Penguins blow two-goal lead in third period in loss to Golden Knights

LAS VEGAS -- The first 40 minutes of the Penguins' last two games were awfully similar. 

On both Saturday night against the Golden Knights here in Las Vegas and Monday at home against the Kraken, the game was scoreless after the first period, and the Penguins added a pair of goals in the second period.

Where things differed was in the third period. On Monday, the Penguins were able to hold onto that two-goal lead and add to it as they closed out the game. On this night, a third period collapse squandered the lead and led to the Penguins falling 3-2 in regulation, leaving Las Vegas with not even a point to show for those first 40 minutes.

"Obviously, we have a 2-0 lead going into the third period," Mike Sullivan said. "We’d like to have a strong third period and finish the game off the right way, and we didn't do that tonight.”

That 2-0 lead in the second period came courtesy of a Ryan Graves shot banked in off of Vegas goaltender Logan Thompson, followed by a wrist shot from Jake Guentzel that marked his 20th goal of the season. It all fell apart in a matter of four minutes and 22 seconds in the final frame.

Jonathan Marchessault started the rally with a rebound goal that got past Tristan Jarry:

Chandler Stephenson blew past Evgeni Malkin and set up Pavel Dorofeyev for this goal from the slot to tie it:

Malkin took a slashing penalty 39 seconds after a tying goal. The Penguins killed the penalty, but the Golden Knights had momentum on their side from the power play and Brendan Brisson scored the game-winner shortly after Malkin was freed from the box:

“I think the difference was just attention to detail and structure," Sullivan said of what happened in the third period in Saturday's loss compared to Monday's win. "We didn't defend hard enough. All three of the goals were seemingly nothing plays that ended up in the back of our net. We had numbers back. We've got to defend harder, and we've got to have some predictability in how we defend, and we didn't have it.”

I asked Sullivan if he could identify a reason why that attention to detail in their defense wasn't there tonight, and he said, "No."

After outshooting the Golden Knights 20-18 in the first 40 minutes, they were outshot 11-5 in the last 20. It was all Vegas.

Sidney Crosby said they knew Vegas would push to come back in the third period, and they "made it easier on them."

"We didn't hold onto pucks, and we couldn't get enough offensive zone time," Crosby said.

Blown third-period leads was a trend last season. The Penguins were 28-4-5 when leading after two periods for a .757 points percentage that ranked 28th in the league. That hasn't exactly been the case this season. The Penguins have held a lead after the second period 17 times this season, and this was just their third loss. They're now 14-3 when leading after two periods for an .824 points percentage, tied for 19th in the league. Not the best, but a step up from last season.

The Penguins have typically been pretty tight in third periods this season too, especially compared to last year. Last season the Penguins allowed 101 third-period goals, the ninth-most in the league. This year the Penguins have allowed just 39 third-period goals, the sixth-fewest. They're on pace to allow 74 third-period goals over the course of the full season, a massive drop from last season.

Saturday's loss was obviously a tough one. They had a two-goal lead with a period left and couldn't even get a much-needed point in the standings out of it. It's a game they should have had. But it was an abnormal collapse for them. For all their faults this season, collapses like these late in the game haven't actually been a trend like they were in the past.

That was a good Vegas team on the other end with a push that paid off. The Penguins have been in similar circumstances -- like Monday against Seattle -- and held on. They just didn't have it tonight.

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE THREE STARS

As selected at T-Mobile Arena:

1. Brendan Brisson, Golden Knights RW
2. Ivan Barbashev, Golden Knights LW
3. Jonathan Marchessault, Golden Knights RW

THE IN-GAME INJURIES

• Penguins: None

• Golden Knights: None

THE LINEUPS

Sullivan’s lines and pairings:

Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Rickard Rakell
Drew O'Connor - Evgeni Malkin - Bryan Rust
Colin White - Lars Eller - Valtteri Puustinen
Jansen Harkins - Noel Acciari - Jeff Carter

Marcus Pettersson - Kris Letang
Ryan Graves - Erik Karlsson
P.O Joseph - Chad Ruhwedel

And for Bruce Cassidy's Golden Knights:

Pavel Dorofeyev - Chandler Stephenson - Mark Stone
Ivan Barbashev - Nicolas Roy - Jonathan Marchessault
Paul Cotter - Brett Bowden - Brendan Brisson
Jonas Rondbjerg - Byron Froese - Keegan Kolesar

Alex Martinez - Alex Pietrangelo
Brayden McNabb - Kaedan Korczak
Nicolas Hague - Zach Whitecloud

THE SCHEDULE

The Penguins practice at 3:45 Eastern in Tempe, Ariz. on Sunday to prepare for Monday's game against the Coyotes to close out the road trip. I've got your coverage.

THE FEED

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