The Penguins traveled to Minnesota and Winnipeg this past weekend and came up short in both games.
On Friday night, the Minnesota Wild honored goaltender and former Penguins player Marc-Andre Fleury. Fleury had recently played in his 1,000th career game and also moved into second place on the NHL’s all time wins list for goalies with 552 wins.
Half way through the game’s first period, forward Lars Eller took a costly penalty for the Penguins, a penalty that resulted in a four minute power play for the Wild. The Wild were able to capitalize on the opportunity from forward Matt Boldy, who scored his 17th of the season.
Three minutes into the second period, Evegeni Malkin passed it to Riley Smith off the rush, and Smith one-timed the puck past Fleury to tie the game at 1-1.
At 14:38 in the second period, Penguins Bryan Rust and Wild Kirill Karpizov received dueling penalties for unsportsmanlike conduct, resulting in 4-on-4 play for two minutes.
During the 4-on-4, Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin scored in the slot and put the Wild up 2-1.
The Wild held onto their lead going into the third period, but Kirill Kaprizov took a penalty 32 seconds into the period, giving the Penguins a chance to tie it on the power play.
The Penguins took advantage of the Kaprizov penalty as Sidney Crosby scored on a beautiful tip-in off of an Erik Karlsson pass.
Halfway through the third period, Kirill Kaprizov scored on the rebound to give the Wild the 3-2 lead.
There was some controversy with the goal, however, as the Penguins challenged the play believing the puck had exited play before the goal was scored. The review lasted around seven minutes to see if the puck did indeed hit the back netting out of play. The review was inconclusive and the goal was not taken back. The Wild would hold onto their lead for the rest of the game.
The Penguins were in Winnipeg the very next night to face off against the Jets for the second time in the past week.
Halfway through the first period, Penguins forward Jake Guentzel turned it over to Nikolaj Ehlers, who skated up the ice with Mark Sheifele for a 2-on-1 opportunity. Ehlers passed the puck to Sheifele, who’s slapshot beat Tristan Jarry to give the Jets a 1-0 lead.
Five minutes later, Jets defenseman Nate Schmidt’s shot from the blue line hit the boards but bounced right to forward Nino Niederreiter. Niederreiter backhanded it into the net, extending the Jets lead to 2-0.
Fourteen minutes into the second period, Penguins Bryan Rust deflected an Erik Karlsson shot past Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck to cut the Jets lead in half.
The Penguins continued their push against the Jets, outshooting them in the final two periods. It wasn’t enough and the Jets would go on to win 2-1, ending their five game losing streak.
As of Monday, the Penguins sit seven points out of the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.
The Penguins return home to PPG Paints Arena for a Valentine’s Day showdown against the Florida Panthers on Wednesday at 7:30.
