clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Penguins vs. Wild recap: Staal's 3 points beats Pittsburgh

A 3rd period goal for Eric Staal sends the Minnesota Wild past the Penguins and gives Pittsburgh their first regulation loss at home this season.

By Hooks Orpik
Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Pregame

The Penguins with a nice video to honor all the vets ahead of Veterans Day tomorrow.

1st period

Who else but Sidney Crosby opens the scoring with his 9th goal of the season, this one coming on the power play on a deflection of a Phil Kessel shot/pass.

The lead wouldn't last long, and Charlie Coyle was apparently taking notes as he tips in a goal on the power play of his own to put the Wild on the board.

Shots were 13-10 Minny after one period

2nd period

Patric Hornqvist gives the Pens their second (and final) lead of the night by bouncing a puck off the defenseman and past Devan Dubnyk .

The Minnesota first line goes to work on the Pens 4th line and gets a goal. Nino Niederreiter with the goal.

Shots 31-25 Wild after 2 periods

3rd period

Eric Staal gets his 3rd point of the net and what ended up as the game winner early in the period.

Minny tacks on an empty netter to seal the deal

Some Thoughts

  • Didn't get a chance to see this one, so I'll just throw some stats that pop out and we'll let you guys in the comments fire away with your thoughts.
  • Per Mackey on twitter, Minnesota came into the season 30th (that's last) in shots per game with 26.6 and they fired 42 shots on goal (and 75 total shot attempts). The Pens have been pretty lax in the early season as far as allowing a ton of shots. Don't think it's time for alarm bells or panic, but it is annoying since they're capable of playing better. It certainly will be an interesting storyline to follow as the season develops to see if they stress improvement in what they allow.
  • From our own game thread, we noticed Dubnyk's been awesome so far this season and the Wild in general are tough to score on. 2 power play goals are always nice, and the Pens did get the game tied going into the 3rd period, at home. That's usually a winning formula, but wasn't tonight.
  • Kessel led the Pens in two statistical categories on this night, not terribly surprising. One being assists makes sense. The other being blocked shots (3)? Not so much.
  • Wild's top line combined for 3 goals and 4 assists (with 2 ES goals). Pens top line did score their 2 goals, but both on the power play.
  • Help fill us in with some comments of what stood out to you

So, in the end the Penguins drop their first regulation game in the last 8. They get one more home game Saturday against Toronto before getting ready to jet out for a 3 game road-trip next week.

More From PensBurgh