Penguins shut out by Oilers, losing streak reaches 4

At some point this season, the Pittsburgh Penguins likely will assign rookie goaltender Joel Blomqvist to their American Hockey League affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, if only for procedural purposes related to the salary cap.

And such a demotion might be good for Blomqvist.

That’s because it’s hard to fathom the AHL Penguins offering as squalid of a defensive performance as their NHL counterparts presented Friday in a 4-0 loss to the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place in Edmonton.

Cloven by a collection of All-Star offensive entities the Oilers employ, the Penguins surrendered a season-worst 50 shots and were only able to muster 27 shots of their own.

Blomqvist, in his first NHL season, made a career-high 46 saves. The 50 shots offered by the Oilers were a season-high for any team in 2024-25.

“You stay in the game pretty well when there’s shots coming at you all the time,” Blomqvist said to media in Edmonton via audio provided by the team’s media relations staff. “You can’t really choose what’s going to come in the game at you. You just need to be ready for everything.”

The result was the seventh consecutive loss the Penguins have suffered against the Oilers, their longest active losing streak against any one opponent (0-7-0).

Within the confines of their ongoing lackluster season, the Penguins lost their fourth consecutive game (0-3-1) and were shut out for the second time this season (in only nine games).

“It’s concerning because we’re just not good enough right now,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “We didn’t play hard enough. We didn’t play together as a group. We weren’t good enough.”

Amplifying the Penguins’ woes was the premature departure of forward Cody Glass, who left the contest late in the second period because of an illness, according to one of the team’s social media accounts. There was no immediate word on his status.

After a scoreless first period in which the hosts outshot the visitors 19-5, the Oilers broke the stalemate exactly 13 minutes into the second period on their 34th shot of the contest.

Tapping a puck past Penguins forward Kevin Hayes at the blue line near the visiting bench, Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl surged through the neutral zone and gained the Penguins’ zone on the right wing. As Penguins defenseman Kris Letang applied passive pressure, Draisaitl accepted the free real estate and fired a deceptive wrister to the far side by Blomqvist’s blocker. The puck clunked off the post and rattled into the cage for Draisaitl’s fourth goal of the season. Linemate Viktor Arvidsson and defenseman Evan Bouchard had assists.

Bouchard’s second goal came at 17:34 of the second frame.

Controlling play in the left circle of the offensive zone, Arvidsson considered his options for a moment then offloaded a pass above the opposite circle. Accepting the puck, Bouchard waited for kneeling Penguins forward Anthony Beauvillier to slide out of the shooting lane on a block attempt then gripped and ripped a wrister by Blomqvist’s blocker. Arvidsson and linemate Vasily Podkolzin accrued assists.

The Penguins issued a coach’s challenge suggesting the sequence was offside, but officials found no evidence of those claims and issued a delay of game penalty to the visitors.

It took all of 16 seconds for the Oilers to score on their first shot of the third period as forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins found his first goal.

After Letang tried to play a puck up ice off his own end boards, Oilers defenseman Mattias Ekholm blocked those designs and kept the puck in the Penguins’ zone near the visiting bench. The puck bounced into the left circle, and Nugent-Hopkins chopped it away, preventing Letang from reclaiming it. That allowed Oilers forward Zach Hyman to briefly hack it to the slot. Nugent-Hopkins circled between the hashmarks, looked down and rocketed a wrister by Blomqvist’s beleaguered blocker. Assists went to Hyman and Ekholm.

The Oilers went up by four at 7:00 of the final frame when Ekholm scored his first goal during a power-play sequence.

Following an interference minor incurred by Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin, Arvidsson beat Penguins forward Noel Acciari on a faceoff in the right circle of the Penguins’ zone and slid the puck to the right point. Taking possession and facing minimal resistance, Ekholm sauntered to the high slot and wired a wrister past Blomqvist’s blocker. Oilers forward Corey Perry supplied an effective screen on the sequence. The only assist went to Arvidsson.

Valiant in defeat but distressed most of the evening, Blomqvist saw his record slip to 2-3-0.

Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner recorded his first shutout of the season and improved his record to 2-3-0.

Notes:

• Defenseman Marcus Pettersson recorded the Penguins’ first fighting major of the season at 14:41 of the third period when he battled Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse.

• The Penguins’ most recent win against the Oilers was a 5-2 road victory Dec. 20, 2019. Goaltender Tristan Jarry made 26 saves on 28 shots in the triumph.

• The Penguins’ second-longest active losing streaks are a pair of four-game skids against the Florida Panthers and Ottawa Senators.

• The Penguins’ previous season high for shots against was the 40 they allowed to the New York Rangers in a season-opening 6-0 loss at home.

• Skinner recorded the Oilers’ first individual shutout of the Penguins in franchise history.

Previously, the Oilers shut out the Penguins in the most recent meeting between these teams. During a 4-0 win at PPG Paints Arena on March 10, goaltender Calvin Pickard made 41 saves in the victory. Skinner briefly replaced Pickard in that contest for 1:16 of ice time but did not face a shot on net.

• Jarry was scratched for the third consecutive game. Penguins forward Valtteri Puustinen and defenseman Ryan Shea also were scratched.

• Draisaitl now has 18 career points (nine goals, nine assists) in 17 career games against the Penguins.

• Oilers defenseman Troy Stecher appeared in his 500th career game.