ST. LOUIS – Dressing a lineup that offered the urgency of a preseason contest, the Pittsburgh Penguins fell to the St. Louis Blues, 7-5, at the Enterprise Center in their regular season finale Tuesday.
Despite holding a three-goal lead after the first period, the Penguins concluded the campaign with a 41-25-16 record and 98 points.
In advance of the ramshackle result, the Penguins were largely fixated on the games of the most importance that are slated to start later in the week.
In other words, they were really amped to open the playoffs with their most enduring rivals, the Philadelphia Flyers, in the coming days.
“I would say the last week, the last three games, we’ve been focusing on the playoffs,” Mantha said. “Second place was clinched in our division. It just is how it is.”
To prepare for the playoffs — or to be properly rested, more accurately — the Penguins scratched many of their top players, including forwards Egor Chinakhov, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Rickard Rakell and Bryan Rust, as well as defensemen Sam Girard, Erik Karlsson, Kris Letang and Parker Wotherspoon, as Tuesday’s game was meaningless with regard to the standings.
“We’ve got guys that are banged up,” coach Dan Muse said. “We’ve got a number of guys that have pushed through things that they felt like they had to for us to be able to get into the playoffs. But guys that have been banged up, that have been hurt, that have been day to day, no, it’s not that hard. Guys are dealing with things.”
With a lineup full of players who might be suiting up for the first game of the Calder Cup Playoffs with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, the Pittsburgh Penguins were diced up by a Blues squad that will be starting their summer by the end of the week, having missed the playoffs.
As a result, goaltenders Stuart Skinner and Arturs Silovs were perforated like train tickets.
Skinner started the contest and played the first two periods, stopping 17 of 21 shots.
Somewhat by design, the Penguins pulled Skinner to open the third period with the score tied 4-4 and inserted Silovs, who made seven saves on nine shots. The loss went to Silovs as he finished the regular season with a 19-12-8 record.
Given how much of a jumbled lineup the Penguins deployed Tuesday and how sloppy their defense was, Muse was hesitant to put much weight in evaluating the goaltenders.
“You have to recognize that when guys are coming in and out of the lineup, maybe that connection you typically want to see might not be necessarily as sharp,” Muse said. “That being said, I think we still gave up chances that we didn’t need tonight. Everybody knows the system. Everybody knows the things we need to be doing.
“We could have made (the goalies’) lives easier in tonight’s game, for sure.”
All those varied respites for the team’s top players offered opportunity in Game 82 for several of the Penguins’ reserve players, including rookie forward Rutger McGroarty, who opened the scoring 10:14 into regulation with his third goal.
On a draw in St. Louis’ left circle, Penguins forward Kevin Hayes outmuscled Blues rookie Dalibor Dvorsky, allowing McGroarty to claim the puck and immediately rip a near-side wrister that clunked in off of goaltender Jordan Binnington’s blocker and into the cage. Hayes had the lone assist.
Penguins rookie forward Avery Hayes doubled the lead with his fourth goal at 16:40 of the first period.
Pressuring Blues rookie defenseman Logan Mailloux into a turnover at the Penguins’ blue line, Avery Hayes stole the puck, poking it into the neutral zone and generating a breakaway. Hustling in from just past the center red line, Avery Hayes approached the hashmark and fired a wrister past Binnington’s glove. There were no assists.
The Penguins’ leading goal-scorer put his team up by a field goal when forward Anthony Mantha tallied his 33rd goal at 17:23 of the opening frame.
Keeping a loose puck onside at the center point of St. Louis’ zone, Kevin Hayes tapped it forward to the slot. Mantha deadened the puck with his right skate, turned his attention toward the cage, veered to the left hashmark and fired a wrister past Binnington’s blocker on the near side. The only assist went to Kevin Hayes.
The Blues got on the scoreboard at 18:44 of the first via rookie forward Jimmy Snuggerud’s 20th goal.
After Penguins defensemen Ryan Graves and Ilya Solovyov were unable to get a puck out of danger from their own right corner, Blues forward Robert Thomas accepted the charity and deftly slid a pass to the hashmarks for Snuggerud, who pumped an immediate past goaltender Stuart Skinner’s blocker. Thomas tallied the only assist.
Penguins forward Elmer Soderblom maintained his healthy scoring pace with his seventh goal of the season — and fourth in his past nine games — 2:58 into the second period.
Off a feed by Mantha, Penguins rookie forward Ben Kindel advanced the puck through the neutral zone and sent a feed up the left wing, allowing Soderblom to gain the offensive zone. Surging past Blues defenseman Tyler Tucker, Soderblom attacked the cage, dragged the puck across the front of the crease and deposited a forehand shot past a flustered Binnington. Kindel and Mantha merited assists.
Ex-Penguins forward Oskar Sundqvist responded with his fifth goal at 4:49 of the second frame.
After Penguins rookie defenseman Jake Livanavage misplayed a bouncing puck in the Penguins’ right circle, Blues forward Alexey Toropchenko jumped on it to claim possession in the slot and fired a wrister, which Skinner rejected with his left leg. The rebound trickled free toward the left circle, where Sundqvist fired in an easy forehand past Skinner’s right leg and Penguins defenseman Jack St. Ivany, who was out of place on the sequence. Assists were tallied by Toropchenko and defenseman Phlip Broberg.
The Blues persisted as Mailloux found his fourth goal at 10:37 of the middle frame.
Accepting a pass in the high slot, Mailloux advanced a bit to the slot, utilized the massive Soderblom (6-foot-8, 252 pounds) and Penguins forward Joona Koppanen (6-5, 216 pounds) as a screen and ripped a wrister past the blocker of Skinner, who was blinded on the sequence. Forwards Jonathan Drouin and Jake Neighbours negotiated assists.
Snuggerud struck again to tie the game at 15:49 of the second period during a power-play chance.
Off a cross-ice pass, Blues forward Dylan Holloway fired a one-timer from the Penguins’ right circle. Skinner fought off the shot but yielded a rebound. Positioned just to the right of the crease, Neighbours alertly tapped a pass to the other side of the blue paint where Snuggerud easily swept in a forehand shot. Neighbours and Holloway had assists.
Holloway supplied the Blues with their first lead of the contest 4:11 into the third period with his 21st goal.
After St. Ivany fumbled a puck in his own right corner, Snuggerud scooped it in and centered a pass to the right hashmarks, where Holloway gripped and ripped a wrister Silovs’ blocker on the far side. The only assist was secured by Snuggerud.
Blues forward Pavel Buchnevich struck with his 19th goal 43 seconds later on a breakaway.
Settling a puck dumped into the end boards, Binnington snapped a pass from the right of the cage to the far side of the ice for Blues forward Jordan Kyrou. Seeing an opening wide enough to tow a barge, Kyrou fired a pass to the offensive blue line. Sprinting behind Graves and Solovyov, Buchnevich raced in and roasted Silovs’ blocker with a wrister.
The Penguins called a timeout to regroup after that score.
Avery Hayes struck on a power-play opportunity at 12:20 of the third frame off assists from Shea and Silovs.
Lugging the puck into the offensive zone on the right wing, Hayes snapped a near-side wrister on net from the right circle. Binnington stopped the shot with his left skate but surrendered a generous rebound by the near post. Hayes scooted by Broberg and punched a forehand shot past Binnington’s left leg. Shea and Silovs secured assists.
Any hopes of a comeback by the Penguins were euthanized by Holloway, who scored his second of the contest on an empty net at 18:17 of the final period. Snuggerud and Mailloux had assists.
The Penguins will have a few days off to regroup after having finished the regular season with a three-game losing streak (0-3-0), all of which were meaningless as it pertained to the Penguins’ postseason hopes.
The meaningful work begins now.
“Obviously, it’s not the regular lineup,” Mantha said. “Guys have different opportunities jumping into these games. They didn’t go our way these last three (games). We need to focus.
“The good games, the fun games are coming up real quick here.”