The Pittsburgh Penguins were unable to stop their losing streak as the Florida Panthers cruised to a 3-1 victory Friday night at Sunrise.
Pittsburgh thus lost in a fourth consecutive game and is back below the .500 mark with a record of 11-12-3.
The numerical advantage was once again held in check. Mike Sullivan’s squad was blocked twice against the Panthers, increasing their streak to 35 attempts without scoring a goal with a man advantage.
The Penguins still opened the scoring midway through the second period, courtesy of Reilly Smith’s seventh goal of the season. The former member of the Panthers accepted Evgeny Malkin’s pass to beat Sergei Bobrovsky in front of the net.
The Florida goalkeeper stopped 26 shots to score his 13the victory of the season.
In front of him, Oliver Ekman-Larsson jumped on a loose puck at the end of the second period to beat Tristan Jarry. It’s already a seventh goal for the defender this season.
Eetu Luostarinen then gave the Panthers the lead in the third period. The 25-year-old Finn took advantage of a leaping return from Jarry to score the winning goal. Aleksander Barkov scored into an empty net to secure the victory for the home side.
Pittsburgh now returns home after playing the last three games on the road. The Arizona Coyotes will be the next opponent on Tuesday.
As for the Panthers, they will face the Blue Jackets on Sunday in Columbus.
The young Blue Jackets hit hard
The youth carried the Columbus Blue Jackets who defeated the St. Louis Blues 5-2.
Yegor Chinakhov led the charge with two goals in the third in addition to being an accomplice on Kirill Marchenko’s goal, which opened the scoring in the first. Marchenko’s goal helped rewrite his club’s record books with his 30th career goal in his 86th game. It took Rick Nash 96 games to reach this plateau which held this mark.
The Blues suffered a second loss in a row despite 43 shots on goal.
Adam Fantilli also scored for the Blue Jackets, who got 30 goals this season from players 23 or younger.
Alexandre Texier completed in an empty net.
The victory could, however, be costly for Columbus who lost the services of Boone Jenner. The captain was hit in the face by the puck in the second period. He did not return to the game afterward.
Dmitri Voronkov had two assists in the victory.
Robert Thomas responded for the Blues with his two goals.
Jet Greaves made 39 saves in front of the Blue Jackets cage while Joel Hofer stopped 20 shots.
