The Pittsburgh Penguins only gave up 18 shots on goal against the Minnesota Wild but Jason Pominville found the back of the net with three of them to lead the Wild to a 4-1 win in St. Paul, MN on Monday night.
The Penguins (3-2) outshot the Wild (2-2) 33 to 18 but Minnesota goaltender Darcy Kuemper was able to shut down the Pens offense, which was still without Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.
Jeff Zatkoff took the loss as he stopped only six of eight shots over the final period and a half. Zatkoff didn’t do himself any favors in his battle against Thomas Greiss. Greiss stopped eight of nine in the first half of the game.
With 11:21 remaining in the third period, Craig Adams’ clearing attempt hit a linesman’s skate and deflected to Zach Parise. He found Pominville wide open above the right faceoff dot for a one-timer that beat Zatkoff to give the Wild a 2-1 lead.
Pominville added a second goal with just four minutes later. Taylor Chorney turned the puck over in the Penguins’ zone and Jonas Brodin fired a shot that missed the net to the right. Pominville scooped the puck off the end boards and went behind the net to beat Zatkoff again and put the game out of reach for the Wild.
He capped off the night, and a natural hat trick, with an empty netter to seal the Minnesota victory.
Parise had opened the scoring for Minnesota with a power-play goal in the first period while Kris Letang was in the box for cross checking.
The Pens evened the score on a Steve Downie shot from the left wing circle. Kris Letang was able to come off the bench as an extra attacker on a delayed penalty, freeze Kuemper, and found Downie all alone for a wide-open shot. Blake Comeau had the other assist.
The Penguins will finish their preseason against the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday. Their regular season opens Thursday, October 9 against the Anaheim Ducks.
Photo Credit: USA Today Sports
