Friday the 13th didn’t present any kind of bad luck for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Just a daunting challenge in the form of the Winnipeg Jets, one of the NHL’s better teams.

“They play a really, really, really honest game,” Penguins defenseman Jan Rutta said following an optional morning skate at PPG Paints Arena. “We have to play hard and not cheat. Don’t look for that easy offense.”

Things were far from easy for the Penguins on Friday as they were thumped, 4-1, and had a modest two-game winning streak halted.

The difficulty of their task was amplified by the absence of steady defenseman Marcus Pettersson, scratched due to an undisclosed illness. His malady prompted the team to recall reserve defenseman Mark Friedman from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League on Friday afternoon. That transaction marked the fourth time Friedman had been summoned to the NHL roster this season

Fittingly enough, Friedman got into the lineup for the fourth time during the 2022-23 campaign as the Penguins dressed a blue line that was already missing the skills of their top two right-handed defensemen, Kris Letang (family matters) and Jeff Petry (suspected left arm injury).

While refusing to label his diminished blue line as an excuse, coach Mike Sullivan acknowledged the degree of difficulty in trying to play a stout outfit like the Jets minus three of his team’s top defensemen.

“It’s a challenge,” Sullivan said. “We’re missing some guys back there that play some heavy minutes for us. It’s hard to replace those guys, without a doubt. But we’ve got to find a way to simplify the game, play as a group of five out there and play more of a simplified version of ourselves and to give ourselves a chance.

“I just didn’t think we did that tonight. We were chasing the puck an awful lot. It was a hard game. We’ve got to provide shorter (outlets) for our defensemen. We’ve got to make it a simple game, and I just don’t think we did a good enough job in that regard.”

A power-play goal by Jets forward Blake Wheeler 11:19 into regulation opened the scoring.

Off some precise passing in the offensive zone, Jets defenseman Neal Pionk plastered a one-timer from the right point. Goaltender Dustin Tokarski fought off the puck but allowed a rebound and a furious goalmouth scramble ensued. After Tokarski made an acrobatic maneuver to sweep the puck away with his stick, the rebound bounced to the left circle where Jets forward Cole Perfetti leaned down to fire a wrister. Wheeler, who had stumbled to his knees in the crease, inadvertently blocked Perfetti’s shot but was able to jab the rebound past a stick check from Penguins defenseman Chad Ruhwedel into the cage for his 10th goal of the season. Perfetti had the only assist.

A would-be goal by Jets forward Mark Scheifele at 15:42 of the first period was wiped out when the Penguins issued a successful coach’s challenge, claiming the sequence to be offside.

Penguins forward Drew O’Connor’s second goal tied the game, 1-1, at 16:42 of the opening frame. After Rutta blocked a pass attempt in the Penguins’ zone by Jets forward Adam Lowry, the rebound slid out far to the neutral zone where Penguins forward Kasperi Kapanen claimed possession and gained the Jets’ zone on the right wing. As Jets defenseman Dylan DeMelo stumbled without his stick in trying to defend, Kapanen fed a pass to the front of the crease where O’Connor drove in and jabbed a forehand shot. Goaltender David Rittich stopped the puck initially but allowed the rebound to hop up and glance off his helmet before fluttering into the cage. The only assist went to Kapanen, the 100th of his career.

Another potential goal by Pionk at 18:15 of the first period was immediately waved off by referee T.J. Luxmore, who cited goaltender interference by Jets forward Pierre-Luc Dubois. The Jets issued a coach’s challenge to Luxmore’s call but were unsuccessful and absorbed a delay of game penalty in the process.

A hiccup-quick two-goal outburst by the Jets over a span of 22 seconds late in the second period put the visitors back in front.

Scheifele scored a legal goal — his 25th of the season — at the 17:58 mark to make it a 2-1 contest. Gaining the Penguins’ zone on the left wing, Perfetti slid a cross-ice pass to Wheeler above the right circle. Approaching the crease, Wheeler slipped a clever short-area pass to the front of the blue paint, where Scheifele gained position on Penguins defenseman Brian Dumoulin and swept in a forehand shot past Tokarski’s right skate. Wheeler and Perfetti tallied assists.

Forward Nikolaj Ehlers followed that up at the 18:20 mark with his third goal. After Friedman chopped a puck away in the neutral zone, DeMelo corralled it near his own blue line and calmly slid a pass up to Jets forward Kyle Connor. Gaining the offensive zone on the right wing, Connor offloaded a pass to Ehlers surging up the left wing. From the left circle, Ehlers elevated a wrister past Tokarski’s glove on the far side. Connor and DeMelo claimed assists.

Friedman — who might have been confused with Del Griffith after a series of travel adventures over the previous 72 hours in which he drove from Pittsburgh to Hershey on Wednesday then flew to Charlotte, N.C. with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Thursday in advance of a game on Saturday, only to be recalled and fly to Pittsburgh on Friday morning — was on the ice for each of the Jets’ second-period goals.

“It’s the life of a hockey player,” said Friedman, who opened the contest on the team’s top pairing with Dumoulin. “No excuses tonight at all. It’s definitely tough to come here after a full day of travel yesterday then flying here this morning from Charlotte. But again, no excuses. I have to be ready at all times.”

Penguins forward Jason Zucker was ready to elevate his sluggish team early in the third period when he challenged one of the toughest players in the NHL, Jets defenseman Brenden Dillon, to a fight at 5:18 of the third period.

Dillon has a history with the Penguins. Last season, he struck Penguins forward Teddy Blueger with a hit that broke Blueger’s jaw during a game on Jan. 23.

And going back to his time with the Washington Capitals, Dillon mugged Blueger during the 2020-21 season (May 1, 2021).

In the 2019-20 campaign, Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin was on the wrong end of a confrontation with Dillon, who socked Malkin with several right punches during a contest on Feb. 23, 2020.

And in the second period of Friday’s game, Dillon appeared to attempt a big hit on Malkin at the center red line just prior to Scheifele’s go-ahead goal. Malkin largely dodged most of the contact but chased after Dillon in the Jets’ zone as the visitors went on the attack and ultimately scored.

Zucker (5-foot-11, 192 pounds) apparently kept a receipt on at least one of those misdeeds and held his own against the rough-and-tumble Dillon (6-foot-4, 220 pounds).

As he skated to the penalty box, Zucker began to raise his hands in hopes of eliciting energy from the sellout crowd of 18,268.

With a still-raw welt near his left eye, Zucker was curt when asked about the dust-up following the contest.

“It’s part of the game,” Zucker said.

His coach was much more verbose about the incident.

“It’s huge,” Sullivan said. “(Zucker) is trying to give us some juice there. That’s what he does. I was hoping we would have a little bit more of a push. That’s just what (Zucker) brings to our team. He brings a ton of energy. He’s a courageous guy. He’s trying to win. He was trying to bring us some energy and puts himself in harm’s way to do so. I just think that’s the type of guy that he is. That’s the type of player that he is. He brings us a certain swagger that we need to try to rally around.”

No such rally occurred as the Jets scored quickly thereafter at the 6:39 mark. From the top of the Penguins’ right circle, DeMelo fed a pass to the left circle, where Scheifele pounded a near-side one-timer that toasted the blocker of Tokarski who was slow to read the sequence. Assists went to DeMelo and Perfetti.

Tokarski, in his first start and second appearance for the Penguins since being recalled from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Jan. 3, made 36 saves on 40 shots as his record slipped to 1-1-0.

Things don’t get easier for the Penguins as they will face the Metropolitan Division-leading Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena in Raleigh, N.C. on Saturday.

The Penguins have lost each of their first three meetings with the Hurricanes this season (0-1-2).

“We’ve got to kind of regroup here and we’ve got to figure it out for tomorrow night,” Zucker said. “It’s a huge game for us. We haven’t had success against them. It’s going to be a big game for us. We need to be ready to come after them.”

Notes:

• Following the game, Sullivan indicated Pettersson’s status was “day to day.”

• Zucker’s most recent fighting major came via a bout with Capitals defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk on April 9, 2022.

• The Penguins are now 5 for 6 on coach’s challenges this season.

• Defenseman Taylor Fedun was the Penguins’ lone healthy scratch.

• The Penguins had their seventh sellout of the season (out of 20 home games). It was their third sellout in their past four games.

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