Penguins fall 6-2 in Vegas as road trip slide hits three

Pittsburgh (3-5-1, 1-4-1 away) dropped its third consecutive game Saturday night, falling 6-2 to the Vegas Golden Knights (8-2-0, 5-1-0 home) at T-Mobile Arena. Vegas scored three times in the first period, and the Penguins never recovered. The Penguins have now lost six of their last seven games, and three straight on this four-game road trip. They have been outscored 16-7 during that three-game stretch. The Utah Mammoth welcome Pittsburgh to Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, Monday night as the Penguins look to end the skid. Read more: Penguins fall 6-2 in Vegas as road trip slide hits three.

Vegas strikes early

The Golden Knights needed just 66 seconds to get on the board. Rasmus Andersson beat Sergei Murashov with a snap shot from the right circle. Jack Eichel, in his 700th career game, and Mark Stone assisted on the opening goal.

Noah Hanifin made it 2-0 four minutes into the period. Eichel and Stone also set up that goal.

Less than two minutes later, Declan Carlile dropped the gloves with Jeremy Lauzon. The fight did little to swing the momentum, but perhaps relieved some frustration.

“It’s a tough back-to-back, and I think having to climb back, putting ourselves in that spot, it’s a tough spot to be in,” Sidney Crosby said.

Crosby went to the box for tripping at 15:57, and Vegas made Pittsburgh pay. Stone deflected a Trevor Connelly shot off his skate for a power-play goal that stood after video review. Vegas led 3-0 after 20 minutes.

Crosby ends the drought

The Penguins got one back on the power play at 5:54 of the second period. Crosby redirected a Tommy Novak shot past Adin Hill for his 657th career goal. It moved him past Brendan Shanahan for 14th in NHL history.

The momentum did not last. Connelly, a rookie, roofed a shot on the rush at 7:05. Shea Theodore buried a one-timer at 11:17 to make it 5-1 heading into the final period.

The Penguins also lost defenseman Sam Girard in the second period. Brett Howden tripped him, and Girard crashed hard into the end boards. He skated off but didn’t return, and head coach Dan Muse had no update after the game.

Too little, too late

Evgeni Malkin scored in the third period to make it 5-2, with Novak picking up his second assist of the night, and Ville Koivunen also assisting. Howden closed the scoring late when he was awarded an empty-net goal after being pulled down on a breakaway.

“I mean, I think we stuck with it. We worked even though we were down three or four there,” Crosby said. “Nobody likes to lose. We know there’s areas we got to improve on. We’ve got to fix it quick.”

Murashov stopped 14 of 19 shots. Hill made 22 saves for Vegas and improved to 4-0 on the season.

Stone finished with a goal and two assists. Eichel and Mitch Marner added two assists each.

Rust wants some anger

Bryan Rust did not sugarcoat the slide.

“Concerned, no. Unhappy, yes,” Rust said. “I think everybody in here, to a man, shouldn’t be happy with the way things are going. I don’t think we need to get concerned or uncertain or have doubts. I think that those are useless emotions.”

Muse pointed to consistency as the biggest issue.

“We’ll have games and we’ll have stretches that I think we’re playing the brand of hockey I know we’re capable of, but we have to do it on a more consistent basis,” Muse said. “So, we’ve shown signs, but you can’t be two periods or one period. It’s got to be more consistent.”

Up next

The Penguins close out the road trip Monday night against the Utah Mammoth at 9 p.m. ET.

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