PITTSBURGH — Dan Muse was left bewildered on Sunday.
A day earlier, the Pittsburgh Penguins coach watched his team surrender a four-goal lead in the final 12:27 of the third period before losing 6-5 in overtime to the San Jose Sharks.
“First of all, not in a million years did I think we’d be back here 24 hours later having the exact same conversation,” Muse said.
Yet there he was, sat at the podium after Pittsburgh (14-8-9) let a 3-0 lead slip away in the third period of a 5-4 overtime loss to the Utah Mammoth at PPG Paints Arena. The Penguins have blown a lead in the third period in four of their past five games (0-1-4), have lost eight times after leading in the third period this season, and are 1-9 when a game reaches overtime.
“Probably sound like a broken record,” Muse said. “It has been a little bit different each game.”
He’s right.
On Dec. 7, the Penguins held a 2-1 lead until Miro Heiskanen tied it at 18:11 of the third period for the Dallas Stars, who would go on to win 3-2 in a shootout.
Two days later, Anthony Mantha scored the go-ahead goal at 16:05 of the third period against the Anaheim Ducks, putting the Penguins in line for a 3-2 win. However, Erik Karlsson accidentally gloved the puck into his own net with 0.1 seconds remaining in regulation for the tying short-handed goal, which was credited to Beckett Sennecke. Anaheim then won 4-3 in a shootout.
“We all know the repercussions that it can bring after it’s all said and done,” Karlsson said on Sunday. “But then, at the same time, we can’t be too afraid of what’s going to happen in the future and what ifs. We’ve got to stay a little bit more in the moment.
“We’ve got to go back a little bit to a game-to-game basis and not look too far ahead and not worry about what could be. Just play our game, because I think we’ve shown, for the majority of the season so far, that when we play the way that we want to we’re a capable team of playing and beating anyone.”
