The slumping Pittsburgh Penguins will look to take the first step toward reversing their fortunes on Saturday night when they host the struggling Utah Hockey Club.
Michael Bunting scored the lone goal Friday as the Penguins fell for the seventh time in nine games (2-4-3) with a 4-1 setback to the Winnipeg Jets. Bunting has two goals and two assists over his last five games.
Superstar captain Sidney Crosby, who remains one goal shy of 600 goals for his decorated career, was held without a shot on goal in the loss.
“We’ve got to continue to push the group to engage more physically at both ends of the rink, both in our end and in the offensive zone,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “I just think we’ve got to get into people more on the defensive side, (and) we’ve got to get over pucks on the offensive side so that we can force teams to expend energy defending us.
“Right now, we don’t have nearly enough offensive zone time, and we’re not earning ice down there by hanging on to pucks and forcing them to defend us.”
Pittsburgh’s Tristan Jarry made 26 saves in Friday’s loss but allowed a goal on the first shot he faced.
Fellow goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic is 3-3-3 with an .886 save percentage and a 3.17 goals-against average in 10 games (nine starts) this season. In two career appearances against the Arizona Coyotes franchise, now the Utah Hockey Club, Nedeljkovic is 0-1-1 with an .839 save percentage and a 4.63 GAA.
Evgeni Malkin, who set up Bunting’s goal Friday, has a team-leading 15 assists and 20 points in 22 games this season. Crosby and Rickard Rakell have seven goals each to pace the Penguins.
The Penguins and Coyotes split two meetings last season. Pittsburgh doubled up Arizona 4-2 on Dec. 12 before the Coyotes rebounded with a 5-2 win on Jan. 22.
The Utah Hockey Club travels to Pittsburgh looking to avoid a fourth straight loss.
Utah was blanked 1-0 by Boston on Thursday in the first contest of a four-game road trip, which will take the club to Toronto on Sunday before concluding in Montreal on Tuesday.
“We should have been better offensively, at supporting the puck here and putting speed around them,” Utah coach Andre Tourigny said of Thursday’s effort. “We’re a fast team, and if we don’t create speed around the puck and around their defensemen, (it gets) easy to shut down.”
Dylan Guenther has a team-leading seven goals and Clayton Keller has 16 points.
Connor Ingram is 6-4-3 with an .871 save percentage and a 3.61 GAA in 13 games this season. In two career games against the Penguins, he is 1-1-0 with a 2.53 GAA and a .928 save percentage.
Saturday will mark the first of two meetings between Utah and Pittsburgh this season. The clubs will wrap up the season series on Jan. 29 in Utah.
