SEATTLE — Martin Jones made 32 saves, including 16 in the third period, and the Seattle Kraken handed the Pittsburgh Penguins their fourth straight loss, 3-1 at Climate Pledge Arena on Saturday.
“This was a team win,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “We talked about it before the game. We had an opportunity to accomplish something here. It’s game 10. We played a lot of hockey. For us, we look at things in segments, and at the end of our second segment we had a chance to put ourselves in a good spot in that segment, and we were able to do that.”
Jaden Schwartz had a goal and an assist for the Kraken (4-4-2), who finished 2-1-0 on their homestand.
Jake Guentzel scored in his return, and Casey DeSmith made 27 saves for the Penguins (4-4-1), who lost the final four games of a five-game road trip, including 5-1 at the Vancouver Canucks on Friday.
Video: PIT@SEA: Guentzel fights off a defender and buries it
Guentzel, who missed four games with an upper-body injury, gave Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead at 10:05 of the second period when he intercepted a Jamie Oleksiak cross-ice pass at the blue line and beat Jones five-hole.
“Obviously you never want to be out, so it’s nice to be back with teammates and get back in the game action, but just a tough result,” Guentzel said. “Hopefully we can go home [Tuesday against the Boston Bruins] and it’ll change.”
Seattle scored twice in the second period, but each goal was nullified by video review.
The Penguins challenged Ryan Donato‘s tap-in at 8:09, and it was determined that he preceded the puck into the offensive zone and was in an offside position prior to his goal.
Another challenge came at 11:17 following an apparent goal by Andrey Burakovskywhich was nullified by a missed game stoppage event, when video confirmed Alex Wennberg played the puck with a high stick.
Video: PIT@SEA: Eberle ties it in 2nd period
The clock was reset to 11:09, and Jordan Eberle tied it 1-1 11 seconds later off a cross-crease pass Matty Beniers.
“Getting that third one finally stuck, you know, got the crowd going a lot and yeah, we definitely got some momentum off it, for sure.” Jones said.
Morgan Geekie gave Seattle a 2-1 lead at 18:33, scoring off a rebound of a Daniel Sprong shot.
Schwartz scored into an empty net at 19:00 of the third period for the 3-1 final.
“When we needed the big save, Jones was there,” Hakstol said. “We did a lot of little things right in terms of winning some of the right battles, including face-offs, at a key time, so we did a lot of those little things.”
Video: PIT@SEA: Geekie buries a rebound to take the lead
Penguins forward Jeff Carter sustained a lower-body injury in the first period and did not return. Coach Mike Sullivan said Carter was being evaluated.
“Our guys are discouraged. As you know, they’re proud guys,” Sullivan said. “They care about winning, and when you go through times like this, everybody feels it because they care. We all do, so we just got to make sure that we turn our discouragement into determination and make sure that we can continue to work at finding the solution. And I know we’re a good hockey team, we’ve shown an ability to be good, and we’re capable of better play.”
NOTES: Guentzel had four shots on goal in 22:10. His 165th goal surpassed Kraken general manager Ron Francis and tied Martin Straka for 10th in Penguins history. … Pittsburgh forward Jason Zucker had two shots and two hits in 15:51 after missing two games with an undisclosed injury. … Sullivan coached his 516th game to tie Ed Johnston for the most in Penguins history. … Beniers has 17 points, the ninth most in the first 20 NHL games scored by a teenager among active skaters. … Kraken forward Jared McCann had his four-game goal streak end, and Beniers had his three-game goal streak end.
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