UNBELIEVABLE. Penguins Blow ANOTHER Large Lead

PITTSBURGH — Utah Mammoth (16-15-3) forward Dylan Guenther put the dagger in the Pittsburgh Penguins‘ (14-8-9) wounded heart just 42 seconds into overtime, and the Penguins blew yet another large, and should-be insurmountable lead, losing 5-4 in overtime Sunday at PPG Paints Arena.

The remarkable and wholly unbelievable slide would surely stop Sunday. Yet another multi-goal lead entering the third period, and surely professional hockey players wearing Penguins jerseys would be able to figure out their recent extraordinary spate of large third period leads lost.

In fact, they did not. And Utah didn’t wait for the extra attacker, instead scoring four goals in the first 7:06 of the third period.

But this time, the Penguins had time to score a tying goal as Justin Brazeau neatly deflected Erik Karlsson’s shot at 14:06 of the third period, at least getting the drowning Penguins back to even 4-4.

But it was only temporary.

Like so many games before, the Penguins were opportunistic.

Rutger McGroarty created a turnover from Utah defenseman Mikhail Sergachev in the Utah zone, setting up Ben Kindel’s precise cross-ice pass to Justin Brazeau in the left circle. At the same time, McGroarty made a direct charge toward the net, while Brazeau pulled off a spinning backhand pass toward McGroarty. Before the puck got to McGroarty, it deflected off Utah center Nick Schmaltz into the net at 48 of the first period.

Just as the Penguins have done a handful of times over the past couple of weeks, they raced to a multi-goal lead.

Later in the first period, the Penguins lost an offensive zone faceoff, but Bryan Rust (11) didn’t allow Sergachev space to skate the puck around the net. Rust created a loose puck and then poked it past Vejmelka at 15:21 for a 2-0 lead.

The intensity was missing for most of the second period, but that benefitted the Penguins, who claimed a 3-0 lead when Ryan Shea sprung Ben Kindel (8) for a breakaway goal at 5:40.

Murashov made a few sparkling saves to preserve the Penguins’ advantage. He made a couple on the first shift of the game, and a couple more on second-period penalty kills.

The second period shot totals reflected the pace. Utah outshot the Penguins 9-4, and Utah was outshooting the Penguins 19-10 after 40 minutes.

Ville Koivunen led the Penguins with a mere two shots and was the only Penguins player with more than one after two periods.

However, in four of the last five games, including an overturned goal in Tampa Bay on Dec. 4 and the four-goal meltdown Saturday, the Penguins squandered what should have been solid leads.

And a 3-0 lead Sunday didn’t necessarily fill the crowd who braved the embarrassingly unmaintained, unplowed Pittsburgh city streets with confidence.

In his fourth career start, Murashov made a few sparkling saves, including a pair in the first couple of minutes of the game. However, he yielded a couple of big rebounds early in the third period, directly leading to a pair of goals.

Then Utah scored another pair of quick goals. By 7:06 of the third period, the Penguins’ latest third period lead had exploded in their faces like a cartoon cigar.

Early in the third period, the latest meltdown began when Mursahov kicked a big rebound right to defenseman Nate Schmidt on the left wing. Schmidt (2) quickly snapped it back into the net at 1:07 of the third period.

Just 15 seconds later, Murashov made the first save on Michael Carcone’s rush, but his pad-popping rebound went directly back to Carcone some 20 feet away. From near the goal line, Carcone (5) put back his chance at 1:22.

Very quickly, 3-0 became 3-2, and Penguins coach Dan Muse used his timeout, but it only delayed the inevitable.

Several minutes later, Sean Durzi’s shot from the right circle beat Murashov at 5:35, but center Kevin Stenlund was in the crease and in contact with Murashov. Muse rolled the dice and challenged for goaltender interference. While the Penguins had solid grounds for a challenge, it was denied.

To make matters worse, Utah scored on the power play resulting from the challenge when Carcone (6) ripped a top-shelf wrister past Murashov at 7:06, and Utah led 4-3.

Murashov stopped 32 of 36 in regulation. Vejmelka turned aside 12 of 16. The Penguins were 0-for-2 on the power play, but Utah had five chances, converting one.

Of little consolation, the Penguins have points in nine of their last 11 games, but just four wins and five extra-time losses either in overtime or the shootout.