five power plays, sending them home with their second loss in as many days.
“They play a really fast pace. They just seem to be right on top of you the whole time. They don’t really give you much time or space,” Teddy Blueger said.
Pittsburgh made a push in the third period but couldn’t complete a comeback.
The Penguins, who lost their first three games this season against the Hurricanes, arrived in Raleigh having won twice in their eight games since Christmas.
Their 4-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets one night earlier in Pittsburgh was one of their most underwhelming performances in the season’s first half. Then they had to turn around 24 hours later and face the first-place Hurricanes without several regulars, including their starting goalie and three of their top four defenders.
Coach Mike Sullivan was pleased with the intensity the Penguins displayed out of the gate, but the Hurricanes put the clamps on them for much of the game.
Outside of the pair of posts that Jason Zucker hit, the Penguins generated little offense in the first period, mostly because they hardly had the puck. Per Sportlogiq, they generated just 68 seconds of offensive zone puck possession.
“They throw a lot of pucks in [deep],” Sullivan said. “They’re one of the leading teams in the league as far as dump-in rate and that’s the game they play. They’re going to try to suffocate you with their forecheck. And they’re good at it.”
The Hurricanes, who attempted 33 shots in the first, broke through against Casey DeSmith with three minutes left in the period. After a flurry around the crease, the puck squirted out to Brady Skjei, whose long wrist shot fooled DeSmith.
DeSmith, who got pulled in his last start, wished he could have that one back.
“It kind of hit the top of my glove, bent it in, and just trickled over,” he lamented.
The Hurricanes in the second period got another goal from their blue line. This time it was Jalen Chatfield, who slipped into open space in the high slot as they cycled the puck then ripped a right-handed one-timer past DeSmith’s blocker.
Saturday’s game was put out of reach when the Penguins, whose 30-something stars showed little juice in the second half of their back-to-back, fell behind by two goals. The Hurricanes boast a top-three defense in many key metrics.
The visitors got a sliver of an opening late in the second period when Jordan Staal tripped up DeSmith, giving the Penguins an extended 5-on-3 power play. But all they could muster in the 84 seconds before the intermission was a couple of shots, one of them a 36-foot Evgeni Malkin wrister with no traffic in front.
The Penguins are 5-for-36 with a man advantage over their last nine games.
“We were one of the best power plays in the league for a long stretch,” Sullivan said. “I think the solution to it is we just have to simplify the game again and go back to establishing a shot and getting a net-front presence and trying to create offense off of that. I think that’s when our power play is at its best.”
Hurricanes goalie Frederik Andersen gifted the Penguins a goal with 12:12 left in regulation. He gloved the puck and then inexplicably tried to smack it up the ice with his paddle. It ricocheted off of Rickard Rakell and dropped into the net.
The Penguins pushed for a tying goal. But they squandered a late power play and couldn’t tuck the puck in during a goal-mouth scrum with one minute left.
The third period was easily their best. They fired seven shots from the slot during that period, compared to just three in the first two. And they created five scoring chances with the cycle game, which was nonexistent until that point.
But for the fourth time this season, they lost by a single goal to the Hurricanes.
“We just have to find a way over the hump and get a win,” Sidney Crosby said.
ICE CHIPS
-- Marcus Pettersson missed his second straight game with an illness, so Brian Dumoulin again skated on the top pair. Mark Friedman was listed as his partner Saturday but Ty Smith also spent a fair amount of time next to Dumoulin.
-- The Penguins were also without goalie Tristan Jarry, defenseman Jeff Petry and forwards Josh Archibald and Ryan Poehling on Saturday. Sullivan said the injured players stayed in Pittsburgh to work with assistant coach Ty Hennes. Defenseman Kris Letang remains away from the team due to personal reasons.
-- Sullivan said the Penguins are hopeful that Jarry, who has missed five games after getting injured in the Winter Classic, will return to practice this week.
-- Sullivan was satisfied with the response from DeSmith, who made 34 saves in a losing effort. “Casey battled hard,” he said. “He gave us a chance tonight.”
-- It was another quiet evening for Crosby, who was often matched up against Sebastian Aho. The Penguins had an expected goals-for percentage of 22.2% with Crosby on the ice at 5-on-5, per Natural Stat Trick. He did not tally a point in either game this weekend and has just five in nine games since Christmas.
STAT N’AT
5 – shots from the slot by Malkin. The Penguins had 10 total, per Sportlogiq.
THEY SAID IT
“You just have to pick yourself up and get right back at it,” Blueger said. “Obviously, you’ve got to learn from these games and make adjustments and try to be better. We’ve got another chance Monday to get two points. That’s the focus.”
COMING UP
The Penguins are back on the ice Monday when they host the Anaheim Ducks at PPG Paints Arena. That is the third of nine games in the span of 16 days.
Matt Vensel: mvensel@post-gazette.com and Twitter @mattvensel.
First Published: January 15, 2023, 2:49 a.m.
Updated: January 15, 2023, 4:27 p.m.
