Penguins again cough up big lead, lose to Mammoth in overtime

Dan Muse was pensive.

But certainly perturbed.

For the second time in as many days, the Pittsburgh Penguins had ceded a multi-goal lead in the third period and lost a game.

On Sunday, they fell to the Utah Mammoth, 5-4, at PPG Paints Arena in overtime despite holding a three-goal advantage after the opening 40 minutes.

A goal by Mammoth forward Dylan Guenther 42 seconds into overtime was the difference.

The path was a bit different but the same outcome occurred one day earlier. During Saturday’s stunning 6-5 overtime home loss to the San Jose Sharks, the Penguins allowed the visitors to overcome a four-goal advantage in the late stages of the third frame.

When asked how does he go about fixing this recurring malfunction, the Penguins’ coach offered an observation before answering the question.

“First of all, not in a million years did I think that we’d be here today 24 hours later having the exact same conversation,” Muse said. “I probably sound like a broken record.”

Something is definitely broken, and it has sunk the Penguins’ record (14-8-9) in the past eight days. Over that span, they have lost five consecutive games (0-1-4). Four of those defeats have involved comebacks by the opponents, though Saturday’s and Sunday’s setbacks have been particularly repugnant.

“We’ve got to be better when teams push back on us,” Muse said. “(Sunday), we go (into the third period) with a three-goal lead. There’s going to be a push. There’s 20 minutes left to play. Of course, they’re going to keep coming. Over the course of the period, they might get chances. But you can’t let one lead to three.”

In fairness to the Penguins, their poor play Sunday wasn’t exclusive to the third period. They weren’t all that terribly impressive for most of the contest. The base puck possession numbers were dominated by the Mammoth, including shots (37-16) and shot attempts (78-30).

Yet, some lucky bounces led to the Penguins tallying the first three goals.

Forward Justin Brazeau scored his seventh goal of the season when a pass attempt hit off the stick of Mammoth forward Nick Schmaltz and bounced into the cage only 48 seconds into regulation.

That was followed by forward Bryan Rust’s 11th goal at 15:21 of the first period off a defensive zone turnover by Mammoth forward Michael Carcone.

Rookie forward Ben Kindel put his team in a comfortable position with his eighth goal on a breakaway 5:40 into the second period.

The final 20 minutes of regulation repeated in regrettable fashion for the hosts.

After goals by Mammoth defenseman Nate Schmidt (his second at the 1:07 mark) and Carcone (his fifth at 1:22), the Penguins sensed a familiar pattern and called a timeout to halt the skid.

But that measure was futile as Mammoth defenseman Sean Durzi’s first goal tied the contest at 5:35 of the third frame.

The Penguins issued an unsuccessful coach’s challenge on the basis of goaltender interference. That led to a power-play opportunity for the Mammoth, who converted and took a lead again at the 7:06 mark via another goal by Carcone.

“You know there’s some risk,” Muse said of his challenge. “Was it one that we looked at that I thought was going to be 100%? No, but I thought we had a good enough chance.”

Brazeau scored again at 14:06 of the third to force overtime, but that only led to an all too common sensation in the form of Guenther’s 15th goal.

Rookie goaltender Sergei Murashov stopped 32 of 37 shots as his record fell to 1-1-2.

“It’s the NHL,” Murashov said. “Even if you’re leading 3-0 and feeling good, it doesn’t mean you’ve already won the game. You have to play all 60 minutes.”

The Penguins might need more than 24 hours (or a million years) to figure out a method for avoiding a similar outcome.

“If there’s things that we’re implementing that aren’t working, then we’ll change those,” Muse said. “But I’ve never seen something where it just feels like it’s the same thing coming in different ways.”

Note: Penguins defenseman Brett Kulak and goaltender Stuart Skinner remain unavailable after being acquired in a trade with the Edmonton Oilers on Friday. Both players are Canadian nationals and are still awaiting the immigration process to be completed.