Penguins outworked in latest loss to Hurricanes

The Carolina Hurricanes have offered plenty of frustration to the Pittsburgh Penguins in recent years by employing a suffocating and aggressive man-on-man style of defense somewhat exclusive to their team.

As a result, they had compiled an 11-3-1 record against the Penguins in the previous 15 games between the two outfits entering Friday.

And sure enough, Friday’s 4-1 win by the Hurricanes at PPG Paints Arena followed a similar pattern as the visitors swamped the hosts’ offensive aspirations.

But the Penguins weren’t interested in detailing the Hurricanes’ disciplined defense after the game.

Their focus was on themselves.

And in no good way.

“We did it to ourselves,” said forward Lars Eller, always willing to speak in blunt honesty. “I think our lack of, I would say, energy and will, winning pucks, execution, was all missing today. We dug ourselves a deep hole and too much to get out of.”

The Penguins didn’t get much in terms of shots. They managed to fire only 26 pucks on net, their second-lowest figure of the season.

Forwards Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin — who entered the day as the NHL’s leading scorer with 11 points (two goals, nine assists) in five games — were each held without a shot on net.

The Penguins’ power play — two nights removed from a 2-for-5 performance in a wild 6-5 overtime home win against the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday — was blanked on Friday, going 0 for 5.

“They play 60 minutes the same way,” Penguins defenseman Kris Letang said of the Hurricanes. “I just think today came down to work ethic. They worked harder than us. They got rewarded.”

When asked if he had similar sentiments as Eller and Letang, coach Mike Sullivan was curt.

“Yes,” said Sullivan, who was largely terse throughout the entirety of his postgame media availability.

Forward Drew O’Connor was responsible for the Penguins’ only offense as he opened the scoring 12:20 into regulation with his third goal of the season.

After Penguins forward Jesse Puljujarvi won a puck battle against Hurricanes forward Seth Jarvis on the boards in front of the home bench, linemate Lars Eller jumped in to claim possession and slipped a backhand pass surging up ice. Gaining the offensive blue line, O’Connor pushed play between Hurricanes defensemen Shayne Gostisbehere and Sean Walker then fired a wrister from a deep angle in the left circle to the far side that eluded the glove of goaltender Frederik Andersen. Eller and Puljujarvi had assists.

It took the Hurricanes only 64 seconds to tie the game via rookie forward Jackson Blake’s second goal.

Swooping in off the right wing boards of the offensive zone to claim a rimmed puck, Hurricanes forward Eric Robinson navigated his way to the end boards and flicked a backhand pass to the lower edge of the right circle. Blake, the son of former New York Islanders forward and long-time Penguins nemesis Jason Blake, found a little open real estate in that area and fired an immediate wrister to the far side past goaltender Joel Blomqvist’s blocker. Robinson and forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi claimed assists.

Hurricanes forward Martin Necas found his first goal during a power-play sequence at 6:52 of the second period.

Accepting a pass in the Penguins’ slot, Jarvis considered a wrister for a moment then offloaded a blind backhanded dish to the left dot. Necas took the puck on his backhand, adjusted to the forehand and fired a wrister that glanced off Letang’s left hip then sailed by Blomqvist’s glove on the far side. Hurricanes forward Andrei Svechnikov provided a moving screen on the sequence. Assists went to Jarvis and forward Sebastian Aho.

Another power-play score by Gostisbehere put the visitors up, 3-1, at 17:13 of the second. It was his second goal this season.

Gaining the offensive zone on the right wing, Necas slid a cross-ice pass to the far boards for Svechnikov, who then slid the puck to the high slot where Gostisbehere leaned on his left knee and golfed a one-timer. The puck glanced off the backside of Penguins forward Noel Acciari then found an avenue over Blomqvist’s left shoulder. Svechnikov and Necas had assists.

The Penguins’ penalty kill had a bad night at the office, allowing two goals on five power-play situations.

“They move the puck really well,” Letang said. “Obviously, the first one hit my pants and went up in the corner of the net. I think they just used the middle guy (slot) a lot. It kind of made us spread apart. They were opportunistic on their chances.”

Hurricanes forward Jack Roslovic delivered the coup de grace at 11:00 of the third period via his first goal.

Off a one-touch pass by Kotkaniemi, Roslovic moved up the right wing into the offensive zone and ripped a wrister by Blomqvist’s glove on the near side. Kotkaniemi and defenseman Dmitry Orlov orchestrated assists.

Blomqvist, a rookie, faced a career-high 39 shots and stopped 35 of them as his record fell to 2-2-0.

“He competed hard,” Sullivan said of Blomqvist. “He made some big saves. They had a fair amount of zone time in our end so he was forced to have to make some big saves. I thought he competed hard all night.”

Not many of his teammates could make the same boast.

“I don’t have a good explanation,” Eller said. “We should have plenty of energy and will to play in front of our fans this early in the season for a divisional game. We’ve just got to look inward. Everybody’s got to look inward and bring a little bit more. Everybody can be a leader and drag us into the game, whether it’s a goal or a hit or something, you know? But we need to find a way to drag ourselves into the game when you’re not emotionally there.

“We should be there emotionally. But I don’t think we were today.”

Notes:

• Penguins forward Valtteri Puustinen and defenseman Ryan Shea were healthy scratches.

• Appearing in his fourth career game, Blomqvist surpassed Antti Niemi for the most games played by a Finnish-born goaltender in franchise history. Niemi appeared in three contests for the Penguins during the 2017-18 season.

• Puljujarvi now has four points (one goal, three assists) in five games this season. He totaled four points (three goals, one assist) in 22 games last season.

• Jason Blake scored 48 career points (25 goals, 23 assists) in 51 games against the Penguins, primarily as a member of the New York Islanders. Offspring Jackson Blake appeared in his first career game against the Penguins.