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E-mailDominant month ends badly for Penguins
Nicklas Backstrom
Chaz Palla/Tribune-Review
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Rob Rossi is the Penguins beat writer. He can be reached via e-mail. Also check out Rossi's blog or follow him on Twitter.
Lady Luck turned a trick on the Penguins, who probably deserved a treat on Halloween.
Despite a 35-15 shots advantage and a considerable time spent swarming in the offensive zone, the Penguins closed October with a 2-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild at Mellon Arena on Saturday night.
In a franchise record-setting opening month, the Penguins (11-3-0, 22 points) scored only two goals in three losses at home to Phoenix, New Jersey and Minnesota.
Perhaps the Penguins are fortunate that a four-game road trip opens Tuesday at Anaheim because they are a franchise-best 6-0-0 away from Pittsburgh - including a stirring comeback victory on Friday night when they scored twice in the final three minutes at Columbus and won in a shootout.
"We probably stole two points (against the Blue Jackets), and we probably should have won (last night)," winger Bill Guerin said. "That's hockey."
Coach Dan Bylsma said the Penguins played "as close to a perfect game, 5-on-5, as we've played."
Added Bylsma: "We played three hard periods, had a lot of action around the net, and dictated in the pace in the offensive zone."
All the scoring in this game came in the first period.
Minnesota, which hadn't taken a point from eight road contests, went ahead, 1-0, midway through on center Kyle Brodziak's second goal. He jumped on a rebound from a shot by Wild winger Chuck Kobasew.
The Penguins pulled even a few minutes later on winger Pascal Dupuis's second goal, a blast from near the left circle to which Wild goalie Nicklas Backstrom never reacted.
At that point, momentum was with the Penguins, but they seemingly fell asleep in the final seconds — and Wild center Eric Belanger was unguarded in the slot to receive a behind-the-cage pass from winger Martin Havlat. Belanger ripped his fourth goal past Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury with 19:59 showing on the scoreboard clock.
Backstrom made that tally hold up, turning aside 19 shots over the final two periods and preventing the Penguins from scoring on three power plays.
Minnesota was credited with only 11 blocked shots — a total Bylsma would probably dispute and one his former boss in the AHL, one-time Wilkes-Barre/Scranton head coach Todd Richards, now behind the bench with the Wild, might find puzzling.
"We will have to go back and look at the video tape," Richard said. "I thought our defensemen competed very hard and so did our forwards."
The Penguins are 3 for 23 on the advantage in five contests without power-play quarterback defenseman Sergei Gonchar, who is out at least another three weeks with a broken left wrist.
Center Evgeni Malkin (strained right shoulder) and winger Tyler Kennedy (undisclosed injury) also did not play for the Penguins last night. Malkin is out for at least two weeks, and the Penguins have not identified a return date for Kennedy, who has scored five goals.
Despite failing to set an NHL record for October wins, the Penguins won't enter November with a completely sour taste in their months.
"We can keep our heads up after this one," captain Sidney Crosby said after playing almost 24 minutes — even though he was in the penalty box for seven, including five minutes served for fighting Wild defenseman Marek Zidlicky late in the second period.
"We've played some good hockey. Our other two losses were ones we realized we could be better. If you're going to lose, I guess it's better to lose this way."
