Anytime you face a struggling team in your own building you want to jump on them early and leave no doubt who the superior team is.
The Penguins succeeded tremendously in that quest Saturday night en route to a 5-0 thrashing of the Buffalo Sabres.
Pittsburgh (7-2-1) controlled the first period by outshooting the Sabres 12-3 and spent most of the period camped out in the Sabres (2-9-1) end of the ice. They were also staked to a 1-0 lead when Chris Kunitz buried a rebound past Jhonas Enroth four minutes into the period.
Pittsburgh started the second period off a bit shaky but overcame a few turnovers early on behind the strong goaltender play of Marc-Andre Fleury who notched his third shutout this week. Just after the midway point of the period, Evgeni Malkin stopped in his tracks at the blueline and fed Blake Comeau on a nice centering pass. Comeau buried a wrister past Enroth for a 2-0 lead.
The Penguins power play went to work and Patric Hornqvist buried it past Enroth after some nice crisp passing from Kunitz and Malkin to extend the lead to 3-0.
The Pens weren’t done on the power play as they later added power play goals in the 3rd period by Kunitz and Malkin to finalize the scoring at 5-0.
Overall the Penguins special teams were outstanding as they converted three of their four power play opportunities and killed off all four of their shorthanded situations. Pittsburgh has now killed 26 straight penalties over their last seven games.
Head coach Mike Johnston was asked after the game about sticking with Fleury who had played in three games earlier in the week, “You have a feeling that your goaltender is in a zone so we went back to him tonight.”
Johnston also thought the team started a bit slow at first, “I thought once we got into a zone we were good tonight and I thought we were good on the power play and special teams.”
Pittsburgh heads on the road for a five game road trip starting Tuesday night in Minnesota.
Three Stars of the Game
3rd Star – Marc-Andre Fleury – 3rd shutout this week
2nd Star – Chris Kunitz – 2 Goals, 1 Assist
1st Star – Evgeni Malkin – 1 Goal, 2 Assists
Photo courtesy of PittsburghPenguins.com
