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 The Penguins got two goals from right winger Phil Kessel and goalie
Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 33 of 34 shots to win in San Jose, 5-1,
for the first time since October of 1997. Pittsburgh had gone 13
games in San Jose since without a victory.
Not only that, but Pittsburgh put a season-high five goal on the
board in the process. Not a bad way to start a four-game road trip.
"They're dangerous at home as everybody knows," Penguins coach Mike
Johnston said "It's a tough building to win in. It's been a long
time."
Pittsburgh left winger David Perron cinched Tuesday's contest with a
power-play strike at 8:42 of the third period. He scored his fourth
goal of the season in front off a pass from right winger Chris
Kunitz 1:50 into a too-many-men penalty on San Jose.
Kessel added his second of the night and ninth of the season at
15:54 into an empty net. San Jose coach Peter DeBoer opted to lift
goalie Martin Jones in favor of an extra skater just 30 seconds
earlier at 15:24
"I was hoping they would pull the goalie again and we'd get six,"
Perron said.
The Sharks lost two of their last three at home after dropping four
of five on the previous homestand. San Jose is only 4-7 at home as
opposed to 10-3 on the road.
"We've proven we can win on the road," Sharks defenseman Paul Martin
said. "To string some wins together with that same kind of
consistency is our goal, but we just haven't done that yet."
Pittsburgh scored twice in the second period to take a 3-1 lead. And
like their goal in the first, both came from behind the San Jose
goal line.
Center Matt Cullen took advantage of a broken play deep in the San
Jose end to skate behind the left post and deflect a shot off Jones'
left skate at 4:40 for his second goal of the season.
Then, at 6:35, Pittsburgh center Evgeni Malkin scored his
team-leading 12th goal on a wrap-around. Malkin first beat Martin
while skating wide in the left circle, and took advantage of Jones,
who came out in an attempt to poke check. That left the net vacated
for Malkin to skate behind and tuck the puck in the opposite side.
"Right from the first goal, we had a couple goals-against you
wouldn't probably see in a month," DeBoer said.
The Sharks finally broke through at 15:35 on the power play. Right
winger Joe Pavelski took two Penguins with him as he skated hard
through the right circle. The San Jose captain made a quick pass
through the crease to left winger Patrick Marleau, who one-timed his
10th goal past Fleury.
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The hosts thought they had narrowed the deficit to a single goal 17
seconds later when center Tomas Hertl punched home a loose puck in
the slot, but right winger Tommy Wingels was called for interfering
with Fleury upon video review at 15:52.
"That's a critical turning point right there," DeBoer said. "We just
got rolling. It could have been 3-2 at that point. I'm not sure how
that decision was reached from my standpoint."
The Penguins scored the only goal of a first period that feature the
teams trading quality chance after quality chance in front of each
other's net.
The Pittsburgh goal was a soft one. Kessel scored from behind the
goal line when his centering feed caromed off the skate of Martin
and again off the right skate Jones before landing in the net.
"That was puck luck for sure. It hit off a guy twice," Kessel said.
"That was puck luck there."
"You earn your puck luck," Wingels said. "At times you're going to
get good bounces, and at times you're not. We've gotten our fair
share of good bounces this year. We'll look to create some more
going forward."
NOTES: Penguins C Sidney Crosby reunited with RW Chris Kunitz, who
was promoted from the third line to join Pittsburgh's captain and LW
Pascal Dupuis. LW Patric Hornqvist dropped to join C Nick Bonino and
RW Beau Bennett on a third line. ... San Jose D Justin Braun was
activated off injured reserve where he missed two games with an
infected left elbow. ... D David Warsofsky subbed for D Adam
Clendening and paired with D Ian Cole. Warsofsky made his debut for
Pittsburgh after having compiled 10 NHL games with Boston over the
last two seasons. ... Pittsburgh's four-game trip continues on
Saturday at Los Angeles. ... The Sharks travel to Anaheim on Friday
before returning home for a game Saturday vs. Tampa Bay. ... D Matt
Tennyson was the lone healthy scratch as C Ben Smith (concussion)
remains sidelined without a timetable for his return. ... RW Daniel
Sprong did not dress for the Penguins along with Clendening.
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