Recap: Canes Come up Short in Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH - The Carolina Hurricanes came up short in a pivotal game against a Metropolitan Division foe, losing 3-1 to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Derek Ryan scored the first goal of the game in the second period, but Pittsburgh quickly answered back and took the lead, with Jean-Sebastien Dea's first career goal being the difference-maker.
Here are five takeaways from tonight's game.

One
The Hurricanes only got one goal by Casey DeSmith tonight, but it wasn't for a lack of chances. The Canes fired 35 shots on net, and they while they were able to convert on one of them, they lacked the finish and execution to add to their total.
"We spent some time in the offensive zone, but they're a good team," Ryan said. "They capitalized on their opportunities and we didn't."
"He made some saves, but … we had a couple chances," Jeff Skinner said. "We hit two posts that I can remember. Those bounce the other way and maybe go in, but you've just got to keep working and generating opportunities. We couldn't seem to finish off a chance when we needed it."
"I wasn't disappointed with the overall effort," head coach Bill Peters said. "Some of the execution could have been a little cleaner with the puck. We could have executed at a little bit of a higher level, but again, there were some good looks."
Two
The Hurricanes' best shift of the game, featuring the Skinner-Ryan-Stempniak trio and the Hanifin-van Riemsdyk pairing, resulted in the first goal of the game. After rolling around with the puck in the zone, Lee Stempniak drew a penalty in front of the net. On the delayed penalty sequence, Ryan located a rebound, whacked at it, kicked the puck to his stick and scored.

"Riemer and Hani did a great job keeping pucks alive when it came around the walls. Stemper and Doc did a great job down low winning battles and keeping possession," Skinner described. "Riemer made a nice shot, and Doc's in a good spot to find a way to finish it."
"They were tenacious. They had them hemmed in for a while, and they were wearing them down," Peters said. "It was a good job being hard at the net."
It seemed like that goal was going to spark the Canes in the first half of the second period, but things quickly went back the other way.
"We had the momentum after we scored, but we had to keep it," Ryan said. "We just let them score right away and take the momentum again. We had it in spurts after that, but we didn't have it for longer enough after that."
Three
In a span of 76 seconds, the Penguins both tied the game and then took the lead. First, it was a quick shot off the stick of Dominik Simon that beat Cam Ward on his glove side. Before that tally, Ward had not allowed a goal against the Pens in 143:29. Then, Jean-Sebastien Dea finished on a 2-on-1 rush for his first career goal, and all of a sudden the tone of the game flipped.
"We could have defended differently," Peters said. "A couple different scenarios there I think we could have handled better."
Four
The Hurricanes are now 2-1-0 against the Penguins in the last month with one game remaining in the four-game season series. Tonight's four-point swing was big, the miscues, the missed opportunities, the breakdowns, the passes when there should have been shots - all magnified in a hard-fought, 3-1 score.
"I thought we got going. I give them credit; they started well," Peters said. "Then I think we had a push-back and were real good in the second. We really pushed in the third but couldn't find a way to get one by DeSmith."
"A couple miscues in a pretty good game. Chances both ways," Skinner said. "They capitalized. We just couldn't find that second one."
Five
Before tonight, it had been two weeks since Brett Pesce last played hockey. An upper-body injury sustained in Washington on Jan. 11 forced him out of the lineup for the following five games. The five-day bye week allowed some time away from the rink for the Canes' 23-year-old defenseman to recover, and he was ready to re-enter the lineup tonight.
Pesce's final stat line included 18:43 of ice time, one shot and two hits.
"He looks like he's been out for two weeks," Peters said. "He looked a little slow early and fought it for a while."
Up Next
The Hurricanes will close out their pre-All-Star Weekend schedule with their first and only trip to Montreal this season.
"We want to have a good game going into the break," Skinner said. "We'll practice tomorrow, work on some things and come out and have a good game on Thursday."
"We have to flush this one and make sure we're ready to go before the last game before the break," Ryan said. "Nothing to save it for. Put it all on the line and hopefully start putting some points on the board."