It was a hard fought battle but on Monday night the Pittsburgh Penguins losing streak did not come to and end. The New Jersey Devils fought harder and beat the Penguins 3-1. The Penguins losing streak is now up to four games now.
“Its something we got to stop,” said captain Sidney Crosby “I think we go out there and improve upon this one and get a win but yeah we definitely don’t want to continue the same way.”
The Penguins started out strong with Crosby scoring the first goal of the night assisted by Christ Kunitz and Derrick Pouliot. It was just his second goal in 13 games.
In the second period the Devils rose to the challenge scoring by two goals; one by Travis Zajac and the other by former Penguins right-winger Jaromir Jagr.
Adam Henrique finished out the night by scoring on a wrist shot the third. While the Penguins had an empty net with a few minutes left, hoping the extra manpower would help, they ended up losing to the Devils 3-1.
The night did include two scuffles between Robert Bortuzzo and Jordin Tootoo. Tootoo was looking to settle a score after a big hit on Jagr by Bortuzzo in the last match up. The first was at the start of the second period. The second time was due to a high stick from Tootoo to Bortuzoo. Bortuzzo was bleeding and went to the room to get checked out but ended up coming back out.
New Jersey goal ender Cory Schneider made 28 saves. The Penguins had many chances to score on the Devils. In the first period, Rob Klinkhammer, Chris Kunitz, Evgeni Malkin, and Pouliot all had chances to score on Schneider.
Marc Andre Fleury made a total of 27 saves, but let three goals slide past him.
“It doesn’t happen to us often, so its frustrating right now, but we’ve got to find ways to go back at practice more and work on little things, work on our game,” said Fleury. “Bring it all next game and be ready for big match up there.”
“We needed more guys pulling on the rope tonight and we didn’t have enough” said Penguins head coach Johnston.
Photo credit: NHL
