Antti Niemi and the SAP Center may haunt the Penguins in their dreams as they return home to Pittsburgh from their four-game west coast road trip. With a 2-1 shootout loss at the hands of the Sharks on Monday night, the Penguins are now winless in 12 straight games in San Jose, a streak dating back to October of 1997.
This time, it was Niemi who did most of the damage. The Sharks netminder made 39 sparking saves through three periods of regulation and five minutes of overtime, and then shut down the Penguins in the shootout, allowing only one goal over eight rounds. For his efforts, he was named the game’s first star.
For Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, the loss may be an especially bitter pill, as he was also stellar, stopping 29 of 30 through 65 minutes, but Tommy Wingels roofed a shot after a nifty move to win the game in the shootout for San Jose.
The Sharks got the scoring started at the very end of the first period. Just after the Penguins had killed a penalty, Kris Letang turned the puck over behind his own goal and Chris Tierney moved it to Ben Smith who found Matt Nieto waiting for a cross-ice one-timer with just 47 seconds remaining in the first.
After a scoreless second period, the Penguins finally got a puck past Niemi at 7:22 of the second period. Penguins captain Sidney Crosby scored his first career goal against San Jose on a wicked backhanded shot off the rush with David Perron and Kris Letang assisting.
The Penguins
The Penguins will return to Pittsburgh with five points out of a possible eight over their road trip. They remain in third place in the Metropolitan Division, one point behind the second-place New York Rangers and four behind the division-leading New York Islanders.
Photo credit: NHL
