Pens Insider: Fleury hurt in win
By Chris Bradford cbradford@timesonline.com | Posted: Wednesday, March 27, 2013 12:13 am
Beaver County Times
PITTSBURGH – The smallest member of the Montreal Canadiens created a big problem for the Penguins on Tuesday.
What had been a goaltending duel between Marc-Andre Fleury and Montreal counterpart Carey Price was spoiled when diminutive Canadiens captain Brian Gionta prematurely ended the Penguins goalie’s night.
It cast a pall on what had been a pretty good night for the Penguins. Not only did they extend their win streak to an NHL-best 13 games, they put some more space between themselves and the Canadiens atop the Eastern Conference standings.
However, Fleury’s health is of greater concern.
The 5-foot-7, 174-pound Gionta appeared to drive Penguins forward Tyler Kennedy into Fleury during a scrum late in the second period. The franchise goalie was replaced to start the third period and is being further evaluated, according to coach Dan Bylsma.
Tomas Vokoun made 12 saves over the final 20 minutes as the Penguins held on for a 1-0 win to extend their NHL-best winning streak to 13.
Sidney Crosby, who scored the game’s lone goal at 13:19 of the second period, took exception to Gionta’s play.
“He goes to the net hard but I don’t think it’s the first time (Gionta’s) been in the blue paint and collided with a goalie,” the Penguins captain said. “I wanted to make sure we’re protecting our goalie out there. He’s a gritty player, but we don’t like to see our goalie have to take contact.”
NOTES
-- Good thing G Tomas Vokoun didn’t get hurt in the third period. “Nope, definitely not me,” said RW Chris Kunitz, when asked who the Penguins’ emergency backup would have been. C Sidney Crosby played in goal for a few street hockey games this summer but … “Hopefully that’s not something we have to deal with,” Crosby said with a smile. “I played a few games of street hockey, but I don’t know.”
-- It was just the Penguins’ fourth combined shutout in franchise history and first since Brent Johnson and Marc-Andre Fleury teamed up for a 3-0 win over the Islanders on Feb. 2, 2011.
-- The Penguins have allowed just nine goals in their last nine games.
-- The 13-game win streak is the second-longest in franchise history behind only the team’s NHL-record 17-game win streak from Mar. 9-Apr. 10 1993.
-- The current winning streak began with a 7-6 overtime victory over Montreal back on March 2. The victory was also their 10th in a row on home ice, which ties the second-longest home winning streak in franchise history. A victory on Thursday night against Winnipeg would equal the all-time franchise mark.
-- The Penguins’ current streak is just the eighth streak of 13 or more games in NHL history. To put that in perspective, of the NHL’s 30 franchises, 13 have never won 10 or more consecutive games.
-- C Sidney Crosby extended his scoring streak to five games with the game-winning goal. He now has seven points (three goals) over that span. Crosby still leads all NHL -- D Kris Letang returned to action after missing three games with a lower-body injury sustained against the Islanders on March 22. Letang logged 24:20, while playing in all situations. He picked up two shots on goal and three hits in the game. Letang still leads all defensive -- The Penguins are now 11-3-2 in their last 16 games against Montreal, including 4-1 in their last five meetings. Each of those last five meetings have been one-goal games.
-- The Penguins pushed their record in one-goal games this season to 11-1.
-- The Penguins have gone 6-2 against Montreal in the last eight meetings in Pittsburgh. During that span they have outscored Montreal 24-17.
-- D Simon Despres was re-assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton prior to the game to make room for the return of Letang. Despres is one of the few players on the Penguins’ roster that doesn’t have to clear waivers to be re-assigned. He will likely be recalled following the April 3 trade deadline, when teams can expand their rosters beyond 23 players.
-- D Brooks Orpik played in his 619th game as a Penguin, tying him with D Ron Schock for sixth place on the franchise’s all-time list. He now sits just two-games behind Ron Stackhouse for fifth on the team’s all-time list. Passing Stackhouse would make Orpik the franchise leader in games played by a defenseman.
-- The Penguins were again without C Evgeni Malkin, who missed his 13th game of the season. The team is now 11-2 without the league’s reigning MVP. The Penguins’ all-time record without Malkin is now 46-26-6.
-- The Penguins extended their sellout streak to 271 with 18,646 in attendance.
QUOTABLE
“A streak is not really something on the minds of the players. ‘But I haven't done laundry for a long time,’ that's really the mindset of the players: You don't talk about those types of things. We're just trying to win hockey games.”
Head coach Dan Bylsma on if he has emphasized the team’s current winning streak
HIDDEN STAT
The Penguins power-play has struggled on home ice in recent years against Montreal. Counting two missed opportunities Tuesday; they have now gone scoreless with the extra man in six straight home games (0-22). Their last home ice power-play goal against Montreal? LW Chris Kunitz scored it on Oct. 28, 2009.
KEY PLAY
Trailing by a wide margin in shots, the Penguins finally got the break that they had been waiting for. LW Chris Kunitz collected the puck along the left wing boards in the defensive zone and headed up ice. C Sidney Crosby broke up the right wing boards and Kunitz wasted no time in sliding a diagonal tape-to-tape pass across the neutral zone that caught Crosby in stride as he entered the Montreal zone. The Penguins’ captain took a few strides and fired a wrist shot from the right circle that beat G Carey Price to the far side over his blocker, giving the Penguins a 1-0 lead. "He's the best player in the world, so we got beat tonight by the best player in the world by the perfect shot,” Montreal coach Michel Therrien said. “He was tough to contain.”
THREE STARS
1. Sidney Crosby, PGH
2. Brooks Orpik, PGH
3. Carey Price, MTL
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