Penguins Bedeviled in 5-2 Loss

Our Penguins tried to atone for Friday night’s ghastly giveaway loss to the Islanders. Sort of. They played a reasonably strong first period against a fast, young New Jersey squad yesterday afternoon at PPG Paints Arena. Even took the early lead just 3:33 in thanks to a power-play marker off the rush by Evgeni Malkin.

Although they gave up the game-tying goal just 80 seconds later…endemic of the team’s myriad issues…they continued to give a pretty fair account of themselves through the remainder of the opening frame. At least by present black-and-gold standards.

Whether due to tired legs from playing the night before or the fact that they were facing a superior opponent (or a combination thereof), the Pens simply faded like a sick daisy over the final 40 minutes, resulting in a 5-2 loss. Disheartening as it was disappointing.

I won’t delve too much into the gory details. Dougie Hamilton struck from point-blank range on the power play at 3:47 of the second period, followed in fairly short order by a shorty from rising star Nico Hischier. Speedy Jesper Bratt extended the Devils’ lead to 4-1 at 8:39 of the third period before Malkin notched his second goal of the game six minutes later to give the Pens a pulse. 

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