(Sports Network) - The Pittsburgh Penguins will try to bounce back from their first road loss of the season when they visit the San Jose Sharks for tonight's battle between first-place teams at HP Pavilion.

The Penguins started out with wins in their first seven road games this year, but were dealt a 5-2 setback Thursday in Los Angeles. The seven straight road victories tied a club record from the 1992-93 season.

Pittsburgh, which leads the Atlantic Division with 24 points, has lost two of its last three games and has been playing without last year's Art Ross Trophy winner Evgeni Malkin as well as top defenseman Sergei Gonchar. Malkin suffered a strained right shoulder on October 28 and is expected to be back later this month, while Gonchar could be out until early December.

Anze Kopitar scored two goals to lead the Kings to the easy win over the Penguins at the Staples Center. Jordan Staal and Chris Kunitz scored for the Penguins, while Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 27 of the 32 shots he faced in defeat.

"I think we would have liked to have been a little better. We didn't play great and sometimes you get away with that. It's a good lesson for us," said Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby. "We have gotten away with bad periods in the past but tonight we didn't."

Crosby has gone three straight games without a point and has registered just six total shots on goal over that span.

The Penguins will return to the East Coast to wrap up their four-game road trip, as they are scheduled to visit Boston on Tuesday.

The Sharks had a streak of their own snapped their last time out, as they dropped a shootout decision in Detroit to halt a six-game winning stretch. San Jose, which leads the Pacific with 24 points, still has just one regulation loss over its last 10 games (8-1-1).

Henrik Zetterberg tied the game in the third period and added another goal in the shootout to lift the Red Wings to a 2-1 victory at Joe Louis Arena.

Logan Couture scored his first career goal for the Sharks, while Evgeni Nabokov finished with 35 saves in defeat.

Couture, San Jose's top pick (ninth overall) in the 2007 draft, has one goal and one assist in his first six games since making his NHL debut on October 25 against Philadelphia.

"Yeah, it's definitely one I'll remember for the rest of my life," Couture said about his first NHL goal. "It's too bad it didn't come in a win."

Sharks winger Devin Setoguchi has missed the last six games with a leg injury and is questionable for tonight's game. Setoguchi was off to a fast start to the season, posting seven goals and two helpers in 11 games.

In other injury news, San Jose captain Rob Blake missed Thursday's game with an upper-body injury and has been placed on injured reserve. The veteran defenseman has one goal and five assists on the season.

Tonight's test marks the first of three straight home games for the Sharks, who are 4-0-1 as the host this year. San Jose will also welcome Nashville and Dallas before completing the residency.

The Penguins and Sharks split two meetings last year with each club winning on its home ice. San Jose has taken five of six overall in the series and Pittsburgh is winless (0-7 with a tie) in its last eight trips to the Shark Tank.