‘It’s discouraging’: Penguins’ losing streak pushed to seven
PITTSBURGH — Brandon Tanev scored the game-winning goal with 3:39 remaining and the Seattle Kraken defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2 on Saturday night, sending the home team to its seventh straight loss.
The Penguins are 4-6-2 and haven’t tasted a victory since Oct. 22, a 6-3 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets.
“It’s tough. It’s difficult,” Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby said. “We did a lot of good things.”
Tanev took a pass from Yanni Gourde and beat goaltender Tristan Jarry from point-blank range to snap a 2-all tie. It was Tanev’s first goal of the season, and it came against the team he played for from 2019 to 2021.
The Kraken won their fourth straight, the longest streak for the second-year franchise. Seattle has five wins in its past six games, including a sweep of its three-game road trip.
“Great for me, but I think it’s more important that the team got all six points on this road trip,” Tanev said. “That’s the mindset and the goal we had setting out to this road trip and the three games we played. We beat three good teams. That’s the idea.”
Vince Dunn and Gourde also had goals for the Kraken. Martin Jones stopped 36 shots after shutting out Minnesota in Seattle’s previous game.
“This group, they’re a pretty tight group,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “That’s always a great place to start. Tonight, third game in a road trip, there were pieces here that weren’t all that pretty. But there was never a point in the hockey game where you felt our group was rattled.”
The Penguins received goals from Crosby and Jake Guentzel. Crosby also had his 900th career assist.
The Penguins tied it 2-all when Guentzel’s pass went off the stick of Seattle’s Matty Beniers and into the net with 10:09 remaining.
That came just under two minutes after Gourde scored when Tanev kicked the puck to him after having a pass from Morgan Geekie bounce off his knee.
“In the third period, I thought we had some momentum, so it’s discouraging from that end of it,” Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said.
However, Sullivan said his team needs to keep from getting frustrated as the losses pile up.
“The solution is just making sure we stay in the moment, and we don’t get overwhelmed by all the noise around (the losing streak),” Sullivan said. “We just have to focus on the process, and that’s what we’re trying to do.
“When we don’t live up to the expectations we have for each other and don’t get the results we want, these guys take it to heart. We’ve got to dig in a little more, be more determined, be more vigilant in more critical moments of the game.”
Crosby opened the scoring at 5:24 of the second period by converting a one-timer off a pass from Kris Letang.
Dunn tied it a little less than 2½ minutes later on a slap shot off a faceoff.
The Penguins will visit the Washington Capitals on Wednesday, another Eastern Conference team that is struggling. After a 3-2 loss to the Arizona Coyotes Saturday night, Washington is now in an 0-2-2 stretch.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.