These days, it doesn’t seem to matter who the Pittsburgh Penguins are missing they still find a way to win.
Without Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, Brooks Orpik, Paul Martin, Rob Scuderi, Beau Bennett, James Neal, Deryk Engelland, and Tanner Glass, the Penguins defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-1, Monday night at Consol Energy Center to move back on top of the Eastern Conference standings.
Of course, the Pens still had Sidney Crosby.
Crosby scored his 19th goal of the season with under seven minutes to play in regulation to put the Penguins on top in a tough, feisty game that saw two fights and countless big hits. Brandon Sutter added an empty net goal to seal the deal with less than ten seconds remaining.
Right out of the gate, the Penguins stormed the Toronto net and scored a goal within the first 39 seconds of play. Joe Vitale sent a pass out to Brian Dumoulin -starting in his second career game- who fired a shot that was deflected in by Chris Connor.
Robert Bortuzzo squared off around the fifteen minute mark of the opening period after Troy Bodie rammed him into the boards.
Morgan Reilly got the Leafs on the board with his first career NHL goal while Toronto was on the power play. Reilly skated into the Penguins goal and went wide. His wrist shot clipped Simon Despres and fluttered over Marc-Andre Fleury to knot the score at one a piece.
Jayson Megna left the game in the third period with a lower body injury and was listed as day to day by Dan Bylsma.
The Penguins broke the tie late in the third period when a clearing attempt failed to exit the Toronto zone. Pascal Dupuis found Sidney Crosby who was all alone in the middle of the ice. Crosby took the pass, skated in on goaltender Jonathan Bernier and beat him with a hard wrist shot past the glove hand.
Chris Kunitz took a penalty late in the game and Toronto pulled their goalie to make it a 6 on 4 advantage. But Brandon Sutter stole the puck off of Dion Phaneuf and wired a long-range shot into the open cage.
- Philip Samuelsson, son of former Penguins’ legend Ulf Samuelsson, made his first NHL start in lieu of Deryk Engelland’s suspension.
- Before Reilly’s goal, the Penguins had killed off 18 straight penalties.
- Pittsburgh has won eight games in a row at home.
Three Stars
- Sidney Crosby
- Marc-Andre Fleury
- Matt Niskanen
Photo courtesy of NHL.com
