Coming into the night off a pair of back-to-back shutouts last week in Alberta, Marc-Andre Fleury had his shutout streak broken at 165:06, but his teammates provided plenty of offense in a four-goal outburst over the first to periods to the lead the Pens past the Detroit Red Wings 4-1 on Wednesday night.
Blake Comeau made the most of his first action since Decemeber 22, with a goal, an assist, and earned the number one star skating on the second line with Evgeni Malkin and Patric Hornqvist. Comeau had missed 20 games with a wrist injury.
“I thought (Hornqvist) did a great job tonight,” said Comeau after the game. “Geno and him, they were both flying and made my job easier.”
Hornqvist got the scoring started with a goal just 1:51 into the first period. Kris Letang’s slap shot went off the end boards and Hornqvist pounced on it and roofed it past Red Wings goaltender Petr Mrazek to give the Penguins an early lead.
The Penguins have now won five straight games in which they’ve scored a goal. They’re 5-3 in that span, with shutout losses to Washington, Nashville and Vancouver sprinkled in.
Comeau got the game-winner at 12:15 of the first when Hornqvist forced a turnover and found Comeau all alone for a one-timer in between the faceoff circles.
“On my goal, (Hornqvist), it was all him forechecking, creating a turnover, and I was just in the right spot,” said Comeau.
David Perron added to the lead early in the second when he slammed home the rebound of a Maxim Lapierre shot. Lapierre drew the defense to him as he drove hard to the net, leaving Perron alone in the slot. The assist was Lapierre’s first point with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Paul Martin also assisted.
The rout was on at 7:52 of the second when Nick Spaling deflected a Rob Scuderi point shot past Mrazek. Simon Despres earned the other assist.
The Red Wings got a goal back – and stopped Fleury’s shutout streak – at 13:26 of the second period. With Steve Downie in the penalty box for hooking, Stephen Weiss’ shot hit the post to the right Fleury, went off the back of the goaltender’s pad, and slid across the goal line.
Fleury’s streak ended with in a career high, but he fell just short of the team record of 173:06, which was set by Thomas Vokoun in 2013. Fleury finished with 23 saves to win his third consecutive game and 26th game of the season.
Mrazek was pulled after two periods and gave way to Jimmy Howard, who made his return after missing a month with a groin injury. Mrazek ended up making 13 saves on 17 shots. Howard stopped all four Penguins attempts in the third period.
Beau Bennett was held off the scoresheet but was a plus-1 in his return to the lineup after being a healthy scratch for the last three games.
“That’s tough to watch, when you’re a healthy scratch, you want to be out there trying to help the team,” he said. “You never want to be out of the lineup, but we have a good team with a lot of good candidates to play every night … I was just glad to get back out there tonight.”
Also held off the scoresheet was captain Sidney Crosby, who was playing in his 600th career NHL game.
“It was good,” Crosby said. “We got everybody into it, got some early goals. Geno’s line was really buzzing … We finally have everyone in the lineup, and we’ve got to build now.”
The Penguins (31-15-8) remain one point behind the New York Islanders for first place in the Metropolitan Division. The Penguins are travelling to Ottawa tonight for their 7:30 faceoff against the Senators tomorrow night.
Photo credit: NHL
