Offense was difficult to come by for the Pittsburgh Penguins over the past weekend.
And that trend continued Tuesday as they were defeated by the Tampa Bay Lightning, 2-1, in a shootout at PPG Paints Arena.
Shootout goals by Lightning forwards Gage Goncalves and Nikita Kucherov were the difference.
Penguins forward Egor Chinakhov scored in the shootout, but forwards Rickard Rakell and Sidney Crosby came up empty on their opportunities.
The result came on the heels of two offensively starved performances: a 2-1 home loss to the Calgary Flames on Saturday and a 1-0 defeat on the road against the Boston Bruins on Sunday.
The task of putting pucks in the net was impeded Tuesday by the absence of All-Star defenseman Erik Karlsson, who landed on injured reserve with an undisclosed malady that will keep him waylaid for at least two weeks.
He missed a game for the first time since he joined the Penguins via a blockbuster trade in August 2023.
“Injuries happen over the course of the year,” said Penguins coach Dan Muse, who recently became Pittsburgh’s second-most tenured coach or manager of a major-league team, trailing only Don Kelly of the Pirates. “Obviously, those are big minutes that he plays. I think he’s a guy who is a big, big contributor in all situations for us. And so, it’s by committee.
“It’s not going to necessarily look the exact same as the way that (Karlsson) does it. Those minutes, those situations, it’s now going to have to be by committee.”
Penguins rookie goaltender Arturs Silovs stopped 30 of 31 shots in regulation and overtime as his record slipped to 8-6-7. In the shootout, Silovs stopped one of three shots, snuffing out a wrister by ex-Penguins forward Jake Guentzel.
The Lightning extended a winning streak to 11 games, matching a franchise record.
In that context, the Penguins, minus one of their better players, offered a valiant performance against a daunting opponent.
“I don’t think we gave them too many good looks (against) a team with that many skilled players who can score a lot of goals (and) has been on a bit of a run here,” said Penguins forward Bryan Rust, who returned to the lineup after missing the previous two contests due to an undisclosed injury. “To kind of limit them five on five, especially to not allow a ton of good chances, I thought we played really well. We got a lot of chances of our own. We just need to score on a few of those.”
Getting a point against the Lightning is nothing to be ashamed of. But only scoring two regulation goals over three games is nothing to boast of either.
“It’s kind of been different from game to game,” Rust said. “Over the weekend, I don’t know if we had all the tons of the looks that we wanted. I thought we got better at that tonight. We had a lot of really good looks. We can always get more traffic (at) the net. When pucks aren’t going in the net, you’ve got to get some ugly ones.”
Most of this game was uglier than a seafood restaurant’s dumpster in July as both teams engaged in a prolonged staring contest for the first 40 minutes.
The first notable event came 3:10 into the third period when Penguins defenseman Connor Clifton slammed Lightning forward Brandon Hagel from behind into the boards near the home bench.
Clifton immediately turned around, knowing he was about to be swarmed by Hagel’s teammates, ready to fight. Lighting forward Anthony Cirelli got to Clifton first and they tussled to the ice.
Hagel was examined by a team medical staffer and remained in the contest.
“I was ready for whoever,” Clifton said. “Cirelli was the first one there. Good for him. Obviously, I wouldn’t like it if my teammate got hit like that. That being said, I thought I committed to the hit and obviously, (Hagel) turned his back a little. It’s great that he’s OK. That’s first and foremost. But I served my time, and we get out of this one with a point.”
It took officials several moments to sort out the various penalties and the Lightning wound up with an irregular three-minute power-play opportunity as a result. The Penguins’ penalty kill turned away the Lightning on the man advantage and was 3 for 3 on the night.
Lightning defenseman J.J. Moser broke the defensive stalemate late in regulation at 14 minutes, 13 seconds of the third period with his fifth goal of the season.
A wrister by Lightning forward Yanni Gourde from below the Penguins’ right circle appeared to be gloved by Silovs, but the rebound plopped free just below him in the crease. An alert Moser saw the rebound and jabbed it under Silovs with a backhander to break the ice. Gourde and linemate Zemgus Girgensons had assists.
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Silovs indicated he assumed the officials would halt play before he dropped the puck.
“In my mind, I thought it was a pretty long time,” Silovs said. “But (the) referee sees it otherwise.”
The Penguins pulled Silovs for an extra attacker, and that tactic paid off when forward Evgeni Malkin scored his 10th goal at 17:44 of the third frame.
As Penguins defenseman Kris Letang fought off Guentzel for a puck on the Lightning’s right wall, Malkin swooped in to claim possession, surged to the near circle and lasered a wrister to the far side past goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy’s blocker, off the left post and into the cage. Letang logged the lone assist.
Evgeni Malkin - Pittsburgh Penguins (11) pic.twitter.com/AMsdVU1Wzj
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In overtime, the Penguins had plenty of chances as they outshot the Lightning, 4-1. They just couldn’t find a way to put one behind the dominant Vasilevskiy.
“He’s a hall-of-fame goaltender,” Letang said. “Every time that he’s playing on top of his game, he gives their team a chance to win, and he did tonight. But I think we stuck with it and got a point.”
In the shootout, Rakell’s wrister was rejected by Vasilevskiy’s right leg while Crosby uncharacteristically lost the puck on his attempt and didn’t even fire a shot.
Chinakhov was impressive on his attempt as he fired a trident missile of a wrister through the five hole of Vasilevskiy, who looked stunned at how the puck was released.
As for Silovs, his shootout woes continued as Goncalves toasted his blocker with a wrister then Kucherov floated a wrister past the blocker.
Guentzel was denied by Silovs’ stick as he attempted a wrister through the five hole.
For the season, Silovs has allowed a league-high 11 shootout goals on 16 opportunities.
Muse rejected a suggestion of potentially pulling Silovs for future shootouts.
“No,” Muse bluntly stated. “It’s something that’s very, very rarely been done. It has, but it’s been very rare. … He’s been working at it. He’s been getting better at it. As a team, we’ve been working at it. I do think there’s been improvement. I understand it needs to be better.
“But I think that the idea of subbing out, I think that’s something where you’re now also putting that other goaltender in a really tough situation. I see the work that he’s putting in every day to work on that, and I’ve seen that improvement. So, no.”
The Penguins have seen almost no offense in their past three games. And not having Karlsson for the time being won’t help that cause.
“He’s a really tough guy to replace, everybody knows (with) his offensive game and how good he is on the power play and just in general creating stuff out of nothing,” Rakell said Tuesday morning. “We’re just going to have to step up our team game together as a group and put our best effort on the ice.”
Notes:
• The Penguins are now 3-10 in games that go beyond regulation this season (2-4 in overtime and 1-6 in shootouts).
• The Penguins were 0 for 3 on the power play.
• Before Malkin’s score, the Penguins went 130:43 without a goal, extending to Saturday’s loss.
• Letang logged 25:51 of ice time in Karlsson’s absence. That was only his second-highest figure of the season. He previously clocked 26:50 during a 4-3 home win against the New York Islanders on Oct. 9.
• Letang’s defensive partner, Brett Kulak, logged 25:55 of ice time on Tuesday, the fourth-highest figure of his career (regular season). Per Hockey Reference, Kulak’s career high of 29:04 came as a member of the Edmonton Oilers in a 4-3 home win against the St. Louis Blues, April 9, 2025.
• Crosby recorded an elbowing penalty at 12:16 of the second period, giving him 32 penalty minutes in 45 games this season. He had 31 penalty minutes in 80 games last season.
• Crosby also tied defenseman Parker Wotherspoon for the team lead in penalty minutes this season.
• Penguins forwards Tristan Broz and Kevin Hayes, as well as defenseman Ryan Graves, were healthy scratches.
• Karlsson entered Tuesday with the longest active consecutive games played streak for the Penguins with 208 contests. With him sidelined, Crosby assumed the team’s “ironman” designation with 70 games.
