LDN - Sports

Hagelin's late winner pushes Penguins past Hurricanes

[December 29, 2016] PITTSBURGH -- After two periods against Carolina, Pittsburgh wasn't in the lead and goalie Marc-Andre Fleury wasn't in the game. All that changed quickly during yet another successful Penguins comeback.

Carl Hagelin scored the go-ahead goal with 4:15 remaining to finish another Pittsburgh third-period rally and the Penguins extended the best December surge in their history with a 3-2 win over the Hurricanes on Wednesday night.

Chris Kunitz scored the tying goal early in the third period against goalie Cam Ward, and Fleury stopped all 19 shots he faced after replacing injured Matt Murray at the start of the period. Murray made 25 saves before leaving with a lower body injury.

Fleury, who had 21 saves while beating the New Jersey Devils 5-2 the night before, said the Penguins simply don't tighten up when they're behind. They're 9-4-1 this season when trailing after one and 7-7-1 when trailing after two.

"We've been good at it (coming back) -- it shows the character in the room. Everybody believes we can do it, it doesn't matter what the score is," Fleury said. "We always believe we can come back in games."

By contrast, the Penguins have won their last 52 games when they're ahead after two periods.

"I think it's a credit to our leadership group. They're hard, resilient bunch, whether we're down a goal or two or up or we're ahead," Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said.

Fleury said it was somewhat easier to come in cold because he had played the night before -- and because he's 5-0-1 in his last six decisions.

"(You) still feel confidence from the win the night before," said Fleury, who hurriedly warmed up between periods by taking shots from injured defenseman Kris Letang in a gym next to the dressing room.

In one oddity, there were no penalties called -- the first such game in the NHL this season and the only the second penalty-free game in Penguins history. The only other such game was a 2-1 Penguins victory at St. Louis on March 22, 1969.

"It's really not usual there's no penalties because there's a lot of slashing, hooking and high-sticking, but maybe the referees didn't see anything -- or maybe it was a clean game," said Hurricanes left winger Teuvo Teravainen, who set up Lee Stempniak's goal in the second period.

The Hurricanes were frustrated after giving up tying goals early in each of the last two periods -- Sidney Crosby's goal 26 seconds into the second and Kunitz's first goal in 16 games only 1:59 into the third.

"We were kind of sloppy the second and third periods, the first couple of shifts, and they scored two goals there," said center Elias Lindholm, who scored in the first period. "Other than that, I thought we played real well. ... But they got the two points and we got none."

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Crosby scored for the fifth consecutive game, his NHL-leading 26th goal in 31 games, on a one-timer off defenseman Justin Schultz's pass. Kunitz's goal was only his third of the season.

"Our top players produced early on," Sullivan said, "and now some of our secondary scorers are starting to chip in, and it makes a difference."

Hagelin won it with his second goal in as many nights and fifth of the season. Patric Hornqvist blocked a shot in the defensive end to start an up-ice rush and then, at the other end, dangled the puck on his stick -- freezing Ward -- only to slide it to Hagelin for a one-timer.

"He (Hornqvist) blocked the shot, sacrificed his body for the team, and we started skating it up and I was calling for the puck," Hagelin said. "He made a great crisp pass over to me and I put it on the net and it went in."

The Hurricanes, playing their first game after the holiday break while the Penguins were involved in their second in as many nights, looked to have more jump at the start and took a 1-0 lead in the first period on Lindholm's third goal of the season.

Lindholm took Noah Hanifin's centering pass and wristed a shot through defenseman Trevor Daley and past Murray, who sat out the previous two games as Fleury beat New Jersey in both games. Defenseman Ryan Murphy picked up the second assist in his first game since Nov. 10.

Carolina ended with a 46-26 edge in shots.

NOTES: Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said he might not know the extent of G Matt Murray's injury until Thursday, but Murray was on the bench during the third period. .... Both teams were without injured defensemen. Penguins D Brian Dumoulin is out four to six weeks with a broken jaw that occurred when he was struck with a puck during the third period Tuesday night in New Jersey. The Hurricanes were missing D Justin Faulk, who is on a week-to-week basis with a lower-body injury. ... Penguins D Olli Maatta (illness) missed a second successive game. ... By getting a goal and an assist Tuesday, Penguins C Evgeni Malkin became the ninth Russian player to total at least 800 points during his NHL career. He is fourth among Penguins players, behind Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr and Sidney Crosby. ... Carolina scratched D Klas Dahlbeck and C Andrej Nestrasil.

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