Penguins Gain Five of Six Possible Points on Season-Opening Road Trip
The Pittsburgh Penguins ended their season-opening Western Canada road trip with a shootout loss to the Edmonton Oilers last night. The Penguins defeated the Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames in the team’s previous games, ending the trip with five of six possible points.
Kris Letang scored his first goal of the season, and now has four points in the team’s three games. Letang’s goal came on the power play just three minutes into the game, with assists from Steve Sullivan and Tyler Kennedy.
Unfortunately, the Penguins couldn’t muster any more goals without Evgeni Malkin in the lineup (lower body). Rookie Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored his first career goal in his first career game, notching the game-tying goal with five minutes left in the game.
Goaltender Brent Johnson was great in relief of Marc-Andre Fleury, who had played the team’s previous two games. Johnson stopped 34 of the 35 shots he faced.
Oilers goalie Devan Dubnyk stopped 33 of the 34 Penguins shots thrown his way, and really kept the Oilers in the game long enough to steal this win.
Where the Penguins missed Fleury the most was clearly in the shootout. Johnson didn’t make a save, allowing Jordan Eberle and Ales Hemsky to score, while Linus Omark missed the net on his Datsyukian flip-shot attempt.
The Penguins killed off all five Oilers power plays and have not allowed a power play goal thus far. The team went 1-8 on their own power play.
The Penguins will take on the Florida Panthers tomorrow night at the Consol Energy Center. Malkin’s status is still unknown, but his injury is not considered serious at this point.
Game time is 7:30 ET on Versus.
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