Penguins shut out by Golden Knights, suffer 4th straight loss

The Pittsburgh Penguins lost their fourth consecutive game Friday, falling to the Vegas Golden Knights, 4-0, at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

This latest setback came a few hours after the Penguins dealt away a handful of players for future assets — prospects and draft picks primarily — before the NHL’s trade deadline Friday afternoon.

With forwards Anthony Beauvillier and Cody Glass — to say nothing of defenseman Luke Schenn, whose employment with the Penguins lasted approximately 40 hours — now wearing different jerseys, the Penguins were shut out for the fifth time this season.

Penguins goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic made 23 saves on 27 shots as his record slipped to 12-14-5.

“I don’t think it was the opportunities (for),” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said to reporters in Las Vegas via audio provided by the team’s media relations staff. “It was what we gave up in the third period. For two periods, five-on-five, we competed with them.”

Former Penguins forward Tanner Pearson opened the scoring 12:58 into regulation with his 11th goal of the season.

After Golden Knights forward Jack Eichel won a draw in the Penguins’ right circle, Vegas defenseman Zach Whitecloud claimed the puck at the near point and chucked a wrister toward the cage. Golden Knights forward Mark Stone established position above the crease on Penguins defenseman Vladislav Kolyachonok and deflected the puck on net. Nedeljkovic made the initial save but was unable to secure the rebound. Stone quickly gathered the puck and slid a deft backhand pass to the slot where Pearson escaped the attention of new Penguins forward Tommy Novak and fired a wrister over the blocker of a scrambling Nedeljkovic. Stone and Whitecloud had assists.

The hosts went up by two scores via forward Ivan Barbashev’s 19th goal at 4:38 of the second period.

Settling a bouncing puck at the center red line, Stone backtracked a bit toward the right wing before snapping a pass to the left wing, allowing Barbashev entry into the offensive zone. Blessed with an acre of ice and a calendar of time to operate with, Barbashev lasered a wrister by Nedeljovic’s glove on the far side. Assists went to Stone and defenseman Nicolas Hague.

Forward Brandon Saad, a native of Gibsonia, put the Golden Knights up by a field goal exactly two minutes into the third period with his 10th goal.

Off a slick touch pass from in front of the visiting bench by linemate Tomas Hertl, Saad surged into the offensive zone on the right wing. Encountering passive resistance from Penguins defenseman Ryan Shea, Saad released a knuckler of a wrister to the far side that beat the blocker of a sluggish Nedeljkovic. Assists went to Hertl and defenseman Brayden McNabb.

Stone poured it on only 54 seconds later with his 17th goal.

Winding his way into the Penguins’ zone on the left wing, Eichel spun to his left and left a drop pass for a trailing Pearson, who almost immediately distributed the puck to the right wing for an undetected Stone. With little impeding him, Stone went forehand-backhand-forehand and tucked a wrister by a left skate of a jammed-up Nedeljkovic. Pearson and Eichel extracted assists.

Golden Knights goaltender Ilya Samsonov stopped 22 shots and boosted his record to 15-8-2 while recording his third shutout this season.

“We played well for the first two periods,” Penguins forward Rickard Rakell said to reporters in Las Vegas. “Then the third it kind of got away from us a little bit.”

Notes:

• This marked the second time the Golden Knights have shut out the Penguins in franchise history. Ex-Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury made 29 saves in a 3-0 road win for the Golden Knights, on Oct. 19, 2019.

• Novak made his Penguins debut after being acquired in a trade with the Nashville Predators on Wednesday. Opening the contest at center of the third line, Novak logged 14:01 of ice time on 20 shifts and had two shots on five attempts. He also blocked one shot and was 2 for 4 on faceoffs..

• Novak became the 32nd player to wear No. 23 for the Penguins in a game of consequence. His predecessors (via PittsburghHockey.net):

George Konik, Wally Boyer, Lowell MacDonald, Ross Lonsberry, Kevin McClelland, Tom Roulston, Craig Simpson, Jimmy Mann, Mark Recchi, Richard Zemlak, Jeff Daniels, Ken Priestlay, Francois Leroux, Garry Valk, Patrick Lebeau, Ryan Savoia, Josef Beranek, Shean Donovan, Steve Webb, Eric Boguniecki, Dominic Moore, Adam Hall, Marian Hossa, Chris Conner, James Neal, Frank Corrado, Alex Galchenyuk, Dominik Simon, Sam Lafferty, Drake Caggiula, Jesse Puljujarvi

• Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin appeared in his 1,200th career game.

• Penguins defensemen Jack St. Ivany and Conor Timmins as well as forward Connor Dewar were healthy scratches.

• St. Ivany was recalled under emergency roster conditions prior to the game while Timmins and Dewar were acquired via trade on Friday afternoon and were not able to physically join the team in time for the game.

• In 20 career games against the Penguins, Stone has 26 points (12 goals, 14 assists).

• Eichel appeared in his 600th career game.