Poor puck possession in the 3rd period, penalties from star players doomed Penguins in loss to Stars

The adrenaline rush the Penguins had in the first two games, appeared to go away in the final forty minutes of a 3-2 loss to the Dallas Stars. Two late third period goals from the Stars, including a Tyler Seguin game winner with 2.9 seconds left in the third period dealt the Penguins a 3-2 loss on Thursday night

The Penguins again got off to a roaring start with two power play goals in the first period but the final 30 minutes of the game, notably the final period, saw some of the Penguins bad habits re-appear.

Poor puck possession in the offensive zone, penalties from their star players and suspect goaltending sunk the Penguins. Sounds like something from the Penguins playoff notebook in years past.

“To not even get a point out of that is a little frustrating,” Sidney Crosby said afterwards.

Antonine Russell Goal at 6:08 of the second period cut the Penguins lead to 2-1 and the Stars kept pushing, they controlled the play in the third period. Dallas scored twice and also had a goal disallowed that should have counted.

What was problematic for the Penguins is they failed to develop a heavy game in the third period and instead of getting pucks deep, the Penguins tried to play an East-West perimeter game.

“I think it was poor decisions with puck management that gave them momentum to get back into the game and caused us to take penalties,” Defenseman Rob Scuderi said.

The Penguins poor puck possession bothered Mike Johnston afterwards.

“In the third we came up high along the boards three or four times and they started pushing us and we made {bad} plays in those high areas,” Johnston said.