Skid Mark: Seattle Extends Penguins’ Slide, 3-2

The Pittsburgh Penguins desperately needed a two-point tourniquet Saturday night.

All they got was more misery.

And another defeat.

Seattle beat them, 3-2, at PPG Paints Arena, extending the Penguins’ skid to 0-6-1 and dropping their record to 4-6-2.

In the process, Seattle became the first expansion team since Edmonton to win its first two games in Pittsburgh. The Kraken has an all-time record of 3-1 against the Penguins.

And if going two weeks without a victory wasn’t enough to sour the Penguins’ mood, the Kraken’s game-winner late in the final period was scored by former teammate Brandon Tanev.

The Penguins had two power plays during the first period and failed to capitalize on either, but there was at least one significant development during the second one: Kris Letang, who works the left point on the No. 1 unit, registered a shot on goal during a man-advantage for the first time in 11 games this season.

Many in the crowd believed Bryan Rust had given the Penguins a 1-0 lead at 7:22, when he beat Kraken goalie Martin Jones with a nasty wrist shot from the top of the left circle.

The goal horn sounded and a lot of fans celebrated, but Rust never raised his arms, and with good reason: Replays confirmed that his shot caromed off the goal frame and never entered the net.

Kasperi Kapanen, goal-less since the opener, had perhaps the Penguins’ best scoring chance of the period, but missed a mostly open net from the right side.

Tristan Jarry made 10 saves during the opening period, with one of the best on Tanev. He corralled a rebound and had a chance in front with about 1 1/2 minutes to go before intermission, but was unable to beat Jarry.

The Penguins broke through at 5:24 of the second, when Sidney Crosby took a feed from Jake Guentzel and lashed a slap shot past Jones for his sixth of the season.

Scoring on Jones, a journeyman, might not seem like much, but he has won six consecutive starts against the Penguins, limiting them to six goals in those games and shutting them out in two of them.

Seattle didn’t wait long to counter, however.

Although the Kraken entered the game as the NHL’s worst faceoff team, Sam Poulin lost a draw cleanly to Yanni Gourde in the left circle in the Penguins’ end.

Gourde pulled the puck back to defenseman Vince Dunn, who beat Jarry from the top of the circle at 7:48.

A few minutes later, the Pittsburgh Penguins barely survived the last of their three failed man-advantages in this game.

Not only did they again fail to score, but Jarry had to thwart a 2-on-0 break to preserve the tie.

He rejected a backhander by Morgan Geekie, who had broken in alone, with Tanev as a trailer.

The Penguins killed an interference minor assessed to Crosby at 5:43 of the third, but five seconds after his penalty expired, Geekie scored from close range to put Seattle up, 2-1.

Deflating as that goal had to be, the Penguins did not wilt, and they pulled even in the middle of the period.

Guentzel tried to feed the puck to Rust, who was hovering near the crease, from along the left-wing boards, but his pass caromed off Kraken center Matty Berniers and got by Jones to make it 2-2.

The primary assist went to Crosby, making him in the 20th player in NHL history to get 900 in his career.

The Pittsburgh Penguins’ relief — and reprieve — was short-lived, however, because Tanev threw a shot past Jarry from just below the hash marks at 16:21 to put the Kraken on top to stay.