The Penguins returned to home ice on Thursday after a successful four-game road trip that spanned from Seattle through Western Canada. Pittsburgh kept the momentum rolling against the Blackhawks, securing their fifth straight win in a dominant 6-2 victory, while Chicago saw their losing streak extend to four games. Connor Dewar and Anthony Mantha led the charge for the Penguins; Dewar netted two goals while Mantha turned in a three-point performance with a goal and two assists. Connor Murphy and Connor Bedard provided the scoring for Chicago in the effort. The Penguins look to keep their streak alive when they host the New York Rangers on Saturday, while the Blackhawks return home Friday to take on the Columbus Blue Jackets in hopes of a reset.

Pittsburgh Penguins Lineup:

Rakell – Crosby – Brazeau
Chinakhov – Novak – Malkin
McGroarty – Kindel – Mantha
Dewar – Lizotte – Acciari

Wotherspoon – Karlsson
Kulak – Letang
Solovyov – Shea

Silovs
Skinner

Chicago Blackhawks Lineup:

Nazar – Bedard – Teravainen
Greene – Moore – Burakovsky
Bertuzzi – Dickinson – Mikheyev
Donato – Foligno – Dach

Vlasic – Crevier
Kaiser – Levshunov
Grzelcyk – Murphy

Soderblom

Connor Murphy opened the scoring, grabbing his third goal of the season at 10:29 of the first period when Frank Nazar carried the puck through the neutral zone and into Pittsburgh’s end before dropping it off for Ryan Greene to pick it up on the left side. Greene passed it across to Murphy for a wrister from the high slot past Kris Letang and Arturs Sliovs’ glove to put Chicago ahead 1-0. Not long after the Hawks’ tally, Connor Dewar responds, tying it 1-1 on his 12th of the season with 8:36 on the clock when he collected the rebound of Noel Acciari’s shot in the slot, firing a wrist shot through traffic. Acciari’s shot was the second shot on goal for the Penguins.

Ben Kindel put Pittsburgh in the lead 2-1 at 14:06 of the second period when Anthony Mantha picked up the puck from near the right wall after Artyom Levshunov attempted to get the puck out of Chicago’s zone, and he passed it to Kindel, who struck from the left face-off circle on an off-balance wrist shot. To make it 3-1 for the Penguins, Egor Chinakhov found the back of the net for his ninth of the season when he took a spinning backhanded pass from Evgeni Malkin, stickhandled around Levshunov, and went in on a wrist shot. Just 31 seconds later, Mantha went on a breakaway to extend the lead to 4-1 with a backhand shot past Arvid Soderblom. Ryan Shea added another on the board for Pittsburgh with 30 seconds on the clock when Kindel attempted to make a pass to Rutger McGroarty in front of the net, but it found its way to Mantha on the left side, and he made a pass to Ilya Solovyov, who sent it over to Shea at the right circle for a one-timer.

After collecting a loose puck out of a scrum in front, Dewar put in his second goal of the night late in the third at 6:01. He scored on a wrist shot to the left of the net, making it 6-1 for the Penguins. Connor Bedard put an end to Pittsburgh’s run with 5:30 to go when he carried the puck into the zone, scoring from one knee in the right circle, recording his 21st of the season for the 6-2 final.

Arturs Sliovs on momentum, the win, the PK, and the team overall recently: “You make one save, two saves, and then you feel a shift in momentum. The guys were outstanding in the second and the third, too. We just started scoring, and I think the game ended already in the second period. …Guys working hard, trying to block shots, everybody’s fighting in front of the net, and have to give huge credit to the guys. Just tried to battle with them and shut the door for a PK.” – “It’s all about effort, and I think it’s a mindset of competing. I think when the guys have it, we are playing our best, and when you don’t have it, then you don’t play as good. So bringing it every night is really important, and we just want to keep it going.”

Connor Murphy on what he saw in the second period, and not pushing in this game against the Penguins: “I feel like we shot ourselves in the foot with some of our puck play, being irresponsible with breakouts by us… It turned into us having a lack of compete, kind of overall, man-to-man. That’s the hardest part, giving up those goals and chances for Sodie, knowing that we didn’t compete the way we should.” – “I think sometimes on the road it’s a little harder when the momentum’s going against you to push back, but that’s the test that we have to overcome, is, do it at home enough where we have some bad momentum, bad plays, and then we’re able to shift it back, and today we didn’t do that. So maybe take it either as a lesson or just as a wake-up call for each guy on our team to know that can’t happen. These games are so important that we can’t just crumble and give ourselves no chances as the game goes on later.”

Game Notes:

– Arturs Silovs made a total of 18 saves for Pittsburgh, and Arvid Soderblom made 38 saves for Chicago.

– Both Ben Kindel and Ryan Shea recorded a goal and an assist. …Ryan Shea extended his point streak to four games; five points: one goal, four assists. Kindel has four points (three goals, one assist) in two straight.

– Kindel is the third 18-year-old over the past 35 years to score goals in consecutive games for the Pittsburgh Penguins. He joins Sidney Crosby (7x; longest: 5 GP in 2005-06) and Jordan Staal (4x; longest: 5 GP in 2006-07).

– Egor Chinakhov has scored three in his past five games.

– Crosby recorded his 33rd winning streak of five or more games. He tied with Patrice Bergeron, Scott Stevens, and Ryan Suter for the sixth most in League history. The only players with more are Nicklas Lidstrom (47), Chris Chelios (40), Patrick Marleau (37), Joe Thornton (37), and Alex Ovechkin (36).

– Frank Nazar had a two-point night, assisting on both Murphy and Bedard’s goals.

– With his goal, Connor Bedard has the most goals (66) before turning 21 in franchise history.

– With his assist on Connor Murphy’s goal, Ryan Green (7-13–20) recorded his 20th point of the season. He joins Artyom Levshunov (2-19–21) as the second Blackhawks rookie with 20 points in 2025-26. It’s also the first time since 2020-21 (2) that the Blackhawks have had multiple rookies with as many in a single season.

– The Penguins are 27-14-11, and have outscored their opponents 25-10 in their past five games.

– The Blackhawks are 21-24-9, and have lost four straight (0-2-2).

– Nick Folingo played just 1:18, then left midway through the first period for an undisclosed injury.

– Earlier in the day, the Penguins recalled forward Rutger McGroarty from the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the AHL. They also announced that defenseman Jack St. Ivany was placed on Injured Reserve.

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