The San Jose Sharks will look to complete their four-game road trip on a high note when they visit the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night.
Struggling Pittsburgh is coming off a 6-2 loss at the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday night and will play its next five games at home.
Anthony Beauvillier collected a goal and an assist and Michael Bunting also scored on Friday for the Penguins, who have lost three straight games and five of their last six (1-3-2).
“We’re looking for (consistency), obviously,” Pittsburgh superstar captain Sidney Crosby said. “We’ve got to commit to play the same way. That’s not always easy to do. There’s a lot of things that can affect that. We can’t allow anything to change the way we play.”
Crosby, who had an assist on Friday, remains two goals shy of 600 for his career.
Beauvillier extended his goal streak to three games and is tied with Crosby and Rickard Rakell for the team lead in goals (six). Tristan Jarry returned from a stint at Wilkes Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League to work on his game. He made 33 saves in his first start since Oct. 16.
Bunting’s goal tied the game 2-2 in the second period before Columbus pulled away in the third.
“You look at a couple of the goals they score, they’re outside shots where the rebound lays there,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “We’re either puck-watching or we don’t get into people. We got to be harder at our net front, and we got to make ’em work harder for those types of goals.”
Pittsburgh defenseman Kris Letang missed the game due to illness. Meanwhile, forward Matt Nieto played 13:26 and had one shot on goal in his first NHL game since Nov. 30, 2023. He had reconstructive MCL surgery on his left knee in May after undergoing laparoscopic surgery to his right knee in January.
The Sharks fell to 1-1-1 on their road swing after dropping a 3-2 decision at the New York Rangers on Thursday.
The game started well for San Jose as defenseman Timothy Liljegren scored his first goal of the season at 2:51 of the first period to give the Sharks a 1-0 lead. But the second period belonged to the Rangers, who scored three times, once after Chris Kreider intercepted Mackenzie Blackwood’s backhand pass along the boards that ultimately led to Mika Zibanejad scoring the tying goal.
“We mismanaged some pucks, and a good team like that will make you pay,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “We didn’t do that in the first, and that’s why we had success. But we mismanaged pucks, soft puck play, and it’s in the back of our net.”
The Sharks were outshot 16-6 in the second period and 11-4 through the first 10 minutes of the third.
Fabian Zetterlund scored a power-play goal with 26 seconds remaining to pull the Sharks within 3-2. Blackwood finished with 32 saves.
“Did a lot of good things in this game,” San Jose’s Alexander Wennberg said. “There are parts of it that you want to learn from. But we made a push at the end. Obviously, it wasn’t enough.”
–Field Level Media