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.
