In a game that featured 100 penalty minutes, it was the finest of finesse plays that gave the Penguins a 4-3 shootout victory in Winnipeg on Wednesday night.
Sidney Crosby deked around Jets goaltender Ondrej Pavelec and tucked his shot off the goaltender’s skate, the post, his pad, and into the Winnipeg net to give the Penguins the shootout lead. Marc-Andre Fleury, fresh off his contract extension, stoned Evander Kane at the other end of the ice to give the Penguins their first shootout victory of the season and extend their winning streak to six games.
Evander Kane scored on a breakaway 3:55 to tie the game, and neither team was able to break through in a hard-fought third period. Fleury made 34 saves to get the victory for the Penguins and improve his record to 9-2 on the season.
The Jets were able to equal the Penguins at even strength, and they kept the Penguins vaunted power play off the board, killing all five Pittsburgh power plays. The Penguins penalty kill was also perfect, and they ran their penalties killed streak to 34, which is a new team record.
The second two periods of the game were extremely physical, with two fights, ten minutes of roughing penalties, and three ten-minute misconducts. The Penguins responded well to the physical play, with third-liners Brandon Sutter and Steve Downie scoring in the first half of the period.
With 13:10 remaining in the period, Sutter in on a two-on-one with Downie. Sutter blew past the Winnipeg defenseman and his shot beat Pavelec. It was Sutter’s fourth goal of the season and second in as many games.
With just over five minutes remaining in the period, Blake Comeau took a double minor for a vicious hit on Jets defenseman Tobias Enstrom and the ensuing tussle with Zach Bogosian. Downie served the penalty and the Penguins penalty killers did their job with aplomb, killing the penalty.
As Downie exited the box, Nick Spaling tried to find him with a long pass that was just outside his reach. The puck caromed off the end wall and came right back to Downie, and he made a nifty move to the backhand to beat Trouba and give the Penguins a 3-1 lead.
Immediately after scoring, he was leveled by Jets right-winger Dustin Byfuglein with a vicious cheap shot, starting a feud between the two that would earn Downie 22 penalty minutes and spend most of the remainer of the game in the locker room.
Jacob Trouba scored on a slap shot from the right-wing circle to draw the Jets to within one with 11:32 remaining in the second period to set up Kane’s heroics in the third.
In the first period, the Jets got the scoring started with an Andrew Ladd deflection. That goal ended Marc-Andre Fleury’s career-best shutout streak at 164:22, just nine minutes shy of the team record. Simone Despres answered with a goal of his own just 1:40 later. It was Despres’ first goal of the season and first goal in 71 games with the Penguins.
Evgeni Malkin also scored in the shootout for the Penguins. Blake Wheeler scored for the Jets. Fleury won his 46th NHL shootout, which is third in the league all-time.
The Penguins five-game road trip continues with a game Saturday night in Buffalo. The Penguins have won six consecutive games and have recorded points in seven consecutive contests. Mike Johnston has tied the team record from longest winning streak by a rookie head coach, which was most recently set by Dan Bylsma in 2009.
