Letang: Third-period collapse to Flames 'started with me'

CALGARY, Alberta -- Mike Sullivan credited the Penguins' 4-3 collapse to the Flames on Saturday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome to some "egregious mistakes."

The Penguins held (what seemed like) a comfortable 3-1 lead with 10 minutes remaining in the third period, courtesy of goals from Jonathan Gruden, Lars Eller and Jeff Carter. What followed was three unanswered goals by the Flames, ensuring the Penguins didn't even leave Calgary with a point to show for those early efforts.

And while an entire three-goal collapse can't be blamed on any one player ... one player was at the center of some pretty key moments among those aforementioned egregious.

"I mean, it started with me," Kris Letang said,

Letang's tough night started back in the second period on Yegor Sharangovich's goal that got the Flames on the board. Valtteri Puustinen deserves more than his share of the blame for the turnover, and Tristan Jarry probably deserves some of the blame too for his stick positioning to leave his five-hole open, but Sharangovich blew past Letang pretty easily:

When Nazem Kadri started Calgary's third-period rally, Letang got walked by Kadri as Kadri was driving to the net:

"I made a mistake on one-on-one," Letang said. "Should not let that happen, and it gave them momentum."

It was Letang's turnover that led to Sharangovich's second goal of the night, the game-winner with 50 seconds remaining:

"I just got the puck and somebody jumped me," Letang said of that one. 

It was a tense locker room afterward, and the disappointment over what happened was on everyone's faces. Eller sat in his stall long after the rest of the room cleared out, still in his gear, with his head in his hand and glaring with an expression that showed a mix of anger and frustration. Letang, obviously, was disappointed with his own play and took responsibility. But with a quick turnaround before Sunday's game up the road in Edmonton to close out the trip, nobody can afford to wallow for too long.

"It sucks," Letang said. "But we have to get back at it tomorrow. ... Just have to learn from that when we have the lead, the way we play with the lead. Can't make those mistakes."

The time for those lessons to be learned was ... a long time ago. The Penguins' winning percentage when leading at second intermission is .773 -- or 26th in the NHL. This was the fifth time they've blown one of those leads entering the third period in 22 opportunities. That's 10 points in the standings that they gave up in the last 20 minutes. That's 10 points that would have them in a playoff spot as one of the top three teams in the Metropolitan Division with four games in hand. Instead, they find themselves seventh in the division, nine points behind the third-place Flyers.

"We beat ourselves," Sullivan said. "We just beat ourselves in a number of different ways. We had complete control of the game. We played a really good game up until that point."

The Penguins still haven't gotten out of the habit of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. If they want any hope of saving this season, it's a habit they have to break.

THE ESSENTIALS

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

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE THREE STARS

As selected at Scotiabank Saddledome:

1. Yegor Sharangovich, Flames C
2. Mikael Backlund, Flames C
3. Blake Coleman, Flames RW

THE IN-GAME INJURIES

• Penguins: None

• Flames: None

THE LINEUPS

Sullivan’s lines and pairings:

Drew O'Connor - Sidney Crosby - Rickard Rakell
Reilly Smith - Evgeni Malkin - Valtteri Puustinen
Jonathan Gruden - Lars Eller - Emil Bemstrom
Jansen Harkins - Noel Acciari - Jeff Carter

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

And for Ryan Huska's Flames:

Jonathan Huberdeau - Yegor Sharangovich - Dryden Hunt
Connor Zary - Nazem Kadri - Martin Pospisil
Andrew Mangiapane - Mikael Backlund - Blake Coleman
Jakob Pelletier - Kevin Rooney - Andrei Kuzmenko

Oliver Kylington - Rasmus Andersson
Noah Hanifin - MacKenzie Weegar
Dennis Gilbert - Brayden Pachal

THE SCHEDULE

The Penguins' western road trip wraps up Sunday at 9:08 p.m. Eastern in Edmonton against the Oilers.

THE FEED

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