SALT LAKE CITY — The Pittsburgh Penguins‘ (32-18-15) five-game road trip is not off to a great start with a pair of losses and only one point earned in the first two games and their lead for a playoff spot is down to just two points. The Penguins visit the Utah Mammoth (24-26-6) Saturday at the Delta Center.
The puck drops just after 9 p.m. EST, and it will be the fifth and final game of Evgeni Malkin’s suspension.
The Penguins were too cute, too careless with the puck, and otherwise not very good Thursday against the Vegas Golden Knights, losing 6-2 at T-Mobile Arena. The Penguins pulled to within one goal of Vegas twice, but could not sustain their pressure, and instead passed up scoring chances by making ill-advised extra passes and gifted Vegas more opportunities via turnovers.
Penguins goalie Arturs Silovs took the brunt of the Penguins’ lackluster performance. He stopped 11 of 16 shots, but there was not a soft goal in the bunch. Rickard Rakell and Ben Kindel scored for the Penguins.
Utah is the fourth-place team in the extraordinarily loaded Central Division, trailing Stanley Cup contenders Colorado, Dallas, and Minnesota. Three of Utah’s last four games have gone to overtime (two against Chicago and one against Columbus). Utah is just 1-1-2 in those four games.
Utah lost to Chicago 3-2 in OT Thursday. Utah’s JJ Peterka tied the game with just under seven minutes remaining before Chicago’s Connor Bedard scored the game-winner. Goalie Karel Vejmalka stopped 20 of 23 to earn the point.
Based on Penguins coach Dan Muse’s goalie rotation, Stuart Skinner is in line for the start in goal. Vejmelka is expected for Utah.
Penguins captain Sidney Crosby is progressing from his MCL sprain and is unlikely to play Saturday. Filip Hallander and Jack St. Ivany remain on injured reserve, but St. Ivany is concluding his conditioning assignment with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Monday.
How to Watch
TV: SportsNet Pittsburgh
Radio: 105.9 The X.
Expected Penguins Lines
Egor Chinakhov-Rickard Rakell-Bryan Rust
Anthony Mantha-Tommy Novak-Ville Koivunen
Elmer Soderblom-Ben Kindel-Avery Hayes
Connor Dewar-Blake Lizotte-Noel Acciari
Defense
Parker Wotherspoon-Erik Karlsson
Ryan Shea-Kris Letang
Ilya Solovyov-Connor Clifton
Goalie: Stuart Skinner, expected
Expected Mammoth Lines
Clayton Keller-Nick Schmaltz-Lawson Crouse
JJ Peterka-Logan Cooley-Dylan Guenther
Jack McBain – Barrett Hayton-Michael Carcone
Alex Kerfoot-Kevin Stenlund-Kailer Yamamoto
Defence
Mikhail Sergachev-Mackenzie Weegar
Nate Schmidt-John Marino
Ian Cole-Sean Durzi
Goalie: Karel Vejmelka, expected
Special Teams
Penguins’ power play: 24.7%, 6th. Penguins penalty kill: 84.5%, 2nd.
Mammoth power play: 16.6%. 26th. Mammoth penalty kill: 78.2%, 20th.
Penguins Game Notes
The Penguins are 1-1-1 all-time against the Mammoth and have points in back-to-back games. The Penguins won last season’s meeting at the Delta Center.
Goaltender Stuart Skinner is 2-0-0 with a 2.00 goals-against average and a
.920 save percentage in two career games versus Utah.
The Penguins have points in 25 of 29 games (19-4-6) in which Tommy Novak has
recorded at least one point.
Rickard Rakell comes into tonight on a four-game point streak (2-3-5).
Forward Anthony Mantha tallied an assist on Thursday night to help him set a new career high in points. He also has four points over his last three games (3-1-4). Mantha is just one goal shy of tying his career-best (25) set in the 2018-19 season.
Erik Karlsson tallied two assists on Tuesday against the Hurricanes and now has nine points (2-7-9) in the last eight games.
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