Tampa Bay Lightning @ Penguins 2-6 - Sunday, January 08, 2017
Six different players scored and Marc-Andre Fleury made 28 saves to help the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 6-2 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning at PPG Paints Arena. Fleury is 13-5-4 after winning five straight and seven of his past eight decisions (7-0-1). In their first game since Dec. 31, the Penguins (26-8-5) extended their winning streak to five games. Pittsburgh is 18-2-2 at home, where they have not lost in regulation since a 5-2 loss to the New York Rangers on Nov. 21. With the Penguins trailing 1-0 in the second period, Conor Sheary tied it at 6:44 before Eric Fehr scored to give the Penguins a 2-1 lead at 11:14. Chris Kunitz made it 3-1 at 2:33 of the third period and Scott Wilson extended the lead to 4-1 at 3:28. Tampa Bay forward Vladislav Namestnikov made it 4-2 with a power-play goal 5:40, but Phil Kessel restored Pittsburgh's three-goal lead at 7:50. Kris Letang scored the Penguins' fourth goal of the third period to make it 6-2 with 2:40 remaining. The goal was Letang's third of the season and first since Nov. 18.
Tampa Bay (19-19-4) has lost four in a row to start January after winning two of its final three December games. The Lightning have allowed 22 goals during the losing streak. Despite allowing six goals for the third time in four games, forward Jonathan Drouin, who gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead with his 12th goal of the season 2:19 into the second period, is optimistic Tampa Bay will rebound from its recent struggles. Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy made 34 saves in his third start in four days. He has allowed 20 goals in his past four games.
* Cullen raced to reach a puck below Tampa Bay's goal line before passing back beyond Hedman to Fehr in front of Vasilevskiy. Fehr got off a wrist shot, but was denied when Vasilevskiy made a sliding glove save 8:18 into the second period.
* Wilson scored Pittsburgh's fourth goal after a faceoff slid down the wall past Lightning defenseman Anton Stralman. Wilson charged past Stralman and went forehand-to-backhand to shoot past Vasilevskiy.
* Penguins forward Patric Hornqvist didn't factor into the scoresheet, but supplied a physical presence with six hits.
Pens Quotes
"You want to be good at home, obviously. … I think when we're here, we try to use that advantage as best we can and we've played really good hockey here. I think it has to do with the energy we get." Sidney Crosby"This league has a way of challenging every team in a particular moment in the season, and I think those guys are going through it. … They're facing a little bit of adversity, but certainly they're a very, very good team."
"I think our team enjoys playing in front of our fans. I know they give us a boost, but it's not like we draw up a game plan for home and a game plan for away. We're trying to play the same game." Mike Sullivan said.
Penguins @ Washington Capitals 2-5 - Wednesday, January 11, 2017
Alex Ovechkin reached 1,000 NHL points with his first of two goals, starting the Washington Capitals on their way to a 5-2 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Verizon Center. Ovechkin scored 35 seconds into the first period and 8:06 into the second to give Washington a 2-0 lead. Justin Williams, Nicklas Backstrom and Lars Eller scored for the Capitals (27-9-5), who have won seven in a row. Braden Holtby made 30 saves. Ovechkin, who has 35 points this season, is the 84th player in NHL history to reach 1,000 points and the 37th player to score that many with one franchise. He played his 880th NHL game.
After Ovechkin scored, Williams asked the referee if they could have a minute to let the milestone sink in. Behind Ovechkin on the bench, Backstrom, who assisted on the goal, nudged him to stand up.
Evgeni Malkin and Patric Hornqvist scored, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 25 saves for the Penguins (26-9-5), who had won five in a row. Williams made it 3-0 at 4:31 of the third period. He redirected Evgeny Kuznetsov's behind-the-net pass past Fleury. Malkin scored a power-play goal from the right circle to make it 3-1 at 7:46 of the third. Backstrom made it 4-1 at 13:11. Hornqvist's power-play goal with 2:36 remaining made it 4-2. Eller scored an empty-net goal with 18 seconds left.
"Everybody was happy. I mean, it didn't take him very long to get it done. That was a great start for him and for us. He sort of had that look in his eye once he touched the puck that something good was going to happen. So real happy for him. I know the guys were thrilled for him and a little history. I said to him in Montreal, I said that, 'It was really sort of cool that [you] tied Maurice Richard in Montreal, but I think it's only fitting that you get the 1,000th point here for our fans.' So he did it, and he didn't take much time." Capitals coach Barry Trotz on Alex Ovechkin
"Every night he plays hard, so nothing new. He wants to score goals and he wants to help the team as much as he can. It wasn't really any surprises there, but the only thing that was a little surprising was maybe 35 seconds. That's all it took. But that's typical [of] a guy like him though." Capitals forward Nicklas Backstrom on Alex Ovechkin
"We had our chances to get back into it. Their goalie made some saves and we weren't able to capitalize." Sidney Crosby said.
"It was probably the difference in the game. We were climbing back in it. We had momentum, we had energy. Our power play gave us a boost in the third. We were right there. That was a big turning point for me." Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said of hitting a crossbar before Nicklas Backstrom's power-play goal
Penguins @ Ottawa Senators 1-4 - Thursday, January 12, 2017Evgeni Malkin and Patric Hornqvist scored, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 25 saves for the Penguins (26-9-5), who had won five in a row. Williams made it 3-0 at 4:31 of the third period. He redirected Evgeny Kuznetsov's behind-the-net pass past Fleury. Malkin scored a power-play goal from the right circle to make it 3-1 at 7:46 of the third. Backstrom made it 4-1 at 13:11. Hornqvist's power-play goal with 2:36 remaining made it 4-2. Eller scored an empty-net goal with 18 seconds left.
* Fleury stopped Matt Niskanen's shot and then beat Williams to the post for a second save.
* Backstrom scored on the rush off a pass from T.J. Oshie after a faceoff win at the opposite end of the ice.
* Defenseman Kris Letang played a Penguins-high 26:19 with three shots on goal and two blocked shots. Letang took John Carlson's slap shot off his left arm in the third period and didn't miss a shift.
* Ovechkin has 546 goals and 455 assists (21 and 14 this season). He passed Maurice Richard for 29th place in NHL goals with his first Wednesday. … Trotz coached his 1,401st NHL game, passing Pat Quinn for eighth place; he won his 685th NHL game win to move past Quinn for seventh place (685-532-124, 60 ties).
"Every night he plays hard, so nothing new. He wants to score goals and he wants to help the team as much as he can. It wasn't really any surprises there, but the only thing that was a little surprising was maybe 35 seconds. That's all it took. But that's typical [of] a guy like him though." Capitals forward Nicklas Backstrom on Alex Ovechkin
"We had our chances to get back into it. Their goalie made some saves and we weren't able to capitalize." Sidney Crosby said.
"It was probably the difference in the game. We were climbing back in it. We had momentum, we had energy. Our power play gave us a boost in the third. We were right there. That was a big turning point for me." Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said of hitting a crossbar before Nicklas Backstrom's power-play goal
Mike Condon made 29 saves, and Erik Karlsson had two assists to help the Ottawa Senators to a 4-1 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Canadian Tire Centre. The Penguins (26-10-5) lost back-to-back games in regulation for the first time since Dec. 14-19, 2015, when they lost their first four games after Mike Sullivan took over as coach. Pittsburgh lost 5-2 to the Washington Capitals on Wednesday. The Penguins went 90 consecutive regular-season games without back-to-back regulation losses. Bobby Ryan and Mike Hoffman scored power-play goals, and Tom Pyatt and Mark Stone scored for the Senators (22-14-4). Condon, who started his eighth consecutive game, was acquired in a trade with the Penguins for a fifth-round pick in the 2017 NHL Draft on Nov. 2, 2016. Conor Sheary scored for the Penguins, and goaltender Matt Murray, playing his first game since sustaining a lower-body injury Dec. 28 against the Carolina Hurricanes, made 29 saves. The win ended a four-game losing streak for the Senators against the Penguins. Ottawa led 3-1 after Sheary scored with 6.4 seconds left in the second period when he deflected a shot by Evgeni Malkin from the left-wing circle. Ottawa scored two power-play goals in the first period when Ryan scored his first goal in five games at 5:29 and Hoffman scored his 12th of the season at 9:26. Pyatt scored for the second game in a row when he deflected a shot by Karlsson to make it 3-0 at 12:50 of the second. Stone scored at 8:59 of the third period to make it 4-1 when he got his stick on a pass by Derick Brassard and deflected it past Murray.
* At 8:33 of the second period, Condon got his left pad down to stop a shot by Nick Bonino off a scramble.
* The line of Pageau with Hoffman and Pyatt was given the job of playing against Crosby and not only held him pointless for his sixth time this season but combined to score the Senators' third goal. Pageau won the faceoff from Crosby, and Pyatt deflected Karlsson's shot past Murray.
* The Penguins were tied for third in the NHL in power-play efficiency (23.2 percent), but the Senators penalty killers went 3-for-3.
* Pageau won 8-of-12 faceoffs against Crosby. … Karlsson played a season-low 21:36. His previous low was 22:38 against the New York Islanders on Dec. 18. … The Penguins played their ninth set of back-to-back games. They are 3-4-2 in the first and 4-2-3 in the second. … Sullivan was given a game misconduct with 1:57 remaining in the third period.
"We put ourselves in a bad spot when you fall down 3-0. It's a tough hill to climb there."
"We would have like to see that streak continue, but I think that sometimes you need to lose a couple in order to play better. I think we haven't deserved to win the last couple of games. Sometimes when you're playing well you get some bounces. Good teams find ways to win when they're not at their best. We didn't deserve to win the last couple, so we've got to find a way to get back on track here a bit and maybe this will be something that will make us realize that we've got to have better." Sidney Crosby said.
"I felt a little rusty early. I felt really good as the game went on. I felt pretty much to where I wanted to be in the third period. They got that one, but that's [a] tough play and the guy kind of fanned on it and it rolled on him and it went short side instead of far side. I felt better and better as the game went on, but definitely a little bit of rust, but that's going to happen. It's been a little while since I was in there." Matt Murray
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