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Utah spoils Sidney Crosby's milestone night as Penguins suffer 8th loss in past 10 games | TribLIVE.com
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Penguins/NHL

Utah spoils Sidney Crosby's milestone night as Penguins suffer 8th loss in past 10 games

Seth Rorabaugh
Seth Rorabaugh
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The Penguins’ Sidney Crosby is upended in front of Utah goaltender Karel Vejmelka in the first period Saturday.
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The Penguins’ Drew O’Connor loses control of the puck as Utah’s Logan Cooley defends during the first period Saturday.
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The Penguins’ Sidney Crosby attempts to swat the puck out of the air in front of Utah goaltender Karel Vejmelka (70) as Liam O’Brien defends during the first period Saturday.
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The Penguins’ Sidney Crosby beats Utah goaltender Karel Vejmelka for his 600th career goal during the second period Saturday.
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The Penguins’ Sidney Crosby celebrates his 600th career goal with Evgeni Malkin (71) and Rickard Rakell during the second period Saturday.
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The Penguins’ Sidney Crosby celebrates his 600th career goal against Utah on Saturday.
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Utah’s Nick Schmaltz is knocked off his skates by the Penguins’ Sidney Crosby after getting off a shot in front of Penguins goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic as Marcus Pettersson defends during the second period.

Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic didn’t have to ruminate a great deal when asked how to describe his team last week.

“Inconsistent is probably a good word, a good way to describe it,” Nedeljkovic said in Cranberry on Wednesday. “Game to game, period to period, sometimes even shift to shift. Shot to shot for us as goalies. Inconsistent up and down. It’s hard to win like that.”

That theorem was validated once again Saturday as the Penguins were routed by the Utah Hockey Club, 6-1, at PPG Paints Arena in the first meeting ever between the two franchises.

In its first year of existence, Utah is primarily composed of assets (players, coaches, executives, etc.) from the now-defunct Arizona Coyotes franchise but the history of that outfit did not transfer to the Beehive State.

As for the home team, it celebrated history as captain Sidney Crosby scored the 600th goal of his spellbinding existence as an NHLer. A brief celebration was held along the boards near the team’s runway as players streamed off the bench to mob the captain after he scored on a power-play opportunity.

But the Penguins’ recent history keeps getting gloomier as Saturday’s result was their eighth loss in their past 10 games (2-5-3).

“It’s not enjoyable, obviously,” Crosby said regarding the blend of personal accomplishment with team-wide futility. “It was a nice reception and a cool moment. I thought we got some momentum off that power play and were doing some good things. Obviously, they get one shortly after and get the lead back. Even with that, we’re still in the game.

“We’re doing some good things and it gets away from us.”

Nedeljkovic made 24 saves on 30 shots and his record dropped to 3-4-3.

The goaltender was exacerbated over his team’s latest setback.

“It (stinks),” Nedeljkovic said. “This (stinks). The only other way I can maybe say (it) is if we want to stop feeling like this after games — if you want to stop getting embarrassed at home — do something about it. Pay a price. Do something. Feel something else. Anything else feels better than whatever that was tonight and what we’ve been putting out there as a whole this year. We’ve had good efforts lately.

“The game was right there. It was within striking distance. Then … the third period just wasn’t it. But we can’t let it unravel like that.”

Utah forward Jack McBain, the son of former Penguins forward Andrew McBain, opened the scoring with his sixth goal of the season 8:54 into regulation.

Accepting a pass on the right half-wall of the offensive zone, Utah forward Dylan Guenther worked his way by the near corner and behind the cage. With a newly formed duo of Penguins defenseman Ryan Graves and Matt Grzelcyk — each left-handers — on the ice, both players pursued Guenther who took advantage of that miscue by slipping a clever backhand pass to the right of the crease. McBain was stationed there and shoveled in a quick forehand shot under Nedeljkovic’s left leg. Guenther and linemate Logan Cooley, a West Mifflin native, had assists.

The visitors struck again at 13:07 of the first period via defenseman Mikhail Sergachev’s fifth goal.

After Penguins forward Jesse Puljujarvi appeared to be tripped in the offensive zone — without a penalty — Cooley claimed possession and initiated transition, offloading the puck to Utah forward Nick Schmaltz. Upon gaining entry into the offensive zone on the right wing, Schmaltz dished a cross-ice pass above the left circle for linemate Clayton Keller who fed the puck to the high slot. Accepting the pass, Sergachev had an acre of ice and a calendar of time to pick his shot, a laser-guided wrister by Nedeljkovic’s glove hand. Cooley drove to the cage on the sequence, helping generate a shooting lane. Keller and Schmaltz claimed assists.

Schmaltz appeared to score a goal at 18:27 of the first frame but the Penguins issued a successful coach’s challenge claiming goaltender interference by former Penguins forward Nick Bjugstad who bumped into Nedeljkovic.

Crosby’s team-leading eighth goal of the season came at 3:11 of the second frame during a five-on-three power-play sequence.

Off a battle on Utah’s end boards, ex-Penguins defenseman Robert Bortuzzo tried to clear a puck during the expiring seconds of the power-play sequence but wound up turning the puck over to current Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson in the high slot. Faking a shot, Karlsson instead slid a smooth pass to Crosby low to the right of the cage. With goaltender Karel Vejmelka unable to react in time, Crosby fired a bad-angle wrister into the cage. Teammates jumped off the bench and swarmed the captain near the home runway to celebrate. The only assist went to Karlsson.

Bjugstad’s 153rd career goal (and third of the season) came at 10:37 of the second frame during a five-on-four power-play scenario.

Settling a saucer pass in the right circle of the offensive zone, Utah forward Michael Carcone slid the puck to the high slot where Utah defenseman Michael Kesselring clapped a one-timer. Establishing position above the crease against Penguins rookie defenseman Owen Pickering, Bjugstad had the puck glance off his right leg and deflect under Nedeljkovic’s right leg. Kesselring and Carcone collected assists.

“That’s the changing point of the game,” Bjugstad said. “He scores a big goal, a historical goal. It’s great for Sid, a great guy. But for us, I think we stayed with it. Our mentality was pretty even-keeled. So, it was good and that’s what it takes to win these types of games, for sure.”

Utah put the game out of reach in the third period via Guenther’s team-best eighth goal during a power-play sequence at the 6:38 mark.

Taking a feed in the Penguins’ right circle, Schmaltz snapped a wrister toward the cage that struck a cluster of bodies amassed in the crease. During he ensuing chaos, Guenther was shoved to the ice by Penguins defenseman Marcus Pettersson but managed to shovel a forehand shot into the cage. Schmaltz and Keller had assists.

Utah forward Alex Kerfoot’s third goal came at the 7:25 mark.

Settling a puck at the right point of the offensive zone, Utah forward Maveric Lamoreux waited, waited and waited before chucking a wrister toward the cage. With Grzelcyk offering minimal resistance, Kerfoot set up shop above the crease and deflected the bouncing puck with the backhand of his stick blade by Nedeljkovic’s blocker. Assists went to Lamoreux and Carcone.

Guenther struck again on another power-play opportunity at 15:59.

Claiming a puck to the right of the crease, Cooley managed to pass it under Nedeljkovic to the lower left circle. Guenther stopped it with his left skate then fired a quick wrister from a tough angle behind a beleaguered Nedeljkovic. Cooley and Keller had assists.

In their first meeting against a new team, the Penguins saw a result that has become more and more common, particularly in recent weeks.

Can this be fixed?

“It doesn’t take a lot to play the right way, to play smart, to play with some detail,” Nedeljkovic implored. ‘It doesn’t take talent, it doesn’t take skill. You don’t have to be the strongest guy, the smartest guy, the most fit, whatever. All it is just an attitude, a mindset. We have that at times. We’ve shown it at times this year. We just need to put it together more consistently.

“It’s not going to happen overnight. We have one good game and you get the results, that’s great. You’re happy about it but you’ve got to do it again the next day. Then you’ve got to do it in practice too. It’s not just in the games. It’s got to start in practice. It’s just a mindset.”

Notes:

• Penguins forward Kevin Hayes was activated from injured reserve prior to the game and returned to the lineup after missing eight games due to an undisclosed ailment.

• In a corresponding transaction, rookie forward Vasily Ponomarev was assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League.

• Graves returned to the lineup after being a healthy scratch for three games.

• Penguins defensemen Ryan Shea and Jack St. Ivany as well as forward Valtteri Puustinen were healthy scratches.

• In 12 career games against the Penguins, Schmaltz now has 13 points (four goals, nine assists).

• In three career games against the Penguins, Cooley has three points (all assists).

• This was the largest margin of victory in Utah’s 20-game history.

Seth Rorabaugh is a TribLive reporter covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. A North Huntingdon native, he joined the Trib in 2019 and has covered the Penguins since 2007. He can be reached at srorabaugh@triblive.com.

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