Corey Perry and Chris Stewart scored and John Gibson made 23 saves against his hometown team in the Anaheim Ducks' 2-1 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Honda Center on Sunday. It's the second time this season Anaheim has won consecutive games. Gibson, who made his sixth straight start, is 4-2-1 since being recalled from San Diego of the American Hockey League on Nov. 21. A Pittsburgh native, he grew up rooting for the Penguins.
Olli Maatta scored and Marc-Andre Fleury made 23 saves for Pittsburgh. Mattaa opened up the scoring 3:02 into the game when he beat Gibson with a shot from the high slot.
Rickard Rakell thought he scored on a power play at 7:08, but the Penguins successfully challenged the call after it replays showed Sami Vatanen was offside to start the play and the Penguins maintained a 1-0 lead. Anaheim's Ryan Kesler and Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin were whistled for roughing at the conclusion of the first period. With the teams skating 4-on-4 to start the second, Perry's shot went off Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury and over the goal line in to tie the game at 36 seconds. Perry has scored three goals in the past four games and 12 goals in 12 games against Pittsburgh. He leads Anaheim with eight goals. Stewart put the Ducks up 2-0 at 15:49 in the second when he finished off a nice drop pass from Mike Santorelli.
The Penguins had an opportunity to tie in the waning minutes of the game with a 6-on-4 power play. Kevin Bieksa was sent to the box for slashing at 18:40 and David Perron had an open tip-in opportunity in the low slot, but Gibson made the save to aid the NHL's top-ranked penalty kill.
It was the first time this season the Penguins lost after ending the first period with a lead. Pittsburgh was 7-0-0 when leading after 20 minutes. Penguins defenseman Ben Lovejoy said he's seen a troubling trend in shaky starts as of late. Malkin, Sidney Crosby and Phil Kessel have given Anaheim problems in the past, but Malkin and Kessel were held off the score sheet Sunday. Crosby had the primary assist on Maatta's goal.
Pens Quotes
Mike Johnston: "It was tough both ways to get scoring chances. You could see it was that type of game from the beginning with the low shots, low scoring chances, but we had a few right at the end too. You just have to capitalize on the chances we get in games like that, and I thought they capitalized and we didn't."Ben Lovejoy: "I think we need to find ways to be more consistent. I think there have been a couple of nights where we have really struggled with our starts and that has put us behind right away. Tonight we played a good Ducks team and we couldn't figure out a way to solve John Gibson more than once."
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