Penguins Can’t Overcome Themselves, Rally Not Enough vs. Detroit

PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Penguins (6-9-3) survived their own listlessness but are still searching for their game and a little luck, too.

Bryan Rust had a breakaway with three minutes remaining, but the puck rolled off his stick. The Penguins dominated a two-minute stretch on their power play, but a pair of tipped pucks went wide as Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby looked at the errant redirections in disbelief.

However, the overtime luck carried over, and Detroit Red Wings’ (7-7-1) Simon Edvinsson beat Penguins goalie Alex Nedeljkovic early in overtime. The Penguins lost 3-2 in overtime at PPG Paints Arena Wednesday.

The listless Penguins were not bad for the first 30 minutes, but that’s far from a compliment. The life was slowly bleeding out of the team until Detroit took a 2-0 lead with a pair of goals early in the second period.

The Penguins’ shoulders sagged. The exhale was nearly audible to the roughly 16,000 fans in attendance. But then one of the Penguins leaders breathed new life into the team with a sharp individual effort.

Penguins winger Michael Bunting intercepted a Detroit pass at the defensive blue line. He handed the puck off to a rushing Rust (4), who raced past the defenseman and then swept across the goal mouth, stuffing the puck into the net past Detroit goalie Cam Talbot at 7:19 of the second period.

The goal was akin to a canteen in the desert for the struggling Penguins, who were embarrassed on home ice Monday in a 7-1 loss to the Dallas Stars.

Several minutes later, the Penguins achieved a tie game when bedrock defenseman Marcus Pettersson similarly submitted extra-effort individual play. Pettersson pinched along the right wall but kept skating. He cleared the defender and had a passing lane across the crease to Anthony Beauvillier (5), who snapped the wrist shot into a yawning cage.

The Penguins had just one shot in the first 10 minutes, and Detroit outshot them 7-1. However, Detroit failed to capitalize on the flatfooted Penguins, and the first period was scoreless.

It appeared Detroit would continue the Penguins’ burial process begun by Dallas on Monday. Early in the second period, the Penguins failed to sort out the Detroit rush, and Jonathan Berggren was wide open despite a three-on-three rush. At 1:00 of the second, Berggren (1) beat Penguins goalie Alex Nedeljkovic from the left circle.

After a dubious tripping call on Penguins rookie Sam Poulin, playing in his seventh career NHL game and first this season, Detroit scored a power-play goal. Three Penguins penalty killers converged on Dylan Larkin, who slipped a pass to Patrick Kane (4), who was uncovered in the right circle for an easy goal at 5:15.

Just as the Penguins did against Washington on Friday, they allowed just six shots on goal in the third period. Nedeljkovic stopped 28 of 30 in regulation. Talbot stopped 31 of 33.

Penguins Notes

Blake Lizotte did not return to the game after being struck in the face by the puck in the first period. He missed a few weeks with a concussion after being hit in the head by a puck while he sat on the bench in the preseason game on Sept. 29 against the Ottawa Senators.

Sullivan juggled his lines several times later in the first period, including reuniting Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin for a shift. It was the first sign of life for the team, with about six minutes remaining. Drew O’Connor slotted at the second line center until Sullivan quickly went back to his original line configuration. However, O’Connor spent some time in the middle of the second period as the third-line center.

Before the game, the Penguins honored Malkin for his 500th career goal. His parents and son were on the ice for the ceremonial presentations. Marc-Andre Fleury, Mark Recchi, Patric Hornqvist and Crosby made tribute videos, too.