Penguins Locker Room: ‘I Don’t Want to Get Fined,’ Pens Sour After Blown Call

The Pittsburgh Penguins may have gotten the shaft from officials in overtime in their 3-2 OT loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night at PPG Paints Arena.

PHN’s Dave Molinari was in the Penguins’ locker room following the game and shot the videos.

Emotions were raw. Coach Mike Sullivan and Bryan Rust were visibly sour after Rust was boarded at center ice without penalty. The resulting play yielded a two-on-none for Carolina and the game-winner.

Just before PHN began filming, Rust offered the ground rules for talking.

“I don’t want to get fined, so I’m not going to talk about it,” Rust said of the deciding play.

Rust had three hits and three shots, including a couple of high-danger scoring chances, though he was no fan of the officiating before the overtime winner. In the second period, Rust got behind defenseman Brett Pesce en route to the Hurricanes’ net, but Pesce appeared to hook Rust and even dropped his stick on Rust as the Penguins winger tried to score.

There was no penalty on that play, either.

“The whole play was bizarre. The whole game was bizarre, some of the things that were called,” Rust said.

Pittsburgh Penguins Locker Room

Bryan Rust:

Coach Mike Sullivan had a similar reaction of tense avoidance. He was the last to exit the bench following the loss as he stared at the monitors, perhaps hoping to see something different or simply indulging his anger.

Sullivan admitted the players on the ice seemed to stop after Rust was hit from behind at center ice, though he didn’t fault his players.

“When you saw it from the bench up close at those speeds, that was the reaction,” Sullivan said. “That reaction was real because it was a dangerous hit. So I disagreed with the call.”

Sullivan also positively reviewed Kasperi Kapanen (and Chad Ruhwedel).

“I thought they played solid games. I thought Kappy was trying to use his speed,” Sullivan said. “I thought Chad brings the game that he always brings. He’s just a steady, solid defenseman that plays within himself. So I thought both of them had decent games for us.”

Sullivan video will be posted later, courtesy of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Tristan Jarry

“It’s a tough sequence at the end of the game. It could go either way,” said Jarry, who stopped 36 of 39 shots. “It’s good to get one 6v5. That’s a positive thing. We’ve been working on that quite a bit.”

Jeff Petry

Petry was the power play QB on Tuesday night with Kris Letang’s absence. The Pittsburgh Penguins power play failed to register a shot on goal with two opportunities. However, Petry got the primary assist on the game-tying goal in the final minute.