A four-game road trip has gotten off to a rocky start for the Pittsburgh Penguins, who followed a 5-3 setback at Chicago on Tuesday with a 5-2 loss at Colorado on Friday night.
Now comes the tough part.
The Penguins next face the defending Western Conference champion Vegas Golden Knights in the second game of a back-to-back on Saturday in Las Vegas before heading to Salt Lake City to play the Central Division-leading Utah Mammoth on Monday.
Pittsburgh, which has just one win in its past six games (1-4-1), got off to a good start against the Avalanche, taking a 2-0 lead in the first nine minutes on goals by Evgeni Malkin and Bryan Rust just 29 seconds apart.
It was all Colorado after that. Led by Nathan MacKinnon’s one goal and three assists, his 36th career game with four points or more, the Avalanche scored five unanswered goals, including three in the second period, to pull away for the easy win.
Afterward, the key word making the rounds in the Penguins locker room was “consistency.”
“The first period we came out and we were doing a lot of the things I know this group is capable of when we’re on,” Pittsburgh coach Dan Muse said. “It’s just the consistency throughout the entire game. We’re going to look at it. It’s going to be a quick turnaround here. We’re going to have to turn that page quick.”
Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson added, “I don’t think we played particularly bad hockey. I think we just played a really good team. I think they capitalized on more chances than we did.”
The Penguins now play a Vegas team that leads the NHL with 14 points and is 4-1-0 at home.
The Golden Knights have won two in a row and come in off a 6-2 victory over the visiting Calgary Flames on Thursday. Mark Stone led the way with his second career regular-season hat trick, and Jack Eichel added a short-handed goal and two assists to lead the Pacific Division leaders.
Vegas, which has fallen behind 3-0 twice to start games this season, took control from the start against Calgary. The Golden Knights jumped out to a 2-0 lead on goals by Brett Howden and Eichel in the first period and led 3-1 after two periods before Stone capped the win with a natural hat trick in the third period.
Stone leads the Golden Knights with six goals while Eichel is second with five to go along with a team-high 11 assists.
“We were ready to play. It’s nice to get one early there,” first-year Vegas coach Ryan Craig said. “The short-handed goal, obviously with Jack making a great play and going in and scoring, nice to get up in that situation. Give our guys credit for being ready to go.”
Ivan Barbashev tied his career high with three assists and Carter Hart made 28 saves for the Golden Knights, who have won six of their past seven games.
“Everybody’s stepping up,” Barbashev said. “It’s fun to play right now. We’re winning a lot of games, which makes it even more fun. Hopefully it continues the same way.”