The struggling Pittsburgh Penguins will try to start turning things around on Saturday night when they host the Utah Hockey Club, who are also having a tough time.
Michael Bunting scored the only goal for the Penguins on Friday, but they lost 4-1 to the Winnipeg Jets, marking their seventh loss in nine games (2-4-3). Bunting has contributed two goals and two assists in his last five games.
Captain Sidney Crosby, who is still one goal away from reaching 600 career goals, was held without a shot on goal in the loss.
“We’ve got to continue to push the group to engage more physically at both ends of the rink, both in our end and in the offensive zone,” said Penguins coach Mike Sullivan. “I just think we’ve got to get into people more on the defensive side, and we’ve got to get over pucks on the offensive side so that we can force teams to expend energy defending us.
Right now, we don’t have nearly enough offensive zone time, and we’re not earning ice down there by hanging on to pucks and forcing them to defend us.”
Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry made 26 saves on Friday but allowed a goal on the first shot he faced.
Backup goalie Alex Nedeljkovic has a record of 3-3-3 with an .886 save percentage and a 3.17 goals-against average in 10 games this season. He has faced the Arizona Coyotes franchise, now the Utah Hockey Club, twice in his career and has a 0-1-1 record with an .839 save percentage and a 4.63 GAA.
Evgeni Malkin, who assisted Bunting’s goal on Friday, leads the team with 15 assists and 20 points in 22 games. Crosby and Rickard Rakell are tied for the team lead in goals with seven each.
The Penguins and Coyotes split their two meetings last season. Pittsburgh won 4-2 on Dec. 12, but the Coyotes responded with a 5-2 win on Jan. 22.
The Utah Hockey Club comes to Pittsburgh looking to avoid their fourth straight loss.
On Thursday, Utah lost 1-0 to Boston in the first game of a four-game road trip. The team will visit Toronto on Sunday and finish the trip in Montreal on Tuesday.
“We should have been better offensively, at supporting the puck here and putting speed around them,” said Utah coach Andre Tourigny after Thursday’s loss. “We’re a fast team, and if we don’t create speed around the puck and around their defensemen, it gets easy to shut down.”
Dylan Guenther leads Utah with seven goals, and Clayton Keller has 16 points on the season.
Goalie Connor Ingram has a 6-4-3 record, with an .871 save percentage and a 3.61 GAA in 13 games this season. In two career games against the Penguins, Ingram is 1-1-0 with a 2.53 GAA and a .928 save percentage.
Saturday’s game will be the first of two meetings between the Penguins and Utah this season. The teams will face off again on Jan. 29 in Utah.
