Category: NHL

Pens beat Kings 3-1!!! 10 the straight home win for Pens

Aston-Reese lifts Pens past Kings for 10th home win a row
By DAN SCIFO, Associated Press
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Zach Aston-Reese broke a third-period tie with a power-play goal and the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Los Angeles Kings 3-1 on Thursday night for their 10th straight home victory.
Two nights after scoring his first two NHL goals, Aston-Reese gave the Penguins the lead at 5:24 of the period. Kris Letang’s point shot through traffic clipped Aston-Reese’s skate and went between goalie Jonathan Quick’s pads.
The Penguins’ home streak is the longest since a franchise-record 13-game run during the 2013-14 season. The Penguins haven’t lost in Pittsburgh since Jan. 4, a 4-0 setback to Carolina. Pittsburgh has won eight of 10 overall and 13 of 17.
Ryan Reaves scored in the second period, and Evgeni Malkin added an empty-netter. Matt Murray, playing his 100th NHL game, stopped 34 shots. Murray is in sole possession of first place for the most wins in his first 100 games among goalies to debut since 2005-06. He is unbeaten in regulation in his last eight decisions and won his last six at home.
Dion Phaneuf scored a power-play goal in his Kings debut. Phaneuf and forward Nate Thompson were traded from Ottawa to the Kings for Marian Gaborik and Nick Shore during the Senators’ 6-3 loss to Pittsburgh on Tuesday night.
Immigration issues nearly kept Phaneuf from making his Kings’ debut. If his immigration paperwork didn’t go through in time, Phaneuf wouldn’t have been eligible to play. He skated on a fourth defense pair during the morning skate.
Quick made 36 saves. The Kings have lost three straight games.
Reaves opened the scoring at 6:06 of the second period with a blocker-side wrist shot from the top of the circle.
Phaneuf tied it with his power-play goal 1:16 later. His centering pass snuck through Murray’s pads and across the line.
NOTES: Sidney Crosby has a 10-game home point streak, while Malkin has points in six straight at home. … Penguins F Patric Hornqvist, who missed his sixth game with a lower-body injury, was on the ice before Thursday’s morning skate. … Thompson missed the previous four games with the Senators because of a lower-body injury. … Willie O’Ree, the first African American player in the National Hockey League, was in attendance and visited the Penguins after the team’s morning skate. … Pittsburgh scratched D Chad Ruhwedel, D Matt Hunwick and F Teddy Blueger. Los Angeles sat D Paul LaDue, D Kevin Gravel and F Michael Mersch.
UP NEXT
Kings: At Buffalo on Saturday night.
Penguins: Host Toronto on Saturday night.

Pens cruise past Senators 6-3!!!

By DAN SCIFO, Associated Press
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Jake Guentzel scored twice, Zach Aston-Reese scored his first two NHL goals and the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Ottawa Senators 6-3 on Tuesday night.
Evgeni Malkin scored his 31st and Kris Letang his fourth for the Penguins, who have won seven of nine and 12 of their last 16. Sidney Crosby, who scored his 400th career goal on Sunday, finished with three assists.
Pittsburgh is riding a nine-game home winning streak, the longest since a franchise-record 13-game run during the 2013-14 season. The Penguins haven’t lost in Pittsburgh since a 4-0 defeat by Carolina on Jan. 4.
Matt Murray stopped 30 shots for Pittsburgh.
Derick Brassard, Colin White and Mike Hoffman all scored for the Senators, who lost for the third time in five games. The Senators dropped to 7-16-4 on the road. They were 22-17-2 away from home last season.
Guentzel scored his 17th on the power play and his 18th in the second period. Aston-Reese scored the first of his career in the second period and added an empty-net goal with 1:05 to play.
Mike Condon made five saves on nine shots before he was pulled after Aston-Reese’s goal. Craig Anderson stopped 17 of 18 shots.
Guentzel, who set a Penguins rookie record with 13 goals in the playoffs, scored 12 goals in his first 27 games this season, but he had just four in his previous 30.
Aston-Reese, a finalist for the 2017 Hobey Baker Award, played in his first NHL game Feb. 3 at New Jersey and recorded his first point at Dallas six days later.
The Penguins opened the scoring with their first power-play goal in five games. Guentzel tipped a Justin Schultz point shot behind Condon for the early lead.
Brassard evened the score at 4:18 of the second period with a blocker-side slap shot from the left faceoff dot.
The Penguins reclaimed the lead for good 52 seconds later with Guentzel’s second goal, a rebound from the top of the crease.
Murray made a sliding stop on Cody Ceci off the rush shortly after Guentzel’s goal, allowing Malkin and Aston-Reese to break it open.
Carl Hagelin pulled Condon out of position when he circled the net. An unsuspecting Condon thought Hagelin still had the puck, but he blindly dished it to Malkin, who dumped a spinning bad-angle backhander into a partially open net.
Aston-Reese made it a 4-1 game 1:20 later. He took a pass from Crosby off the rush and flicked a wrist shot that hit Condon’s glove and went across the line.
NOTES: Crosby and Phil Kessel both have nine-game home point streaks. Kessel’s matches his longest with the team. Malkin has points in five straight home games. … This was Ottawa’s first visit to Pittsburgh since the Penguins’ double-overtime victory in Game 7 of last season’s Eastern Conference Finals. … Senators F Nate Thompson missed his fourth straight game with a lower-body injury. … Pittsburgh scratched D Chad Ruhwedel, D Matt Hunwick and F Teddy Blueger. Forward Alexandre Burrows and defenseman Fredrik Claesson sat for Ottawa.
UP NEXT
Senators: Play two games at home starting Thursday against Buffalo.
Penguins: Continue a three-game homestand Thursday against Los Angeles.
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Crosby scores 2, reaches 400 goals in Pens’ 4-1 win

Crosby scores 2, reaches 400 goals in Pens’ 4-1 win.
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Sidney Crosby scored twice, including his 400th career goal, to lead the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 4-1 win over the St. Louis Blues on Sunday.
Bryan Rust snapped a tie with a third-period tally and Riley Sheahan also scored for the Penguins, who have won 12 of their past 17.
Goalie Matt Murray made 33 saves for the Penguins.
Kyle Brodziak scored for St. Louis, which had a two-game winning streak snapped.
Crosby jammed a shot under the pad of goalie Jake Allen from the side of the net at 3:31 of the second period. He becomes the 95th player in NHL history to reach the 400-goal mark. Crosby is the 25th to have 400 goals with more than 650 assists.
Crosby had been held scoreless in his previous 10 games.
The goal came 21 seconds after Brodziak scored to break a scoreless tie. He converted from close range off a pass from Chris Thorburn.
Rust scored on a breakaway at 1:05 of the third period to give his team a 2-1 lead.
Crosby added an empty-net goal with 2:48 left, his 19th of the season.
St. Louis appeared to take a 2-1 lead just 34 seconds before Rust’s goal on a tally by Paul Stastny, but video replay showed the puck was hit with a high stick.
WELCOME BACK
Pittsburgh RW Ryan Reaves returned to St. Louis for the first time since he was acquired by the Penguins in a trade on June 23, 2017. Reaves, who spent seven season as the Blues enforcer, was given a loud ovation when he came onto the ice for the first time.
NOTES: St. Louis C Paul Stastny played in his 800th NHL game. … Blues goalie Jake Allen started back-to-back games for the first time since Dec. 27-29. … Pittsburgh has gone four games without a power-play goal, tying a season high four-game drought from Dec. 11-18. … St. Louis coach Mike Yeo was an assistant for the Penguins when they won the Stanley Cup in 2009.
UP NEXT
Penguins: Host Ottawa on Tuesday.
Blues: Travel to Nashville on Tuesday.
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Penguins ruin Fleury’s homecoming with 5-4 win over Vegas

Penguins ruin Fleury’s homecoming with 5-4 win over Vegas
By DAN SCIFO, Associated Press
PITTSBURGH (AP) — It was an emotional night for the Pittsburgh Penguins and their beloved former goaltender, Marc-Andre Fleury.
Fleury was back in the city where he started his NHL career and spent more than a decade, helping to backstop the Penguins to multiple championships. The Penguins wanted to honor their old friend — and they did — but they also wanted to win.
Third-period goals by Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel ruined Fleury’s homecoming as the Penguins defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 5-4 on Tuesday.
“I think it was an important game, and obviously with (Fleury) coming in it added a lot of emotion,” Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said. “Once you get out there, you’re trying to win a game and he’s trying to do the same thing.”
Fleury, who won three Stanley Cups with the Penguins — including the last two seasons — returned to Pittsburgh for the first time since Vegas selected him in the expansion draft last summer. Fleury, who stopped 33 shots, beat his former teammates in December in Las Vegas.
“The game was (in Pittsburgh), so it was different,” Fleury said. “It was very weird, but it was a game I’ll remember forever.”
In the first meeting between the teams in Pittsburgh, Malkin gave the Penguins a 4-2 lead with his 30th of the season at 3:09 of the third period. Malkin, who scored in his fifth straight game, became the fifth player in team history to score 30 goals six times.
Kessel extended the lead to 5-2 a little more than three minutes later on a one-touch, backdoor feed from Malkin.
Jake Guentzel, Ryan Reaves and Ian Cole also scored for Pittsburgh, which won for the fifth time in six games.
Matt Murray, Fleury’s former understudy in Pittsburgh, made 21 saves to top his mentor.
William Karlsson scored his 28th of the season on a power play for the Golden Knights. James Neal, who spent four seasons in Pittsburgh, got his 23rd.
Ryan Carpenter and Jonathan Marchessault scored in the third period for Vegas, which nearly rallied from a three-goal deficit. The Western Conference leaders have 20 wins in their last 28 games.
Fleury, the No. 1 pick in the 2003 NHL draft, spent 13 seasons in Pittsburgh and set team records for games and minutes played, wins and shutouts.
Murray stepped in when Fleury went down on the eve of the 2016 playoffs. He helped the Penguins to the franchise’s fourth Stanley Cup and eventually grabbed the No. 1 job. Fleury waived his no-movement clause before the trade deadline last spring so the Penguins could protect Murray in the expansion draft.
Fleury briefly regained the starting job before leaving Pittsburgh when Murray aggravated an injury during warmups prior to the first game of the playoffs. He won nine games and helped eliminate Columbus and Washington before Murray returned in the third round of the playoffs against Ottawa.
The organization put together a tribute video for Fleury that was shown during a first-period stoppage in play. Fleury stood stoically behind his net and rested his glove on his stick as he took in the highlights. The crowd roared in appreciation and gave a long standing ovation to Fleury, who raised his stick in the air and waved to the fans.
Murray took it all in from the other end.
“Those are always fun to watch and they bring back good memories of the last two years, especially a guy like (Fleury), who was a big part of my development,” Murray said. “He was a really good friend and mentor.”
The crowd gave Fleury his first standing ovation of the night as soon as he hit the ice for pregame warmups. A larger-than-normal crowd of supporters gathered behind the visitors’ goal, many holding handmade signs and cheering each time he took the net.
“We knew it was going to happen,” Murray said. “He’s well-liked and everybody loves (Fleury) for good reason. He deserves every bit of appreciation he gets.”
Fleury tapped Murray on the pads during warmups and the two had a short chat while stretching. At the end of warmups, Fleury skated to the red line and took a shot off the pads from Penguins defenseman Kris Letang to the delight of the crowd.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” Fleury said. “In the warmup, I had goosebumps. It’s a night I won’t forget.”
NOTES: Pittsburgh won its season-high eighth straight home game. … Penguins forward Patric Hornqvist is week to week with a lower-body injury. Pittsburgh also scratched defensemen Matt Hunwick and Chad Ruhwedel. … Golden Knights forward Williams Carrier returned to Las Vegas to be evaluated by team doctors. The team also scratched defenseman Jason Garrison.
UP NEXT
Golden Knights: Complete a three-game road trip Thursday at San Jose.
Penguins: At the Dallas Stars on Friday.
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Zajac has 2 goals and assist as Devils beat Penguins 3-1

By TOM CANAVAN, AP Sports Writer
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Travis Zajac scored two goals and set up another as the New Jersey Devils limited Pittsburgh to a season-low 16 shots in posting a 3-1 victory on Saturday night, ending the Penguins’ four-game winning streak.
Blake Coleman also scored and Stefan Noesen had two assists in helping the Devils win their third straight since returning from the All-Star break. Keith Kinkaid made 15 saves and benefited from a goaltender interference call that denied Sidney Crosby a third-period goal.
Evgeni Malkin, the NHL player of the month in January with 12 goals, scored in the third period. He now has eight goals in his last four games, 15 since Jan. 1, and 29 overall. Rookie goaltender Casey DeSmith made 35 saves for the Penguins, who looked sluggish after beating Washington on Friday night.
Sidney Crosby, who also missed an open net in the second period, had his 11-game point scoring streak stopped. The run is tied for the NHL best this season.
After a scoreless first period, Zajac gave the Devils the lead 30 seconds into the second period after a mistake by DeSmith. The rookie goaltender tried to pass or poke the puck toward the corner and Zajac intercepted it close to the net and stuffed it into the net for his first goal in 10 games.
Penguins defenseman Olli Maatta fanned on clearing attempt near the right circle a little more than two minutes later and Zajac collected the puck. He sent a pass to Noesen, who quickly found Coleman for a shot that got between DeSmith’s arm and body at 3:05.
Malkin got the Penguins on the board early in the third period with a great backhander past Kinkaid that was set up by defenseman Ian Cole.
Zajac got his seventh goal at 9:51, deflecting a point shot by defenseman Damon Severson past DeSmith.
Crosby lost his goal when it was ruled that Bryan Rust skated through the crease and hit Kinkaid in the mask. The blow knocked the goaltender down and allowed Crosby to bank a shot from the corner into the net off the goalie.
NOTES: Penguins F Zachary Ashton-Reese made his NHL debut. … The win ended the Devils’ five-game losing streak against the Penguins, all last season. …. This was Pittsburgh’s first loss in regulation against a Metropolitan Division opponent since Jan. 1 (5-1-1).
UP NEXT
Penguins: Host Vegas on Tuesday night.
Devils: at Ottawa on Tuesday night.
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