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About an hour ago
In recent weeks, almost everything has gone well for the first line of the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Saturday afternoon, almost everything went wrong.
Sidney Crosby did not have a lot of chances to score in front of goalkeeper Jordan Binnington, his teammates Jake Guentzel and Jared McCann were on the ice for the first three goals of St. Louis, and the Blues won a 5 -1 to PPG Arena Paintings.
The Penguins, who had won six of their last seven games, had a run of three straight wins.
"It's hard when you feel like you do not give them a lot, and then you give them real qualities like that," Crosby said. "I'm late to meet a guy a few times and it ends up in the back of the net. It's hard. We still had a lot of hockey to play and we just could not go back. "
While the Penguins, who were in third place, were two points behind Detroit's second-placed Detroit Islanders, the loss left the door open for the teams behind to narrow the gap in the playoffs. of the Eastern Conference.
"I think our mentality must be the playoffs," said Crosby. "Sometimes it does not go well and you have to forget it. Fortunately, we play tomorrow. Our mentality must be on this point and make sure to find a way out with two points. "
On the game that led to St. Louis's first goal, Guentzel was covered by Brian Dumoulin, but he was overtaken by Colton Parayko as he attempted to defend himself. Former Penguins center Oskar Sundqvist scored from the top of the right circle.
The game that became St. Louis' second goal started with a Guentzel turnover inside the defensive blue line. Vince Dunn scored on an open shot of the slot.
At St. Louis' third goal, Crosby won a faceoff in the offensive zone, but McCann could not score the puck. Jordan Thomas counter-attacked and focused on Patrick Maroon to bring the score to 3-0.
By entering the game, the Penguins had beaten their opponents 60-24 when Crosby and Guentzel were together on the ice five to five this season.
Saturday, they turned on the tables.
"This line has been great for us," said coach Mike Sullivan. "These are three guys who played so well for us. We need to do a better job on two of them to make sure we come back and not get hit on the ice and we stop to defend the goal area, but I'm definitely not going to think too much. I know this line will respond correctly. "
When Jay Bouwmeester scored 70 seconds after Maroon to score 4-0, goaltender Matt Murray was eliminated after stopping 9 of 13 shots.
After the match, Sullivan said the Penguins needed to do a better job of protecting the slot ahead of Murray. The goalkeeper did not necessarily see it that way.
"They had some really good chances and I could not make the stops," Murray said. "I really have to be better. As a team, I think we played very well most of the time. "
Jordan Binnington, his goalkeeper counterpart, did not have such problems at the other end of the ice. He made a spectacular performance with 40 saves, including first-half power over Crosby and a second-half breakaway.
"We are a little late on the ball with our start," said Crosby. "We continued the game and unfortunately we could not put anything back in the game."
Jonathan Bombulie is an editor of Tribune-Review. You can contact Jonathan by email at [email protected] or via Twitter. .
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