DeSmith blanks Canucks; Penguins finish perfect Canada trip
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Casey DeSmith wanted another crack at the Vancouver Canucks, and he didn’t waste it.
The backup goalie stopped 29 shots for his second career shutout, and the Pittsburgh Penguins got two goals apiece from Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin in beating the Canucks 5-0 on Saturday night.
DeSmith lost the previous matchup between the teams Oct. 16 when Brock Boeser scored 34 seconds into overtime.
“I don’t like losing and the way we lost, I felt the overtime goal I could have had, so that has kind of been on my mind since the last time and that was actually the last game I played,” DeSmith said. “It just so happened my next game was against these guys and that worked out well.”
He got the nod over Matt Murray in the final game of Pittsburgh’s four-game trip to Canada and helped his team complete a sweep. The Penguins also won at Toronto, Edmonton and Calgary.
DeSmith’s previous shutout came on April 26 against Ottawa.
Phil Kessel also scored for Pittsburgh, which has just one loss in regulation this season.
“They’ve got some world-class players that can score if you give them the chance,” Canucks coach Travis Green said.
Jacob Markstrom stopped 30 shots for Vancouver. He kept the Canucks in the game with several clutch saves, including in the first period when he sprawled to turn away a rocket from Malkin with his left skate.
Still, the goaltender wasn’t happy with his performance.
“No, 5-0 on the board, you can’t be happy,” Markstrom said. “It’s a 60-minute game. You’ve got to play good all 60.”
Pittsburgh opened the scoring midway through the second period, following a patient move by Olli Maatta. The defenseman had been waiting for a chance at the point and fired a shot that bounced off Markstrom’s pads. Kessel sneaked around the back of the net and found the rebound, banging it in for his seventh goal of the season, which leads the Penguins.
Kessel played in his 255th consecutive game for Pittsburgh, surpassing Malkin for the franchise record.
Crosby scored later in the period, collecting the puck in front and sending a backhand past Markstrom.
Malkin’s goals came 59 seconds apart in the third. The Russian center also assisted on Kessel’s goal, and said the two have good chemistry.
“When Phil plays good, I am playing good. When he is feeling it, I feel it, too. When he is lazy I am like, I can’t do it myself,” Malkin said.
Malkin’s first goal came off a saucer pass from Daniel Sprong that he quickly buried in the side of the net. Less than a minute later, Malkin again found the puck in front and sliced it in past Markstrom. He has four goals and 11 assists in his last seven games.
Crosby capped the scoring with just more than two minutes left, firing in a shot from the side of the net. The Penguins’ captain has five goals and three assists during a four-game scoring streak.
NOTES: Boeser and 19-year-old rookie center Elias Pettersson returned from injuries for Vancouver. Boeser had missed two games with a groin injury, while Pettersson had been sidelined with a concussion since Oct. 13. Boeser has six points in 10 games, and Pettersson registered five goals and three assists in his first five NHL outings. Green had the pair skating together on a line with Nikolay Goldobin for much of the game. The trio combined for six shots. “I thought we came out fast and spent a lot of time in their zone,” Green said. “But at the end of the day, you’ve got to find a way to put a puck in the back of the net.”
UP NEXT
Penguins: Host the New York Islanders on Tuesday.
Canucks: Continue their four-game homestand Monday against Minnesota.
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Hornqvist, Kessel each score twice, Penguins beat Flames 9-1

CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — The Pittsburgh Penguins scored a lot of goals in Alberta — 15 in two games, to be exact.
Patric Hornqvist and Phil Kessel each scored twice and the Penguins pounded the Calgary Flames 9-1 on Thursday night.
Sidney Crosby, Bryan Rust, Jack Johnson, Jake Guentzel and Matt Cullen also scored, and Matt Murray made 38 saves to help the Penguins improve to 5-1-2 overall and 3-0 on a four-game Canadian trip.
“I think that just speaks to the talent we have in here,” Murray said. “When we come with our ‘A’ game, it’s hard to stop. You look around our lineup and it’s pretty clear why we score that many goals.”
Crosby has scored three times in his last two games after going six without a goal to start this season. Evgeni Malkin had a pair of assists to extend his point streaks to six straight games.
After winning 3-0 in Toronto, the Penguins (5-1-2) spent a few days in Banff, Alberta, before facing the province’s NHL teams.
Crosby theorized the Banff break and a relatively leisurely schedule on this road trip has kept Pittsburgh’s scorers fresh.
“It was good that we got out here fairly early to get our feet under us, time change and all that stuff,” the captain said. “Banff was a great trip, it’s beautiful there and we had some good practices.”
James Neal spoiled Murray’s shutout bid late in the third period.
Flames starter Mike Smith was pulled for David Rittich midway through the second period after allowing six goals on 21 shots. Rittich turned away 12 of 15 shots.
Four previous games between Calgary and Pittsburgh had either gone to a shootout or overtime, but the Penguins put on a scoring clinic, pouncing on rebounds and converting both power-play chances into goals.
The Flames (5-5) were booed at Scotiabank Saddledome after the second period when they trailed by a converted touchdown, and after the buzzer.
“They scored a few and we started taking some risks that obviously you can’t take against a team like that who knows how to put the puck in the net,” Flames captain Mark Giordano said.

Here’s how it sounded, courtesy of the Penguins Radio Network:

 

NOTES: Defenseman Travis Hamonic returned to Calgary’s lineup after missing eight games. His jaw was broken in a fight with Vancouver’s Erik Gudbranson in the season opener. … Malkin has two goals and 10 assists during his six-game points streak.
UP NEXT:
Penguins: At Vancouver on Saturday night.
Flames: Host Washington on Saturday.

EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Sidney Crosby isn’t about to let the younger stars of the game pass him by.
It was vintage Crosby on Tuesday night as he made a slick move through two defenders, skated through the slot and lifted a backhander into the net at 2:12 of overtime to give the Pittsburgh Penguins a 6-5 victory over Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers.
“Listen, I’m not changing the way I play,” Crosby said.
Crosby opened the scoring in the first period and his second goal of the season was the winner. Crosby moved from the left boards, slipped the puck through a defender’s legs, moved past Oilers goalie Cam Talbot and lifted a backhand shot over Talbot’s glove for the win.
“I’m going out there every night to try and create things, and come up with big plays when they’re needed,” Crosby said. “I’m not any different than (McDavid) is as far as understanding my responsibility, and wanting to be at my best.”
Despite the hype ahead of the matchup that pitted two of the game’s brightest stars in McDavid and Crosby, Pittsburgh head coach Mike Sullivan said Crosby just put his head down and got the job done.
“He doesn’t really get caught up in a lot of the story lines from game to game regardless of who we play,” he said.
“He’s just a real good player that tries to be the best that he can be. I thought he had a great game, he gets two goals. The overtime goal was one of the prettiest goals that I’ve seen.”
Jamie Oleksiak and Patric Hornqvist also had two-goal games for the Penguins, who have won two straight.
Leon Draisaitl and Alex Chiasson each scored twice, while Connor McDavid had the other for the Oilers (3-3-1), who lost their second straight.
“I felt that we deserved those two points tonight,” Oilers forward Milan Lucic said.
“I think we are trending in the right direction as far as our game goes. We are starting to get contributions from other guys throughout the lineup. I feel we are one mistake less from taking that stride to that next level.”
Matt Murray had 41 saves in the win, while Talbot kicked out 25 shots in the loss.
The Penguins started the scoring 11 minutes into the first period on the power play as Crosby tipped home a Kris Letang shot that was going wide past Talbot. It was Crosby’s first goal in seven games, the longest he had gone without a goal to start the season in his 14-year career.
Edmonton tied the game just over a minute into the second period, when Draisaitl picked up a loose puck in the slot and beat Murray with a wrist shot.
The Oilers went up 2-1 a couple of minutes later when Chiasson laid a big hit in the corner and then got the puck back in front and scored while falling to the ice. It was his first goal of the season in his second game as an Oiler.
Pittsburgh tied the game seven minutes into the second frame, when a nice three-way passing play was chipped in by Oleksiak.
The Penguins regained the lead midway through the second when a give-away led to a goal by Hornqvist.
The see-saw second continued with Edmonton pulling even when Chiasson scored his second of the game on a 2-on-1 with five minutes left.
The Penguins made it 4-3 in the final minute when a puck went in off of Hornqvist’s skate for his second of the game.
Edmonton took the lead again early in the third on a pair of power plays as McDavid put a shot past Murray and then set up Draisaitl for his second of the night.
Pittsburgh tied it up once again seven minutes into the third on a slap shot by Oleksiak.
NOTES: The Penguins have points in five straight games. … Edmonton hasn’t had a regulation win over Pittsburgh since Jan. 10, 2006, although the last seven games between the two squads have now been decided by a single goal. … The Oilers were winners in their home opener last Thursday when they beat Boston 3-2 in overtime, but were then shut out 3-0 by Nashville.

Click below to hear a recap of the game from the Penguins Radio Network…

UP NEXT
Penguins: Continue a Western Canadian road swing in Calgary on Thursday.
Oilers: Close out a four-game homestand against the Washington Capitals on Thursday.
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In a game heard live on Beaver County Radio…from Scotia Bank Arena in Toronto, Canada:

Penguins 3.

Maple Leafs 0.

Pittsburgh Goals: Malkin (2) and Letang..

In goal, Matt Murray had 38 saves in registering the shutout.

TORONTO (AP) — Matt Murray and the Pittsburgh Penguins slowed down Auston Matthews and the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Murray made 38 saves for his first shutout of the season and Pittsburgh snapped Toronto’s winning streak at five games with a stifling 3-0 victory Thursday night.
Evgeni Malkin had two goals and an assist, scoring early and adding an empty-net goal. Kris Letang also had an empty-netter, and Sidney Crosby picked up an assist to tie Darryl Sittler for 60th on the NHL’s career points list with 1,221.
“It’s the best game this season so far for us,” Malkin said. “We played three periods against Matthews, (John) Tavares. We did a great job.”
Matthews, the NHL in scoring with 16 points on 10 goals and six assists, was looking to become the third player in NHL to start a season with eight consecutive multi-point games.
“We had a hard time getting on the inside,” Matthews said. “There are a lot of things that we can improve on. It seems like they were just calm, cool, collected. They didn’t run around, they just played smart and didn’t force anything.”
The Maple Leafs came in averaging an NHL-high 4.71 goals.
“They have a lot of offensive weapons,” Crosby said. “We did a great job of limiting their chances. They’re going to get them, they’re a pretty highly-skilled group, but we didn’t give them any freebies.”
Murray returned from a concussion that sidelined him for three games. He has seven career shutouts.
“We played really solid all the way through and battled hard,” Murray said. “That’s a crazy, dynamic team over there and we were able to hold them off pretty well.”
Frederik Andersen stopped 36 shots for Toronto. He was back in goal after sitting out a victory over Los Angeles on Monday night because of a minor knee injury.
“All victories, you’ve got to earn,” Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock said. “It was right there for us to find another step and get better and find a way to get on the inside a little more, and they did a good job and kept us from doing that. There’s a lesson learned in that. “They’re a more veteran, polished playoff team than we are and it showed.”
Malkin opened the scoring midway through the first period, six seconds after the Maple Leafs were penalized for too many men on the ice. Crosby won the draw and the puck found its way down low to Malkin, who fired a low shot that beat Andersen through the pads.
Notes: Mario Lemieux (1992-93) holds the NHL record for consecutive multi-point games to start a season with 12, while Kevin Stevens, his linemate that season, did it eight times. … Pittsburgh improved to 3-1-2, and Toronto dropped to 6-2-0.

Click the play button below to hear a recap of the game on the Penguins Radio Network…

UP NEXT
Penguins: At Edmonton on Tuesday night.
Maple Leafs: Host St. Louis on Saturday night.
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End of Second Period from Scotia Bank Arena in Toronto, Canada:

Penguins 1.

Maple Leafs 0.