Penguins' power play struggles in home preseason loss to Red Wings

Up until Tuesday, the Penguins had largely not worked on their power play in the early stages of training camp.

On Tuesday, they got plenty of opportunity to address that special teams unit.

They had nine opportunities to be precise.

And each of them failed.

Despite having an ample 16:57 of power-play time, the Penguins were romped by the Detroit Red Wings, 6-2, in a preseason contest at PPG Paints Arena on Tuesday.

The lopsided result was frustrating in that the Penguins were so inept on the power play despite having the vast majority of their top players in the lineup.

That was only amplified by the fact that the Red Wings dressed a lineup full of players who will likely open the season with the Grand Rapids Griffins of the AHL.

Regardless of the level of competition, the sputtering output by the power play was the overlying theme of this contest.

“We’d like (the power play) to be better,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “But having said that, we really haven’t spent a lot of time on it. (Tuesday’s morning skate) was really the first opportunity we had with them to get them some (repetitions). We just simply haven’t spent a lot of time on it. We’ve got a ways to go there, but we know that. We got a lot of (repetitions) tonight on the power plays. There (were) some moments where (the Penguins) had it moving pretty good. There were others where it was a struggle.

“We’ve got a ways to go.”

The Penguins opened the scoring only 1:42 into regulation. Penguins defenseman Marcus Pettersson pinched up the left wing wall of the offensive zone and hounded Red Wings forward Taro Hirose into a turnover. Claiming the errant puck, Pettersson snapped a centering pass to the slot for forward Brock McGinn, who gripped and ripped a wrister past goaltender Victor Brattstrom’s glove for his first goal of the preseason. Pettersson had the only assist.

Detroit tied the score 1-1 at 15:42 with a power-play goal. Off a feed from defenseman Filip Hronek, forward Dominik Kubalik boomed a one-timer from above the Penguins’ right circle past goaltender Tristan Jarry’s glove hand on the near side for his first goal. Hronek and forward Michael Rasmussen registered assists.

A one-timer by forward Filip Zadina 23 seconds into the middle frame gave the Red Wings their first lead, 2-1. Rasmussen curled out of the left corner of the offensive zone and slipped a backhand pass to the left circle where Zadina pumped a shot behind Jarry for his first goal. Rasmussen had the lone assist.

The Red Wings took a 3-1 lead at 5:01 of the middle frame. Forward Jonathan Berggren swooped behind the Penguins’ net and emerged to the right of the crease then fed a slick backdoor pass to linemate Elmer Soderblom, who one-touched a forehand shot past Jarry’s blocker on the near side. Berggren and forward Austin Czarniak claimed assists.

A power-play goal by defenseman Steven Kampfer put the Red Wings up by a field goal. After a defensive zone turnover by Penguins defenseman Kris Letang, Kampfer and Zadina combined on a give-and-go sequence that led to Kampfer firing a wrister from center point through traffic and behind Jarry for his first goal.

The Red Wings converted each of the two power plays they were gifted.

As designed, Jarry was pulled at 8:29 of the second period and replaced by backup Casey DeSmith. Jarry absorbed the loss after making 10 of 14 saves.

Penguins forward Bryan Rust pulled his team within two scores with an impressive backhand goal off the right wing, lifting a difficult shot over the left shoulder of goaltender Sebastian Cossa on the near side. It was Rust’s first goal this preseason with linemate Jason Zucker tallying the only assist.

Any notion of a comeback was snuffed out only 2:34 into the third period when Red Wings forward Tyler Spezia claimed his first goal by rushing into the offensive zone, claiming a pass from forward Drew Worrad and pumping a far-side wrister past DeSmith’s glove on the far side. Worrad and former Penguins defenseman Olli Maatta had assists.

The only score the Penguins’ power play witnessed was a short-handed goal by Kubalik. After DeSmith fumbled a puck behind his own cage, Kubalik swooped in to swipe it and tucked in a forehand wraparound shot from the right of the cage. There were no assists.

There will be no shortage of opportunities to work on the power play for the Penguins this week.

“We won’t get discouraged,” Sullivan said. “We’ll go back to practice (Wednesday). We’ll continue to work at our gameplan. We’ll slowly implement some of the team concept. We’ll get some special teams work in here coming up this week that hopefully will give us a better opportunity to take advantage of a night like tonight when we virtually play a whole period on the power play.”

“It needs some work after not executing it very well,” Rust said. “It’s almost good that we got those. We obviously need the practice. We need to get the practice. We just have to get on the same page. We’ve got to jell and get better.”

DeSmith finished with five saves on seven shots.