The Penguins got their Western Canadian road trip off on the right foot, holding on for a 3-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Monday.
The Pens took an early lead on David Perron’s first goal of the season. Perron deflected a Brian Dumoulin point shot past Canucks goaltender Ryan Miller. Phil Kessel earned the secondary assist on the play, as Evgeni Malkin’s linemates cashed in.
As the game went on, it seemed as if the tight-checking affair might end up 1-0. The shots were 14-13 in favor of the Penguins through two periods.
In the third period, the Penguins special teams units cashed in for a pair of goals that seemed to put the game away. Captain Sidney Crosby collected his second tally of the season with a nifty move around Miller in the paint. Kessel and Kris Letang assisted on the power play goal at 7:17 of the final period.
With the Penguins shorthanded just a few minutes later, Radim Vrbata took a goaltender interference that had the teams slated for some 4-on-4 play. As Marc-Andre Fleury was headed to the Penguins bench, right-winger Eric Fehr skated the puck up ice. When he got to the far blue line, Fehr dipped his shoulder around defenseman Yannick Weber, turned the puck over to his forehand, and roofed it past Miller.
“I just saw that there was a delayed penalty, so I was coming up ice and thought I could take a bit of a chance,” he said.
The goal was the second in as many games for Fehr, who just returned last week from an offseason elbow injury.
The Canucks made things interesting with a pair of late goals. The first one, by Daniel Sedin at 13:59, deflected off the stick of Pascal Dupuis and past Fleury to break the shutout bid.
Then, with Miller pulled, Fleury attempted to play a puck towards the empty net. He wasn’t able to clear the zone, though and the turnover led to a Jannik Hansen goal that made the game close at the end.
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