Penguins Take Another Tough Loss, Shut Out by Edmonton | 3/10/2024

The Penguins hosted the Edmonton Oilers at the PPG Paints Arena on Sunday, March 10th in hopes of ending their two-game losing streak. Pittsburgh took a tough 6-0 loss against the Washington Capitals following a relieving 5-3 victory when they played the Columbus Blue Jackets. They took another loss after the Capitals against the Boston Bruins on Saturday before getting shut out 4-0 by the Oilers. Calvin Pickard made 41 saves for Edmonton, and Connor McDavid had a goal and recorded two assists.

Oilers lineup against the Penguins:

Nugent-Hopkins – McDavid – Hyman

McLeod – Draisaitl – Foegele

Kane – Henrique – Brown

Janmark – Ryan – Perry

Ekholm – Bouchard

Nurse – Desharnias

Kulak – Ceci

Pickard

Penguins lineup against the Oilers:

Bunting – Crosby – Rust

Smith – Malkin – Puustinen

Rakell – Eller – Bemstrom

Gruden – Acciari – Carter

Pettersson – Letang

Graves – Karlsson

Ludvig – Joseph

Jarry

Nedeljkovic

Connor McDavid began the scoring just one minute into the first period, putting Edmonton ahead 1-0. McDavid scored on a snap shot at the high slot after intercepting a pass at the blue line from Kris Letang. At 11:07, ending a 39-game goal drought – Mattias Ekholm went for the 2-0 lead with a one-timer through traffic. His shot deflected off John Ludvig’s leg and in past Tristan Jarry.

Edmonton held onto their two-nothing lead throughout the remainder of the first period and through the whole second, heading into the final frame.

Darnell Nurse extended the Oilers’ lead to 3-0 at 9:18 of the third period. He sent a wrister from the left circle after he took a pass from Connor McDavid… at 4:02, Nurse struck again for his second goal of the game and his eighth of the season for the 4-0 final.

Tristan Jarry on the Penguins 4-0 loss, who made 38 saves for Pittsburgh: “It’s tough. Obviously, the games haven’t gone the way we wanted probably the last six or seven. It’s just finding that motivation – finding something that motivates you and something that can elevate your game to bring a new level to every game,” – “It’s obviously tough. I think just, collectively as a team, we’ve played very well. I think we’ve been giving up a lot of chances and obviously, the puck hasn’t been going in for us, so I think it puts a cloud over a lot of guys.”

Notes:

– The Penguins have had at least 39 shots on goal in each of their three consecutive losses, only scoring once on 119 shots.

– Bryan Rust had six shots on goal in 19:22 of ice time after returning, missing seven games due to an upper-body injury.

– Mattis Ekholm had a goal and an assist… Connor McDavid had his 30th multi-point game this season, and ties with Nikita Kucherov for the third in the NHL behind Nathan MacKinnon (35) and David Pastrnak (32). Darnell Nurse had a game-high seven shots on goal.