The Pittsburgh Penguins used their special teams to defeat the Montreal Canadiens 3-1 at Bell Centre. Patric Hornqvist scored on a power play, Bryan Rust got his first goal of the season, and Eric Fehr scored shorthanded into an empty net with 10 seconds remaining for the Penguins, who are 5-2-2 following a season-high five-game losing streak. Fehr scored after Kris Letang was called for cross-checking with 21 seconds left. It was the second shorthanded goal by Penguins penalty killers in their past four games.
P.K. Subban scored his first goal since Oct. 24, and Mike Condon made 29 saves for the Canadiens, who had won three of five after a six-game losing streak. The Canadiens have not won consecutive games since a four-game winning streak from Nov. 20-27. Montreal was 19-4-3 after a 2-1 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Dec. 1 before losing 10 of 11 games. Subban scored his second goal with his 112th shot on goal off a pass from Andrei Markov. Subban failed to score on his previous 93 shots.
Hornqvist took Phil Kessel's pass from the left corner in the goalmouth and moved around Condon to score Pittsburgh's 11th power-play goal in the past 10 games at 7:18 of the second. Subban dropped to his knees at center ice after he tied the game with a one-timer past Fleury from the point off a faceoff in the Penguins zone at 10:39.
Rust, who was recalled from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League on Thursday, made it 2-1 with a shot past Condon into the top left corner at 14:12. Linemate Nick Bonino's backhand pass set up a clear path to the net for Rust, who had no points in his previous five games. Rust had one goal and one assist in 14 games with Pittsburgh last season. Tom Kuhnhackl, who was recalled with Rust on Thursday, played 9:26 in his NHL debut on their line.
Despite being screened by David Desharnais, Fleury made a glove save on Subban's slap shot from the left point on a Canadiens power play with 4:32 left in the third. Crosby was hunched over on the end of the bench after he was hit by Alexei Emelin on his fourth shift of the third period. Crosby returned without missing a shift when Lars Eller was called for tripping at 8:22. Crosby had an opportunity to increase Pittsburgh's lead during that power play, but Condon made a flashy glove save. Crosby smiled when he said he thought Condon "made it look nicer than it was."
Pens Quotes
Mike Sullivan: "Well, they've been terrific. Those guys, I think they've really embraced and took pride in that role and how important it is to helping us win. They did it again [Saturday] for us. I think it's hard to win if your special teams isn't making a contribution, and as of late, on both sides of it, I think the guys that are playing in those circumstances have really prided themselves."Sidney Crosby: "We're just keeping it simple, just taking what's given to us. I think we're working harder, we're trying to outwork the other team's [penalty kill]. With the skill we have, everything else will kind of take care of itself, but I think it starts with trying to outwork them and letting everything happen after that."
"[Emelin's hit] just knocked the wind out of me. I don't know what it was, I just didn't feel good for a couple of minutes. You don't expect any free passes out there. It's big points on the line and teams want to win at this point, so that's the way it goes."
"I didn't have much of an angle there [on Condon's save]. But still, when you're alone and you have a lot of time like that, you want to put it in. But I didn't have a ton of space really, so that was pretty much where I had to go. Maybe [shoot] a little lower if I had to do it again. It was a tough angle."
Bryan Rust: "Obviously any time you get a breakaway from a pass like that it's definitely pretty nice, and I was happy to put it home for him,"
Marc-Andre Fleury: "I started going to my left and just tried to put something there, and it was in the glove. I owed [Subban] one, so it was a good feeling."
Opposition View
P.K. Subban: "At times it was like [the] Harlem Globetrotters out there. They're just moving the puck around. They're coming back in, and regrouping and coming back at us, I mean, we've got to understand that we have to play a certain way every night to have success. We didn't do it consistently."
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