Prep school friends

Penguins center Sidney Crosby and Los Angeles Kings defenseman Jack Johnson are friends dating to their teen years when they were teammates at Shattuck, a Minnesota prep school, in 2002-03. They were drafted two slots apart in 2005, Crosby first overall, Johnson third.

Because they play in opposite conferences and due to Johnson breaking into the league more slowly and Crosby missing a big chunk of games in 2008 because of a high ankle sprain, the two had played against each other just once in the NHL before last night.

That was March 20, when Crosby had a goal and an assist and Johnson no points and a plus-minus rating of minus-2 in a 4-1 Penguins win at Mellon Arena.

Crosby said the two have kept in touch.

This was such foreign territory that it stung just that much more.

The Penguins had not given up more than four goals in a game before last night. Then they lost, 5-2, to the Los Angeles Kings at Staples Center.

The Penguins had not lost through their first seven road games. Then they fell to 7-1 away from Mellon Arena, missing a chance to set a club record for consecutive wins away from home.

They had not lost in regulation in 20 games under coach Dan Bylsma when they led after two periods. Then they squandered a 2-1 lead and watched the Kings score four times in the third period, including the second goal of the game by NHL leading scorer Anze Kopitar.

“It wasn’t even a period; it was 13 minutes or something like that,” center and captain Sidney Crosby said of his team’s late-game lapse, when the Penguins gave up Kopitar’s tying goal at 6:17, goals by Jarret Stoll and Michal Handzus 23 seconds apart and a capper by Dustin Brown at 17:30.