EDMONTON, Alberta -- The Penguins are going to lose a game to Edmonton in regulation someday.
Really, there's no good reason to think that they won't. After all, it's happened before.
Just not recently enough that most people alive today remember it.
Forensic statisticians sifting through the fossil record have concluded that their most recent 60-minute defeat by the Oilers took place on approximately Jan. 10, 2006. (No, not B.C.)
The Penguins are 15-0-4 against Edmonton since then, including a 5-2 victory at Rogers Place Friday night. It is the longest streak of getting at least one point from an opponent in franchise history and includes an 8-0-2 run in Edmonton, where their last regulation loss came on Dec. 6, 2003.
Which was, in technical terms, quite a while ago.
The victory raised the Penguins' record for the season to 21-10-4 and their all-time mark when getting goals from Chad Ruhwedel and Joseph Blandisi (provided both are assisted by Zach Aston-Reese) in the same game to 1-0.
But important as those two goals were -- they gave the Penguins a 2-0 lead less than 13 minutes into the opening period -- the one Kris Letang scored probably won the game for them:
Even though it wasn't the game-winner.
It's not just that Letang's shot from near the left dot 38 seconds into the third period gave the Penguins their third two-goal advantage of the evening; it's that a short-handed goal by Oilers center Riley Sheahan with 22.4 seconds left in the second period had given his teammates a renewed vigor and legitimate reason to believe that they could squeeze a point or two out of this game.
Letang's goal changed all that.
"That was huge," Aston-Reese said. "Anytime you give up a goal like that, under five minutes (before intermission) -- especially on a power play -- it can easily take the wind out of your sails. But (give) credit to our power play to bounce back like that."
That goal seemed to deflate the Oilers even more than Sheahan's had the Penguins.
"It felt like we grabbed the momentum right back," Mike Sullivan said.
Probably because they did. And this time, the Penguins didn't let go.
They got through their two-game season series against the Oilers allowing Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, the NHL's top two scorers, a total of one point: Draisaitl's game-winning goal in Edmonton's 2-1 overtime victory Nov. 2 at PPG Paints Arena.
Neutralizing them the way the Penguins did testifies to the coaches' ability to design an effective game plan and the players' ability to execute it.
"We did a really good job of taking time and space away from their top guys," Jared McCann said.
McDavid and Draisaitl do much of their damage on Edmonton's power play, which entered the game with a league-best conversion rate of 30.4 percent. But after picking up a pair of penalties in the first period, the Penguins stayed out of the box until Evgeni Malkin and Oilers goalie Mike Smith received coincidental minors at 18:36 of the third.
"The guys they have on it, obviously, are some of the best offensive players in the league," Sullivan said. "So the discipline to make sure we didn't take any unnecessary ones was critical."
So was finding ways to get pucks past Smith, who made 51 saves during the Oilers' overtime victory at PPG Paints Arena. Beating him was a far less daunting challenge Friday, as Smith stopped just 21 of 25 shots before Brandon Tanev closed out the scoring by hitting an empty net at 17:42 of the third.
McCann scored what proved to be the game-winner at 15:38 of the second period, as he knocked the puck away from Oilers defenseman Ethan Bear at the right point in the Penguins' end, then broke in alone on Smith before flipping a backhander behind him:
"It's been a while since I had a breakaway," McCann said. "I knew I had a little bit of time. I just tried a pump-fake, and he bit."
Blandisi had done pretty much the same before tossing a shot between Smith's legs to cap his own breakaway at 12:56 of the first period, but smooth as that entire sequence was, it might have been overshadowed by the assist that made it possible.
Blandisi had just exited the penalty box when Aston-Reese, who had the puck in the defensive zone, backhanded a pass 60 or so feet into the neutral zone, where Blandisi was able to collect it in stride before moving in on Smith:
"I had an idea that the penalty was about to expire and that he was coming out," Aston-Reese said. "So I just tried to put it in an area."
He did. An area where Blandisi was able to corral it without being caught from behind by defenseman Oscar Klefbom before flashing the scoring touch that allowed him to get 52 goals in 68 games during his final season in junior hockey.
"That was a nice finish by him," Aston-Reese said.
And yet another timely contribution by a guy who doesn't show up on the scoresheet all that often.
"It's huge -- especially given the circumstances right now, with the amount of injuries that we have -- to have different guys step up and contribute offensively for us is necessary if we're going to continue to find the win column," Sullivan said.
Especially now that their quota of games against the Oilers has been filled for another season.
• Penguins defenseman Justin Schultz, who sustained an unspecified lower-body injury in Calgary Tuesday, was spotted near the Edmonton locker room after the game, chatting with some former teammates. He is listed as "week-to-week," but did not have crutches or appear to be wearing a brace.
• Schultz's absence opened a spot in the lineup for Juuso Riikola, who played 12 minutes, 22 seconds and was credited with three hits -- just one fewer than Bryan Rust's team-leading total -- and a shot on goal. Riikola was not on the ice for either Edmonton goal.
• Edmonton became the last team in the league to record a shorthanded goal this season.
• Letang's goal was the 39th of his career on the power play. That's one shy of Paul Coffey's franchise record for a defenseman.
• Edmonton has lost its past 25 games when McDavid and Draisaitl are shut out.
• Jake Guentzel, who leads the Penguins with 36 points, does not have a goal or assist in seven career games against Edmonton.
• THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
THE INJURIES
• Nick Bjugstad (core muscle surgery)
• Sidney Crosby (sports hernia surgery)
• Brian Dumoulin (ankle surgery)
• Patric Hornqvist (unspecified lower-body)
* Justin Schultz (unspecified lower-body)
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
Jake Guentzel -- Evgeni Malkin -- Bryan Rust
Zach Aston-Reese -- Jared McCann -- Dominik Kahun
Alex Galchenyuk -- Teddy Blueger -- Brandon Tanev
Dominik Simon -- Joseph Blandisi -- Sam Lafferty
Jack Johnson -- Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson -- John Marino
Juuso Riikola -- Chad Ruhwedel
And for Dave Tippett's Oilers:
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins -- Connor McDavid -- Zach Kassian
James Neal -- Sam Gagner -- Leon Draisaitl
Joakim Nygard -- Gaetan Haas -- Alex Chaisson
Jujhar Kahaira -- Riley Sheahan -- Josh Archibald
Oscar Klefbom -- Adam Larsson
Darnell Nurse -- Ethan Bear
Patrick Russell -- Caleb Jones
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins flew to Vancouver immediately after the game and will face the Canucks Saturday at 10:08 p.m. in their final game before the NHL's holiday break.
THE COVERAGE
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