Penguins Lose Rust in Loss to Anaheim

It was a tough night for the Penguins on Thursday in Anaheim. Not only were they unable to carry over the momentum from Monday’s win over Los Angeles – they lost winger Bryan Rust late in the second period. He left the game with a lower-body injury and did not return.

Rust had entered tonight with goals in three of his last four games, with 19 total on the season – which ranks second on the Penguins behind only Rickard Rakell’s 23. Rust is just one goal shy of hitting the 20-goal plateau for the sixth straight season, and with one more goal, Rust will tie Sidney Crosby and Mario Lemieux for the sixth-longest such run in team history.

"Yeah, you don't like seeing guys go down. He plays a lot of important minutes in every situation. So, hopefully he's okay,” the Penguins captain said.

That victory against the Kings came despite a challenging schedule. It was their third game in four nights, with the team traveling coast to coast on Sunday after a weekend back-to-back in Buffalo and Washington.

The Penguins then had two days before their matchup with the Ducks. Matt Grzelcyk said they watched a lot of video on their practice day Wednesday, and hoped to use that game as a template moving forward.

“It was a good example of how we need to play the game. Doesn't make it easy, it's tough to play that way. But, we got to find a way to do that more consistently,” Crosby said.

The Penguins opened the game with a 7-0 edge in shots, but couldn’t get one to cross the line. The Ducks then strung together a few good shifts, and they got rewarded with a goal around the midway point of the period. With less than a minute to go, Anaheim found another tally to take a 2-0 lead into the intermission.

“Shots were pretty even, but, I mean, I don't think we were at our best, honestly, in the first period,” said Alex Nedeljkovic, who stopped 29 of 33 shots. “Tough start, tough start for us. I think we could have been better. And honestly, if I find a way to make that save at the end of the period, maybe it's a little different, it's 1-1 after the first. So, it's a tough one to swallow."

Pittsburgh’s power play cut the deficit to 2-1, which is no surprise considering how that group has been clicking as of late. They have now converted on the man-advantage in 11 of the last 15 games since Dec. 23, going 17-for-42. Going back further, the Penguins have 25 power-play goals in their last 25 games.

Michael Bunting keeps adding to his career high in that category, scoring his ninth power-play tally of the year with an assist from Rust.

“I thought we responded in the second period. I thought we had a pretty good second period. But, obviously the first 20 isn't good enough,” Head Coach Mike Sullivan said. “I just didn't think we had the same intentions that we did in the game prior. I just didn't think we played with the same conviction. And, for whatever reason, the first period wasn't the type of game that we wanted to play.”

Early in the third period, a bad bounce off the stanchion resulted in Mason MacTavish finding his second goal of the night. Frank Vatrano got on the board a few minutes later, and the win was iced with an empty netter.

“You have to earn your two points every single night,” Nedeljkovic said. “For the most part, things are going to even out, and they're going to fall in your favor if you keep bringing it and you bring detailed games every single night. There's not much more to say other than that's just to a man, we have to figure that out. And everybody's got their own way of getting going individually every single day, and whatever it takes you, whatever it takes for you to find that in yourself, you got to do it."

“We got to find ways to get points here and we’re kind of running out of games to keep playing. So, yeah, it’s disappointing tonight,” Matt Grzelcyk added.