Takeaways: Penalties Costly As Penguins Lose Key Game In Regulation To Dallas Stars

The upcoming interdivisional matchup between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the New York Islanders on Monday was always going to be a big one, as the two teams are jousting for playoff positioning in the Metropolitan Division standings.

And, after Saturday's game versus the Dallas Stars - and the Islanders' tilt against the Florida Panthers - that game looms even larger.

The Penguins lost in regulation to the Stars, 6-3, in a game that was much closer than the score or the shot totals indicate. The loss kept them at 88 points, but they were leapfrogged by the Islanders for second place in the Metro after the Isles scored four unanswered goals in the second period against Florida and came away with the 5-2 regulation win.

Of course, every game is big at this time of year when you're trying to make the playoffs. But the Penguins are well aware of how big Monday's game is now, as the Penguins sit one point back of the Isles with a game in hand and just one point ahead of the Columbus Blue Jackets, who lost in regulation to the San Jose Sharks Saturday.

"I think if we're not getting up for that one, I think there's something wrong," Bryan Rust said. "I think we all know what's on the line there. I think it's going to be a fun, playoff-type game, and I think we've got to go there and be ready."

This one started out well for the Penguins, who were dominating possession early on in this game. They jumped out to an 1-0 lead a little more than two minutes into the game courtesy of a power play goal from Anthony Mantha, who deflected an Erik Karlsson shot from the point.

But, after that goal - and after some sustained five-on-five pressure, as the Stars didn't register their first shot on goal until after the midway point of the period - the Penguins started to run into some costly penalty trouble, and the back-and-forth started.

They were able to kill off a few penalties - including 37 seconds of a five-on-three opportunity - before closing out the first period. But the Stars cashed in five-on-five two minutes into the second period when Justin Hryckowian got one past Stuart Skinner to tie the game.

However, Erik Karlsson responded just 48 seconds later in the form of a top-shelf wrister from the slot - his ninth goal and 23rd point in 15 games during the month of March, which is second in the league only to Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov (26 points) - to give the Penguins back the lead at 2-1.

And that's when things started to go downhill. Parker Wotherspoon took a tripping penalty less than six minutes into the middle frame, and Jason Robertson scored his 40th goal of the season on the ensuing man advantage to knot things back up at 2-2. And just a couple of minutes after Robertson's goal, Elmer Soderblom took a high-sticking penalty to send the Penguins back to the PK.

Once again, Dallas - who has the second-ranked power play in the league - took advantage. Mikko Rantanen - playing in his first game since being injured during the Olympics - put home a one-timer from the right circle to give Dallas its first lead - a lead they wouldn't surrender.

Dallas's fourth goal came just a minute and a half later, but not without some controversy. Stars' defenseman Lian Bichsel took Karlsson's stick out of his hand near the goal line, tossed it aside, and made his way to the point as Karlsson was screaming at the official for missing the call. Bichsel took a feed from Mavrik Bourque and one-timed it into the net behind Skinner, drawing the wrath of Karlsson in the aftermath, and made it 4-2.

But, the Penguins got a little bit of momentum off of a Jamie Benn holding penalty in the first half of the third period, and they were rewarded when Elmer Soderblom shot a puck toward the net from the right wall, and it hit Noel Acciari on the way in for Acciari's 10th of the season to make it 4-3.

With Pittsburgh beginning to push a bit with three and a half minutes to go, head coach Dan Muse decided to pull Skinner a bit early, which ended up backfiring. Bourque scored an empty-netter shortly after, and he added a second one two minutes later to give Dallas the 6-2 win. 

"I thought we had an opportunity, we were in-zone, and we had it," Muse said. "I know I didn't have the timeout, but still felt like we wanted to make sure we had time to operate and time to get in there."

Here are some brief thoughts and takeaways from this one:

- The Penguins have seen several calls, and fairly obvious ones, go against them in recent games. 

The non-call on Bichsel ahead of Dallas's fourth goal was the most egregious, I think, that I've seen all season long. And it is up there with the most egregious calls/non-calls I've seen throughout the league this season. 

Referee Michael Markovic was standing right there and saw the entire thing unfold. On a hot mic - which included Karlsson screaming all the air out of his lungs - he appeared to confirm that he saw the play happen.

You cannot grab an opposing player's stick, let alone force it from their hands and throw it away from them. It's in the rule book. Yet, it happened, and Bichsel's goal ended up being the game-winner.

"We saw what happened," Karlsson said about the play in the post-game. "I don't think it does me any good, or us any good, by standing here and having excuses or pointing fingers. We all watched the same game."

In his post-game presser, Muse was asked if officiating - whether goaltender interference or penalty calls and non-calls - is something that the Penguins will just have to overcome to make the playoffs, and if it's just something he's "numb to."

"Yeah, we've got refocus in on what we can control," Muse said. "I don't think anybody's going to walk out of today feeling good about our game. Like, we've got to be better. Again, it's all of us - myself included - but the things that we have zero control over, we're not going to waste our time on that. 

"We're going to focus in on our game and what we can do to, right now, it's going to be tomorrow [to] prepare for going to New York."

- Although it felt like the Penguins had more than 12 shots in this game - 24 were blocked by Dallas - it simply was not enough. They mustered exactly four shots on goal per period. 

Honestly, the Penguins carried most of the play at five-on-five in this one. It was a matter of not being able to generate enough offense when given the opportunity. 

"Being in the box a lot didn't help," Rust said. "Against a team like that who plays hard defensively, I think we passed up too many opportunities to shoot. And, when we did shoot, I think they did a really good job of getting in shooting lanes where we either shot wide or got our shots blocked.

"And, I guess, moving forward against a lot of really good teams, we're going to, hopefully, be playing playoff hockey... that's what you've got to do because there's not going to be a lot of space."

- Even if calls didn't swing in their favor Saturday, the Penguins' penalty kill is a legitimate problem right now. 

The unit has now surrendered a goal on seven of the last 15 opportunities against. It's clear that the team is missing Blake Lizotte - as he is their best penalty-killer, and the Penguins went into a funk the last time Lizotte was injured, too - but they have to find a way to get back to basics. Right now, they're giving PPs too much time and space, and they're not getting in enough lanes to shut down opportunities. There are also too many cases of failed clearing attempts in a general sense.

I do think the PK will find its footing again, but it has to happen fast - and it has to happen without Lizotte, who isn't even scheduled to be reevaluated until the final week of the regular season. 

Also, the Penguins can't keep going back to the box like they did against Dallas. It disrupted what they had going at five-on-five, and given the struggles of their penalty kill at the moment, they need to play a more disciplined brand of hockey.

- It was interesting to see how Muse played with the lines on Saturday. In the third period, he came out with entirely different combinations than he started the game with, and for the first time, Ben Kindel got a look as the first-line center. 

He had Kindel centering Rickard Rakell and Rust, Tommy Novak centering Anthony Mantha and Egor Chinakhov (who had a rare off-night), Connor Dewar centering Ville Koivunen and Rutger McGroarty, and Noel Acciari in the middle of Elmer Soderblom and Justin Brazeau.

Kindel helped generate some opportunity, and I thought he played a pretty good game overall. He started on a "kid line" with Koivunen and McGroarty - and they had some opportunities earlier in the game - but those two didn't generate too much in this one. 

- Speaking of Novak and Brazeau, they have gone ice-cold for the Penguins.

Both have just one point in their last 10 games and none in their last six, which - in a vacuum - may not be so much an issue if the Penguins had Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin in their lineup. But, they don't, and they desperately need depth scoring. 

And they aren't getting it, period. Mantha, Chinakhov, Karlsson, Rakell, Crosby, and Rust have accounted for 16 out of the Penguins' last 18 goals. And Crosby, Rust, and Mantha only have one each.

So, essentially, the Penguins are pretty heavily relying on scoring from three people right now, and that is not going to be enough if they expect to make the playoffs. Novak has been the team's second-line center for the better part of the second half, and if he is to stay in that post, he needs to produce. And Brazeau, honestly, could be fighting Soderblom for a spot in the lineup once everyone is healthy, should his drought continue. 

I actually think it might make sense to keep Rakell as first-line center right now, along with Rust and Chinakhov, as that line had been pretty lethal when put together a few times. But I'd have Kindel center a second line with Mantha and, perhaps, McGroarty, and allow Novak to find his game again in a third-line center role. 

But, there are no easy lineup decisions - especially at center - when the team is as depleted down the middle as this one is. So, this is probably going to continue to be a situation where Muse will throw everything at the wall just to see what sticks.

- Luckily for the Penguins, the Blue Jacket and Detroit Red Wings both lost in regulation. Since the Isles won earlier, had both of those teams won in regulation, the Penguins would have been pushed out a playoff spot. 

Again, the game on Monday against New York is massive. It's probably the biggest game the Penguins have played in a couple of years, and then, they have to turn around and play another big game against the Red Wings on Tuesday.

Not every game is a must-win, and this one against Dallas was not. However, if there are two "must-win" games in the final nine games of the regular season for the Penguins, it's these two. 

So, buckle up, folks. These next two games are going to be playoff-style hockey with the involvement of three desperate teams.

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