San Jose slips past Penguins
calendar flipped to 2018.
The problem was they only got one of those chances past San Jose goalie Aaron Dell, and that meant a 2-1 loss to wrap up their three game California road trip.
“It was a pretty even game, it could’ve went either way,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “I thought both goalies played extremely well. We had a number of high-quality chances, so did they. It was one of those types of games. I thought our team played hard, we just couldn’t find a wayto score a goal.”
The Penguins had 32 shots on goal, their sixth consecutive game with at least 30. Their high-level offensive players were getting the looks, too, as Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel accounted for a third of those shots.
“Just got to bury the puck,” Crosby said. “At the end of the day, it’s execution. I had some really good looks. Put a couple of those in, it’s a different game. It just comes down to execution. We competed hard, we generated some good looks.”
Players also pointed to the Penguins power play, which went 0 for 3 in the game with seven shots. Power plays are going to have scoreless nights — it happens quite often — but the Penguins might have gotten used to their league-leading man-advantage unit bailing them out in games like this.
It doesn’t help matters that the Sharks game-winner was a Tomas Hertl power-play goal early in the third.
“We had our power-play opportunities and we didn’t capitalize,” Conor Sheary said. “Eventually their power play decided the game. I think it’s just one of those games.”
Sheary was the only player who was able to solve Dell, the Sharks backup thrust into starting duty as Martin Jones deals with an injury. Sheary scored his first goal in eight games off a feed from Dominik Simon to open the scoring early in the first.
If the loss Saturday is a trade-off for a revitalized Sheary down the stretch, that’s a deal the Penguins might make. Sheary had just one goal in 10 games going into Saturday night, but saidhe felt like his game was moving in the right direction.
“I’ve been trying to be more consistent in my game,” Sheary said. “I’m obviously not putting up the numbers I’d like to, personally, but I think if I bring the work ethic and compete that I can bring every night, I can help this team win.”
Sheary probably did enough to help the Penguins win Saturday night — especially considering he missed the final five minutes of the second period after blocking a Marc-Edouard Vlasic slap shot with his left forearm — but they ended up just one lucky bounce short of at least forcing overtime.
That meant Casey DeSmith, making his second consecutive start in goal after a strong performance Thursday against the Kings, was the loser despite being, in Sullivan’s words, “terrific.”
“I think he looks pretty poised in there,” Crosby said. “I’m sure it was good for him to get that first one under his belt. He looks poised and solid and confident in there.”
The loss also means the Penguins stay just one point clear of the Flyers for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. That’s one of the ripple effects of their subpar first half. There will be times the rest of the way when, like Saturday night, the Penguins play well but don’t win. They can’t afford to have too many more nights where they don’t even give themselvesa chance.
Fortunately for them, if they keep playing the way they did against the Sharks, those nights will be few and far between.
“Since the New Year, we’ve kind of been getting to the game that we know is successful for us and tonight was no different,” Sheary said. “We just had opportunities to score that we didn’t, and their power play beat us.”