The Penguins came within a hairsbreadth (or 1:49 to be exact) of making a clean sweep of a difficult three-game road trip against stiff competition at American Airlines Arena in Dallas yesterday. Unfortunately, as the old saying goes, close only counts in horseshoes and another object that begins with an “h.”
And so it was for the boys in black and gold. After battling valiantly against our high-flying hosts, and having the better of the play for most of the evening, Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen scored a late 6-on-5 goal to send the game to overtime. Which in turn led to our personnel den of horrors or kryptonite, take your pick.
Yes, I’m talking a shootout. Which resulted in an all-too-familiar outcome.
Buoyed by the dual returns of forwards Justin Brazeau and Noel Acciari, the Pens grabbed the early lead at 18:18 of the first period. Acciari corralled an outlet pass from Ryan Graves and moved it to Blake Lizotte, who in turn found Connor Dewar all alone in the high slot. The feisty winger ripped a slap shot through Jake Oettinger’s exposed five-hole for a 1-0 lead.
The Stars knotted the score at 1-apiece early in the second period on a snap shot by Jamie Benn. However, the Pens snatched the lead back just over four minutes later when Tommy Novak deflected a half-slapper from Kris Letang past Oettinger.
Our 2-1 held up for the next 30 minutes and change until Heiskanen’s late heroics.
Puckpourri
Tristan Jarry turned yet another stellar performance between the pipes, stopping 21 of 23 shots for a .913 save percentage. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Stars held the edge in scoring chances (34-29) and high-danger chances (14-13) in all situations.
With Evgeni Malkin out with an undisclosed upper-body injury, coach Dan Muse had to shuffle his forward lines. Kevin Hayes centered the new “Big Line” for Brazeau and Anthony Mantha, which combined for nine shots on goal.
Novak bumped up to Sidney Crosby’s line and extended his personal hot streak (six points in five games, including two goals). When Bryan Rust was forced to the locker room in the second period, Rutger McGroarty joined Sid’s unit before returning to his slot beside Ben Kindel and Ville Koivunen in the third.
Acciari replaced Boko Imama (returned to the Baby Pens) on the fourth line.
Mikko Rantanen notched the shootout winner for the Stars.
Sure wish Muse would come up with some new options for the shootout. Rust, Crosby and Letang all failed to score. The latter was a particularly onerous choice to me. I don’t think Tanger’s scored in a shootout since 2010. I’m being facetious, of course, but it’s time to give someone else a try. In particular, Erik Karlsson is deadly from the circles on in and Kindel can fire the biscuit as well.
The Graves-Matt Dumba pairing got jobbed on the Stars’ first goal. The Graves-Connor Clifton tandem seems a bit more solid, at least to my eye.
Speaking of right-side defensemen, Harrison Brunicke and Jack St. Ivany have returned from rehab assignments in Wilkes. The former registered three assists and a plus-two in five games with the Baby Pens, the latter a goal and four helpers in five games to go with a plus-three.
Short-term, I’d be especially interested to see what St. Ivany can do. If memory serves me correctly, he and Graves formed an effective tandem for a brief stretch back in the spring of 2024.
Schedule-wise, the Pens return to the ‘Burgh to kick-off a five-game home stand against the much-improved Ducks on Tuesday night.
With a record of 14-7-6, we’re currently tied for fourth in the tightly packed Metro and occupy the first wild card slot in the Eastern Conference.