PITTSBURGH — The Penguins weren’t able to rally back Tuesday after falling behind by three goals in a 5-2 loss against the Toronto Maple Leafs at PPG Paints Arena. Matt Murray got the win for the Leafs, outdueling his former backup, Casey DeSmith.
The Penguins played tight-checking hockey through the first 12 minutes but soon found themselves down 2-0 after the Leafs capitalized on two breakdowns.
John Tavares was left alone atop the circles, and he flung a long shot on goal that beat DeSmith, who has had trouble tracking pucks through traffic this season. The 6-foot goaltender couldn’t spot that shot with three bodies in his sightline.
Jason Zucker got a step on the Leafs and a chance to answer right back, but his backhand missed the net. Moments later, the Leafs picked apart the Penguins on a 3-on-2 rush. Mitch Marner tucked the puck behind the sliding DeSmith.
In their 4-2 victory in Toronto four days earlier, the Penguins limited those types of opportunities in the decisive third period. Coach Mike Sullivan pointed to clean line changes, smart decisions with the puck and sound neutral-zone structure as things the Penguins would need to replicate in the rematch against the Leafs.
The Leafs, with their loaded top six and an active two-way defenseman in Morgan Reilly, are one of the NHL’s most dangerous teams attacking in transition.
They showed that again just 11 seconds into the second period, when they scored on a 2-on-1. The Penguins were slow to skate out of a scrum in the center faceoff circle and Auston Matthews set up Michael Bunting to make the lead 3-0.
Rickard Rakell and Sidney Crosby scored goals 1:44 apart to wake up the PPG Paints Arena crowd and get the Penguins back within a goal. They are tied for the team lead with seven this season. Crosby’s was a beautiful backhander.
Crosby and the Penguins pushed for the equalizer throughout the second period. But Murray made a few sprawling saves to keep the Leafs on top. Bunting’s tap-in with 50 seconds left in the period pushed the Toronto lead back to two.
That continued a rough evening for the Crosby line, which was on the ice for all five Leafs goals. That included William Nylander’s late empty-netter goal.
Murray made 15 of his 35 saves in the third. But the Penguins didn’t make much of a push after giving up a goal in the first and last minute of the second.
Tuesday was Murray’s first start at PPG Paints Arena as the opposing goalie. The two-time Stanley Cup winner was unable to play here last season because he was sick when his previous team, the Ottawa Senators, came to Pittsburgh. He was in the house that night, though, getting a nice ovation from Penguins fans.
This time around, he left his former home with a win – his first with the Leafs.
The Penguins, meanwhile, have now lost two straight games and nine of 11.
ICE CHIPS
-- Teddy Blueger made his season debut Tuesday. The defensive-minded center sat out the first 15 games with a nagging upper-body injury. With Blueger back, the Penguins played Ryan Poehling on the wing for the first time this season.
-- With assists on Rakell’s second-period goal, Zucker and Evgeni Malkin extended their respective scoring streaks to four games each. For Zucker, this is his longest point streak since the Penguins acquired him via trade in February 2020.
-- To make room for Blueger on the roster, the Penguins sent down Filip Hallander. Hallander played two games in his latest NHL stint, recording no points.
-- Kasperi Kapanen and Pierre-Olivier Joseph were scratched for Pittsburgh.
COMING UP
The Penguins are scheduled to practice Wednesday in Cranberry then will travel north to Minnesota for the start of a three-game road trip. They visit the Wild on Thursday then have a weekend back-to-back in Winnipeg then Chicago.
