Evgeni Malkin scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period
after former linemate Pascal Dupuis tied it, and the Pittsburgh
Penguins remained unbeaten since the Olympic break by beating the
Boston Bruins 2-1 on Sunday.
Marc-Andre
Fleury stopped 21 shots by the NHL's lowest-scoring team to help the
Penguins end Boston's five-game road winning streak. Boston is 1-1 in
the first two contests of a season-long seven-game road trip.
Malkin's
23rd goal was a wrist shot through traffic from the right circle less
than 90 seconds into the third period. Malkin has at least one point in
16 of 17 games.
The Bruins played the
final 5:37 without centre Marc Savard, who was carried off the ice on a
stretcher after being levelled by a blindside hit by Matt Cooke. Savard
had just released a shot when Cooke raised his shoulder and dropped
Savard from behind. Cooke was not penalized.
Since
captain Sidney Crosby scored the game-winning goal for Canada against
the United States in the Olympic gold-medal game a week ago Sunday, the
Penguins are 4-0 — rallying to win in the last three.
They
trailed 1-0 Sunday after Blake Wheeler shoved the puck past a prone
Fleury — who thought he had covered it — at 3:12 of the second on a
Bruins power play.
Crosby, who assisted on
Dupuis' goal, has two goals and four assists while getting at least a
point in all four victories. For now, Crosby — the NHL's leading
goal-scorer — isn't showing any signs of Olympic fatigue despite
playing five games in eight days and eight in 13 days.
Neither
are the Penguins, who have surged to the top of the Atlantic Division
standings following a pre-Olympic slump in which they dropped four of
five before the two-week break began Feb. 15.
Pittsburgh
took the game's first four penalties Sunday, and got a scare when the
newly acquired Alexei Ponikarovsky and Jordan Staal each hobbled off
the ice only to return early in the second period, yet had enough
offence to beat the Bruins. Boston had won six of seven, including its
final four before the break.
Dupuis,
dropped off Malkin's line when the Penguins acquired Ponikarovsky from
the Maple Leafs on Tuesday night, scored his third goal in four games
to tie it at 8:57 of the second. Dupuis took Crosby's giveback pass
along the goal-line and was twice denied by goalie Tim Thomas before
finally slipping the puck into the net. Thomas made 29 saves.