The 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs seem like a distant memory right now for Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. Fleury stopped 20 of 21 shots Saturday night, leading the Penguins to a 4-1 victory against the Buffalo Sabres at Consol Energy Center. Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby and Chuck Kobasew each scored their second goals of the season. Buffalo forward Thomas Vanek ended Fleury’s attempt at a second consecutive shutout with 4:56 left in the game. Fleury’s play was one of the Penguins’ question marks entering the season. While he hasn’t been greatly tested through the first two games, outside of the third period in Pittsburgh’s 3-0 win against the New Jersey Devils on Thursday, he has made timely saves, stopping 47 of the 48 shots he’s faced in two games, and has allowed the Penguins to keep leads they’ve established in the first period. Pittsburgh’s defense has been impressive in its first two games without injured defenseman Kris Letang (lower body). Its strong performance also allowed the Penguins to control the puck and create scoring chances early, much like it did against New Jersey.
“We like our chances if we keep getting those
opportunities,” Crosby said. “We didn’t allow a lot of
shots against, too, and that’s a big thing. It would’ve been nice
to keep it at no score there, but that was a nice goal by Vanek and
we’ll keep trying to keep pucks out of our net.”
“Marc wasn’t busy in the first half of the
game in game one; it was under 10 shots I think for most of that
game. But he was tested and he was real solid,” Penguins coach
Dan Bylsma said. “But I think the way our team’s played
defense [has helped him] and he’s been up to the task on a few
occasions where it’s been difficult. Tonight he didn’t see a ton,
21 shots, but just the calmness in net. He’s been solid and in
control.”
“I think since last year, our [defensive]
focus has been there a lot more,” Fleury said. “I think
today, they [the Sabres] didn’t really get too much. Even on their
power plays, our penalty kill was great. It’s not always in the
defensive zone too … like we had the puck and controlled the game
and we were in their zone. So, they didn’t get to come on our side
too much.”
Matt
Niskanen played well on both ends, as he assisted each of the
Penguins’ first-period goals and is one shy of 100 assists for his
career. Crosby, who has earned a point in 15 consecutive games
against the Sabres since Dec. 29, 2007, opened the scoring when he
corralled Pascal
Dupuis’ backhanded shot in front of the net and beat Buffalo
goalie Jhonas
Enroth 3:39 into the game. Kobasew scored his second goal of the
season 6:24 later. The Penguins cycled the puck in Buffalo’s zone
before eventually passing it back to Brandon
Sutter at the point. Sutter fired a slap shot that was deflected
by Kobasew past Enroth to give Pittsburgh a 2-0 lead entering the
first intermission for the second time in as many games this season.
Chris Kunitz
added a third goal on a penalty shot with 9:51 remaining in the game
and Craig
Adams scored an empty-net goal, his second goal of the season,
with 1:45 left. Pittsburgh’s trio of Jussi
Jokinen, Evgeni
Malkin and Beau
Bennett gave the Sabres problems despite failing to score a goal.
Malkin gelled with his linemates, even with forward James
Neal out with an upper-body injury. His best chance came 1:17
into the second period when Bennett found him alone between Buffalo’s
faceoff circles. Malkin barely missed giving the Penguins a 3-0 lead,
as his slap shot rung off the right post. A day after Ryan
Miller was handed a loss despite surrendering one goal on 46
shots to the Ottawa Senators, Enroth stopped 31 of 34 shots and
played well enough to keep the Sabres in the game until Kunitz’s
goal. But Buffalo’s offense came up short again, especially on the
power play. The Sabres are now 0-for-13 on the man-advantage and have
scored two goals through three games this season. They failed to
convert on two power play chances against Pittsburgh.
“We lost three straight games and obviously
we’re frustrated,” Enroth said. “I don’t think I made
any mistakes. I played solid and I didn’t give up big rebounds and
stuff like that, so I felt good today. Obviously, we need to score
more and the guys are doing their best. We have a couple really good
players on this team, too, so I’m sure they’re going to start
scoring a couple of goals here in the next couple of games.”
“We didn’t generate a lot tonight,”
Sabres coach Ron Rolston said. “We just have to be a lot simpler
than we were tonight. We pass up opportunities when we do get them
and I thought they [the Penguins] played really well.”
No comments:
Post a Comment