While Carolina has gotten the edge in most of their matchups with Pittsburgh dating back to 2019, last year’s battles were close, with two going to overtime.
Tonight’s, however, was not. The Hurricanes defeated the Penguins 5-1 on Thursday at Lenovo Center for their eighth win in a row. Blake Lizotte netted the lone Pittsburgh goal, his second in four games since returning from a concussion suffered in the preseason.
“I thought we had a lot of guys that played really hard and didn't get rewarded for their efforts,” Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan said. “I think there were a few guys that didn't live up to the expectation, and it's hard. We need everybody to bring it every night to give ourselves the best chance to win.”
While the Penguins ended up with a 36-19 edge in shots on the night, Carolina took more of a quality over quantity approach, particularly in the first period. The Hurricanes scored on their first shot of the game, a re-direct that got past Alex Nedeljkovic in the opening minute.
“it's very tough. You give up the first shot of the game, and it's never a good feeling,” Nedeljkovic said. “Especially since I thought we played really well that first period, only gave them four shots. Two of them end up in the net. It sucks. It's a crappy feeling. That was the difference in the game, was their guy (Pyotr Kochetkov) was that much better than I was.”
While the Penguins didn’t convert a double minor for high sticking on Ryan Graves in the last five minutes, they regrouped and put together a tremendous effort on their next power play, awarded just 1:13 into the second period.
But they couldn’t find a goal on the man-advantage, while the Hurricanes found two more at even strength before the teams went into the second intermission.
“I think overall, we generated more than enough chances to put one or two in. And unfortunately, today, we couldn’t,” said defenseman Erik Karlsson, who finished the night a minus-3.
Lizotte was able to ruin Kochetkov’s shutout bid early in the final frame, but it was too little, too late at that point.
“Maybe if we leave the second period down two or three-nothing instead of four, maybe we got a little bit more life after that goal, right? 3-1’s a heck of a lot different than I think it was think five at that point,” Nedeljkovic said. “So, just tough night to have when we had that kind of effort.”
The Penguins have to turn the page quickly, as they finish their three-game divisional road trip on Friday in Washington.
“Overall, I don’t think it was as bad as the score indicated today. We just got to find a way to get even more confidence, and try and play with a little bit more confidence throughout the entire game,” Karlsson said. “You can tell that's what they're playing with right now. Their record is what it is. They're feeling good about themselves no matter what happens in the game. That's kind of the spot we have to get to.”
