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Penguins give up 6 goals in 1st period of embarrassing loss to Stars | TribLIVE.com
Penguins/NHL

Penguins give up 6 goals in 1st period of embarrassing loss to Stars

Seth Rorabaugh
Seth Rorabaugh
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Chaz Palla | TribLive
The Stars celebrate Mason Marchment’s goal in the first period Monday.
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Chaz Palla | TribLive
The Penguins’ Drew O’Connor is down after the Stars’ Wyatt Johnston’s goal in the third period Monday.
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Chaz Palla | TribLive
The Stars celebrate Logan Stankoven’s goal in the first period against the Penguins on Monday.
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Chaz Palla | TribLive
Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger makes a save on the Penguins’ Blake Lizotte in the first period Monday.
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Chaz Palla | TribLive
The Stars celebrate Tyler Seguin’s goal against the Penguins in the first period Monday.
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Chaz Palla | TribLive
The Stars’ Matt Duchene beats Penguins goaltender Joel Blomqvist in the first period Monday.
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Chaz Palla | TribLive
The Penguins’ Bryan Rust fights for the puck with the Stars’ Tyler Seguin in the first period Monday.
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Chaz Palla | TribLive
Penguins goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic pats Joel Blomqvist as he replaces him against the Stars in the first period Monday.
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Chaz Palla | TribLive
The Stars’ Tyler Seguin beats Penguins goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic in the first period Monday.
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Chaz Palla | TribLive
Penguins goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic makes a save on the Stars’ Wyatt Johnston in the second period Monday.
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Chaz Palla | TribLive
Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger makes a skate save on the Penguins’ Blake Lizotte in the third period Monday.
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Chaz Palla | TribLive
The Penguins’ Sidney Crosby leaves the penalty box against the Stars in the third period Monday.
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Chaz Palla | TribLive
The Stars’ Brendan Smith defends on the Penguins’ Valtteri Puustinen in the third period Monday.
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Chaz Palla | TribLive
Penguins goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic makes a save on the Stars’ Wyatt Johnston in the second period Monday.
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Chaz Palla | TribLive
The Stars’ Wyatt Johnston defends on the Penguins’ Sidney Crosby in the third period Monday.

The Pittsburgh Penguins profess comfort with their depth in net. And at the moment, they have three goaltenders on the roster in rookie Joel Blomqvist as well as veterans Tristan Jarry and Alex Nedeljkovic.

“It’s a good luxury to have,” Penguins defenseman Marcus Pettersson said Sunday in Cranberry. “It’s good healthy competition for them.”

Nothing that unfolded on the ice Monday night at PPG Paints Arena was healthy for anyone with a vested interest in the home team.

The Dallas Stars embarrassed the Penguins, 7-1, and almost appeared to be engaged in a rigorous practice session instead of any kind of competitive contest.

For the first time in franchise history, the Penguins allowed a half-dozen goals in the opening period of a home game.

Blomqvist opened the contest in net but was pulled after he yielded three goals on eight shots in 10 minutes, 16 seconds of ice time. He was charged with the loss, and his record fell to 3-5-0.

Nedeljkovic replaced him and did not fare any better as he was beaten for four goals on 32 shots while being on the ice for 49:21.

“It’s tough. It’s hard,” Nedeljkovic said. “Obviously, it can get away from you quick and things kind of snowball from there. It’s unfortunate. We had one of those nights tonight. Tomorrow is a new day. You wake up, move on from it. We’ll watch video. It ain’t going to be fun for anybody.”

Mercifully, Jarry was a healthy scratch.

It didn’t take long to suggest this game could have used a mercy rule.

To be precise, it took all of 2:33 into regulation to reach that conclusion as Stars forward Matt Duchene opened the scoring with his eighth goal of the season.

Accepting a pass in the neutral zone, Duchene gained the offensive blue line with momentum and veered to his right, sending Penguins defenseman Ryan Graves spinning out of orbit in reaction. With an acre of ice and a calendar of time to work with, Duchene fired a wrister from the right circle that leaked through Blomqvist’s glove and trickled into the net. Linemate Mason Marchment and defenseman Brendan Smith had assists.

“They just play in straight lines,” Graves said. “They’re simple. They kind of force it down the ice and they have a lot of speed. … They’re not doing anything crazy. They’re not playing with a ton of skill or things like that. They’re just playing the right way.”

That way continued when Stars rookie forward Logan Stankoven scored his third goal at 7:13 of the first period.

Digging a puck out of the left corner of the Penguins’ zone, he curled around to the near circle and fired a seemingly pedestrian wrister to the near side through traffic and under Blomqvist’s blocker. Assists belonged to linemate Jamie Benn and defenseman Esa Lindell.

Blomqvist was pulled after he allowed Marchment’s third goal only 3:03 later.

From the slot of his own zone, Smith attempted a stretch pass that was off the mark and hit off the Penguins’ end boards. The puck ricocheted between the lower hashmarks where Marchment darted between Penguins defensemen Kris Letang and Matt Grzelcyk and fired a wrister by Blomqvist’s blocker. Smith tallied the lone assist.

“Obviously, the first couple goals, I’m sure if you asked Joel, he would have liked to have had them back,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “That is what it is.”

The Stars continued their assault on Nedeljkovic when Heiskanen scored his first goal at 13:09.

Off some precise puck movement in the offensive zone, Marchment took a pass in the right circle and then snapped a seam pass to the opposite circle for Heiskanen, who releaseda wrister by the right hip of kneeling Penguins forward Blake Lizotte and Nedeljkovic’s blocker on the near side. Marchment and Lindell logged assists.

Heiskanen scored again only 88 seconds later thanks to a bumbling malfunction by the hosts.

After Penguins forward Sidney Crosby won a faceoff against Stars forward Roope Hintz in Dallas’ right circle, Letang controlled the puck at the right point and fed it to the opposite point where Grzelcyk tried to one-touch a short-area pass to Penguins forward Bryan Rust who was seemingly unaware he was supposed to receive the puck. Heiskanen appeared to be fully aware of Grzelcyk’s intentions and stole the puck, creating his own breakaway from the defensive blue line. Attacking the cage, he fended off Grzelcyk and ripped a wrister by Nedeljkovic’s right leg. There were no assists.

The sluice gates remained open as Stars forward Tyler Seguin put his team up by a touchdown with his seventh goal at 18:39 during a power-play sequence.

After Penguins forward Lars Eller failed to connect on a pass with Letang on a short-handed scoring chance, the Stars claimed possession and transitioned to the attack, generating a two-on-one against Pettersson. Gaining the offensive zone on the left wing, Marchment slipped a pass by the right leg of a sliding Pettersson to the far side of the crease where Seguin tapped in an easy forehand shot. Marchment and Duchene had assists.

“We just got behind and started chasing it,” Crosby said. “You do that against a dangerous team and it can get ugly. And that’s what happened.”

The Penguins got on the scoreboard at 15:03 of the second period via forward Anthony Beauvillier’s fourth goal.

Off a cross-ice stretch pass by Penguins rookie defenseman Jack St. Ivany, forward Valtteri Puustinen gained the offensive zone on the left wing and pulled up on the half-wall. As Stars defenseman Nils Lundqvist overskated the sequence, Puustinen took advantage of the space afforded him and slid a seam pass to the right circle for Beauvillier, who shuffled a forehand shot by goaltender Jake Oettinger’s blocker on the far side. Puustinen and St. Ivany claimed assists.

The Stars padded some stats at 15:10 of the third period when forward Wyatt Johnston scored his second goal during a power-play scenario.

Corralling a rimmed puck in the Penguins’ right corner, Duchene shoveled a pass to the near circle for Johnston, who dropped to his right knee and chopped a one-timer by Nedeljkovic’s glove on the near side. Duchene and Marchment had assists.

This humiliating result came three days after the Penguins cobbled together arguably their most resolute and complete triumph of the season, a 4-2 road win against the Washington Capitals.

“It’s an up-and-down season,” Nedeljkovic said. “You’ve got to find a way to manage the highs and the lows and try to stay even keel. We’re still trying to figure that out right now a month in. A handful of highs. A handful of lows. This is another one of them. We’ve got to bounce back quick for (Wednesday’s home game against the Detroit Red Wings).

“Obviously, be (mad) about it, be frustrated, be whatever you want to be. You wake up tomorrow and it just looks like another loss in the standings and that’s it. You can’t look at it any other way and you move on.”

Just over a month into the 2024-25 season, the Penguins have a 6-9-2 record and seemingly more questions than answers.

Especially after getting drilled on Monday

“We kind of just gave in,” Pettersson said. “It was inexcusable in front of our home crowd. We just gave in after two kind of fluky goals. We just gave in. It’s inexcusable.”

Notes:

• The Penguins have lost four consecutive games against the Stars (0-4-0). That is tied for their second-longest active losing streak against any one opponent. They also have a pair of four-game slumps against the Florida Panthers (0-3-1) and Ottawa Senators (0-2-2).

Their only longer active losing streak is seven games against the Edmonton Oilers (0-7-0).

• The Penguins set a season high for goals against. Their last game in which they allowed that many goals was a 7-4 home loss to the New York Rangers on March 16.

• The Penguins were 0 for 1 on the power play. The three shots that were generated during those two minutes were by the Stars.

• Stars defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin was the only non-goaltender from his team who failed to record a shot on net.

• Marchment (one goal, four assists) tied the Stars/North Stars record for most points in a game vs. the Penguins. Barry Gibbs had a goal and four assists for the North Stars in an 8-7 win at Bloomington’s Met Center, Dec. 21, 1974.

• Marchment tied the season high for points in a game this season, matching five-point efforts by Philadelphia Flyers forwards Sean Couturier and Travis Konecny as well as Colorado Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon.

• Before Monday, Marchment had never recorded a point in four career games against the Penguins.

• In addition to Jarry, Penguins forward Sam Poulin and defenseman Ryan Shea were healthy scratches.

• Smith appeared in his 700th career game (and scored his first points of the season after being a healthy scratch for the previous two games).

Seth Rorabaugh is a TribLive reporter covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. A North Huntingdon native, he joined the Trib in 2019 and has covered the Penguins since 2007. He can be reached at srorabaugh@triblive.com.

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