Penguins’ dropping streak pushed to seven

PITTSBURGH — Brandon Tanev scored the game-winning purpose with 3:39 remaining and the Seattle Kraken defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2 on Saturday night time, sending the house workforce to its seventh straight loss.

The Penguins are 4-6-2 and have not tasted a victory since Oct. 22, a 6-3 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets.

“It is robust. It is tough,” Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby mentioned. “We did plenty of good issues.”

Tanev took a cross from Yanni Gourde and beat goaltender Tristan Jarry from point-blank vary to snap a 2-all tie. It was Tanev’s first purpose of the season and it got here towards the workforce he performed for from 2019-21.

The Kraken received their fourth straight, the longest streak for the second-year franchise. Seattle has 5 wins in its final six video games, together with a sweep of its three-game street journey.

“Nice for me, however I feel it is extra necessary that the workforce acquired all six factors on this street journey,” Tanev mentioned. “That is the mindset and the purpose we had getting down to this street journey and the three video games we performed. We beat three good groups. That is the concept.”

Vince Dunn and Gourde additionally had targets for the Kraken. Martin Jones stopped 36 photographs after shutting out Minnesota in Seattle’s earlier sport.

“This group, they are a fairly tight group,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol mentioned. “That is all the time an amazing place to start out. Tonight, third sport in a street journey, there have been items right here that weren’t all that fairly. However there was by no means some extent within the hockey sport the place you felt our group was rattled.”

The Penguins obtained targets from Crosby and Jake Guentzel. Crosby additionally had his 900th profession help.

The Penguins tied it 2-all when Guentzel’s cross went off the stick of Seattle’s Matty Beniers and into the online with 10:09 remaining.

That got here slightly below two minutes after Gourde scored when Tanev kicked the puck to him after having a cross from Morgan Geekie bounce off his knee.

“Within the third interval, I assumed we had some momentum, so it is discouraging from that finish of it,” Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan mentioned.

Nevertheless, Sullivan mentioned his workforce must hold from getting annoyed because the losses pile up.

“The answer is simply ensuring we keep within the second, and we do not get overwhelmed by all of the noise round (the dropping streak),” Sullivan mentioned. “We simply should give attention to the method and that is what we’re making an attempt to do.

“Once we do not stay as much as the expectations we’ve for one another and do not get the outcomes we would like, these guys take it to coronary heart. We have got to dig in a bit of extra, be extra decided, be extra vigilant in additional vital moments of the sport.”

Crosby opened the scoring at 5:24 of the second interval by changing a one-timer off a cross from Kris Letang.

Dunn tied it rather less than 2 1/2 minutes afterward a slap shot off a faceoff.

The Penguins will go to the Washington Capitals on Wednesday, one other Japanese Convention workforce that’s struggling. After a 3-2 loss to the Arizona Coyotes Saturday night time, Washington is now in an 0-2-2 stretch.

The Related Press contributed to this report.