Stars Align, Bop Penguins, 6-3 (with a Little Help from Their Friends)
Excuse me ahead of time for the lack of pithy preamble. This is one of those times when life got in the way, so my recap will be a tad bare bones.
The Penguins lost, 6-3, yesterday to the Stars at PPG Paints Arena.
Anthony Mantha staked us to a 1-0 lead at 2:12 of the first period on a deflection of an Erik Karlsson drive from center point.
The Stars knotted the score at 2:10 of the second period on a tally by Justin Hryckowian off a goal-mouth scramble. At our bounce-back best, we regained the lead just 48 seconds later on a Karlsson snipe from the high slot.
Then the Pens self-destructed…with a little help from their friends. We yielded a pair of power-play goals to Stars studs Jason Robertson (7:12) and Mikko Rantanen (10:12) to relinquish the lead.
The worm-turner occurred 86 seconds later. Stars defenseman Lian Bichsel wrenched the stick out of Karlsson’s hands, in full view of a referee stationed in the corner, before circling back to center point and beating Stuart Skinner with a long-range blast.