Sunday, March 08, 2015

Hornqvist scores OT winner in Penguins' 1-0 win over Kings


By Greg Beacham (AP)
http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/teams/pit/
March 9, 2015

Hornqvist scores OT winner in Penguins' 1-0 win over Kings
Los Angeles Kings center Nick Shore, left, falls in front of Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury as the puck is shot during the second period of an NHL hockey game, Saturday, March 7, 2015, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- To beat the defending Stanley Cup champions in their building, the Pittsburgh Penguins knew they needed to buckle down defensively, weather a big shots disparity and play for a game-changing goal.

Three Stars

  1. Marc-Andre Fleury
    1)Marc-Andre Fleury
    #29, Pittsburgh
    W:1
    GAA:0.00
    SV:31
    SV%:1.000
    SO:1
  2. Jonathan Quick
    2)Jonathan Quick
    #32, Los Angeles
    OTL:1
    GAA:0.97
    SV:17
    SV%:.944
  3. Patric Hornqvist
    3)Patric Hornqvist
    #72, Pittsburgh
    G:1
    Pts:1
    +/-:1
    PPP:0
    SOG:3
In an instant deep in overtime, Patric Hornqvist provided it.
Hornqvist scored on a Kings turnover in the slot 1:44 into overtime, and the Penguins beat Los Angeles 1-0 on Saturday night for their sixth victory in seven games.
Hornqvist pounced when Jeff Carter made a curious clearing pass from the corner to Tyler Toffoli in front of the Los Angeles net. Toffoli bobbled the puck to Hornqvist, who ended it with his 22nd goal.
''We've been playing really good, and today was a grind,'' Hornqvist said. ''We knew it was going to be that way, and everybody bought in and stuck with it. That was the first OT goal for me, so it was great.''
Marc-Andre Fleury made 31 saves in his ninth shutout of the season for the Penguins, who completed a Southern California sweep after beating NHL-leading Anaheim on Friday night with two goals from Hornqvist.
''Now we know we can play against anyone, and we have to build on that,'' Hornqvist said.
The Kings outshot the Penguins 31-16 in 60 minutes of tense regulation hockey, but got nothing past Fleury, who said the shot disparity was ''something we expected'' from the high-volume Kings.
''They came hard at us, but we stayed patient and nobody panicked,'' Fleury said. ''We had a few good chances, and it was nice to get that goal at the end.''
Jonathan Quick stopped 17 shots for the Kings, who had won 10 of their previous 13 games. Despite a pronounced shot advantage for the Kings, Pittsburgh shut out the champs in both of their meetings this season, including a 3-0 win back in October in which Los Angeles outshot Pittsburgh 36-23.
''We had a lot of chances, a lot of pucks to the net,'' defenseman Jake Muzzin said. ''We were good on the rush, and our breakouts were very good. We played a lot of the game in their zone. One lucky bounce, quick transition, bing bang, and then a shot on net. That was it.''
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Hornqvist scores OT winner in Penguins' 1-0 win …
Pittsburgh Penguins center Evgeni Malkin, left, of Russia, shoots against Los Angeles Kings goalie J …
Los Angeles lost a 1-0 game for the third time this season, including twice in its last three home games. Although the Kings grabbed a point, they're still one point behind Calgary for third place in the Pacific Division.
''It was just a bad bounce,'' Kings defenseman Matt Greene said. ''We played a good game tonight, but we have to find a way to get it done and find a way to get on the board.''
Although Los Angeles outshot the Penguins 22-11 in the first two periods, Pittsburgh had most of the high-quality scoring chances. Captain Sidney Crosby put a shot off the crossbar after a mind-boggling move to get past Drew Doughty, his Canadian Olympic teammate.
''They always come out pretty hard, here especially,'' Crosby said. ''And them knowing that we played last night, we expected them to really try to be physical early. They were, but we weathered the storm.''
Muzzin put a long shot into Fleury's net with 15 minutes left in regulation, but the goal was immediately waved off because Kings captain Dustin Brown made contact with the goalie in the crease.
''I knew he pushed me off,'' Fleury said. ''You always hope the ref sees it, and he did. It was a good call by him.''
Los Angeles limited the Penguins to one shot in the first 14 1/2 minutes of the third period, but neither team had a golden chance late.
NOTES: Just six of the Kings' final 17 games are at home. Los Angeles was awful away from Staples Center this season before last month's eight-game winning streak. The Kings are still just 10-14-6 on the road. ... Steve Downie returned to Pittsburgh's lineup, and Craig Adams was a healthy scratch. Their roles were reversed Friday in Anaheim. ... The Kings wore their gold-and-purple throwback jerseys.
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Saturday, March 07, 2015

Hornqvist's 2 goals help Pens beat Ducks 5-2

By Joe Resnick (AP)
March 8, 2015
Hornqvist's 2 goals help Pens beat Ducks 5-2
Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Thomas Greiss, of Germany, deflects the puck during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Anaheim Ducks, Friday, March 6, 2015, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) -- Ben Lovejoy's emotion-filled week ended with a satisfying victory by his new team against the club that traded him back to his old stomping grounds four days earlier.

Three Stars

  1. Patric Hornqvist
    1)Patric Hornqvist
    #72, Pittsburgh
    G:2
    Pts:2
    +/-:1
    PPP:0
    SOG:2
  2. Rickard Rakell
    2)Rickard Rakell
    #67, Anaheim
    A:1
    Pts:1
    +/-:1
    PPP:0
    SOG:2
  3. Evgeni Malkin
    3)Evgeni Malkin
    #71, Pittsburgh
    G:1
    A:1
    Pts:2
    +/-:2
    PPP:0
    SOG:2
Patric Hornqvist scored twice in the second period, and the Pittsburgh Penguins also got goals from Evgeni Malkin, Blake Comeau and Sidney Crosby in a 5-2 victory over the league-leading Anaheim Duckson Friday night.
The game actually was a homecoming for three ex-Ducks, including Chris Kunitz and Daniel Winnik. Lovejoy, traded on Monday for Simon Despres, couldn't keep his voice from cracking several times while answering postgame questions.
"That was awesome. The boys really rallied around me," said the seven-year veteran defenseman, who spent his first four-plus seasons in the Steel City before he was traded to Anaheim in February 2013.
"Anaheim was such a special place for me," Lovejoy said. "This morning I took an Uber to the rink from my old house in Newport (Beach), and I got a little emotional ... the driver was a bit weirded out. But I felt like I got it all out then, and I was able to come in here with so much energy and adrenaline.
Thomas Greiss made 27 saves, improving to 8-3-3 and helping the Penguins win for the fifth time in six games. They lost 3-1 at Colorado in the opener of a four-game road trip.
"Nobody was happy about our game against Colorado, so everybody wanted to show each other how good we can play," Hornqvist said. "We came out of the gates good, and I think we had the momentum almost the whole game.
"Our second period was really good and we got a big win with a big team effort. We know we can beat anyone. We just have to get hot."
Crosby scored into an empty net with 10.3 seconds remaining. The Penguins are 6-0 when he and Malkin both have goals.
Tomas Fleischmann and Corey Perry scored third-period goals for the Ducks, who had won seven of their previous eight games. Frederik Andersen stopped 16 shots in his first career start against Pittsburgh, and his second start after missing three weeks because of a neck injury.
The Penguins opened the scoring midway in the second period as rookie Derrick Pouliot carried the puck across the blue line and slid it to Comeau for a 50-foot slap shot that whizzed past Andersen's glove. Hornqvist made it 2-0, playing the puck off the end boards and banking it in off Andersen from the right of the net.
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Hornqvist's 2 goals help Pens beat Ducks 5-2
Pittsburgh Penguins' Patric Hornqvist, of Sweden, celebrates his goal during the second period o …
"I know the goalie can't see that's behind him, so he probably figured I was going to pass," Hornqvist said. "So he moved and opened up a little spot. I got lucky on that one, but if you don't shoot, you don't score."
Hornqvist connected again 63 seconds before intermission, redirecting Ian Cole's slap shot from the right point past Andersen just 4 seconds after the Ducks killed off a slashing penalty against Despres. The goal was Hornqvist's 21st this season and 10th in 21 career games against Anaheim.
"They moved the puck and had us running around in our zone," Perry said. "They hemmed our line in a couple of times, especially in the first few shifts of the game."
Malkin made it 4-0 early in the third period with his 28th goal, a short wrist shot that caromed off Andersen and trickled across the goal line.
"Everybody knows how good that team is, and we were able to handle them pretty handily tonight," Lovejoy said. "As a former Duck, I know that happens to that team sometimes. We were able to come out and get off to a good start."
NOTES: The Ducks and Penguins are 1-2 in NHL regular-season wins since the start of the 2012-13 campaign with 126 and 124, respectively. ... About 6 1-2 minutes in, Andersen went way out of his net to play the puck and shot it off the boards. He had to scramble back to the crease to prevent it from going in. ... The Penguins beat the Ducks 6-4 at Pittsburgh in the season opener for both clubs, with Crosby's two goals offsetting Perry's hat trick. Anaheim won its next seven. ... This was the ninth head-to-head showdown between Crosby and Perry, both of whom have been league MVP and have scored 50 goals in a season. Crosby has six goals and six assists in those games, Perry 10 goals and three assists - and the Penguins own a 7-2 advantage. ... Kunitz played his 400th regular-season game with the Penguins, who acquired him from the Ducks in February 2009. ... Kunitz, who won Stanley Cups with Anaheim in 2007 and Pittsburgh in 2009, has no goals in six career games against the Ducks - the only NHL team he has never scored against.
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Friday, March 06, 2015

Star teammates see Marc-Andre Fleury as the Penguins’ MVP


SHELLY ANDERSON
PITTSBURGH — The Canadian Press
Published 


Evgeni Malkin started it a little more than a week ago. Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang chimed in Tuesday.
The three stars, arguably in contention for the Pittsburgh Penguins’ team MVP award, pointed to another player as deserving the honour three-quarters of the way through the season: goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.

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Centres Malkin and Crosby, heavily in the chase for the NHL scoring title with 64 points apiece, and Letang, who as of Tuesday led the league’s defencemen with 49 points, agree that Fleury has blossomed in recent seasons. They say he has been the steadying factor in 2014-15 as Pittsburgh vies for the Metropolitan Division title amid injuries and roster changes.
“Flower has been really solid the last few years,” Letang said, using Fleury’s long-time nickname. “He’s just a focused guy who gives us a chance to win every night. Some nights it’s a different guy up front or on the back end (who steps up), but every night we have one goalie, and he’s picking up everybody and carrying us.”
As the Penguins embark on a four-game Western swing that begins Wednesday at Colorado, Fleury (29-13-6) is on the verge of reaching the 30-win mark for the sixth time in as many 82-game seasons since sticking full-time in the NHL in 2008-09. He has career bests with a 2.19 goals-against average and .924 save percentage and leads the league with eight shutouts.
Instinctively, he crouches into deflection mode when told that some of his star teammates consider him the club’s best player this season.
“It’s been a good ride,” Fleury said. “I just keep working out with my goalie coach (Mike Bales), watch video, try to work on little things, try to improve. My teammates have done a great job in front of me.”
In November, he got rewarded with a $23-million, four-year contract extension and a strong verbal endorsement from Pittsburgh general manager Jim Rutherford. Fleury also turned 30 that month.
The job security didn’t slow him.
“You look at what he’s done all season long,” Crosby said. “It’s not easy with the workload he gets and the situation we’ve been put in this year with all the injuries. He’s been our best player consistently.”
To keep it that way, Penguins coach Mike Johnston said Fleury’s workload will be managed down the stretch run. Thomas Greiss, who has started just 13 times, will get a little bigger share of games, particularly with five remaining back-to-back situations.
“That gives Flower the rest time that he needs,” Johnston said.
Rutherford and Johnston, hired last summer, inherited a franchise goalie who has been widely blamed for a lot of Pittsburgh’s playoff disappointments since winning the Stanley Cup in 2009. The former club regime attempted to address everything from Fleury’s energy level to confidence, and Fleury spent time with a sports psychologist in summer 2013.
Last week, even with a scheduled day off for the team on Friday, Johnston gave Fleury a day off from practice Thursday. That might have given the goalie a mental break, but he hardly kicked back with his feet up.
“I spent some time at home. Went to Home Depot. Got some groceries. Cleaned up a little bit,” Fleury said. “Played with my daughter, had fun with her. I went to Gymboree with her.”
Estelle, who is nearly two, inherited her father’s never-sit-still attack on life, and Fleury has said he gets a fair workout chasing the pucks that she shoots. Playtime away from the rink will increase for Fleury before it subsides. His wife, Veronique, is expecting their second daughter in August.
Still, Fleury’s maturity in net has stemmed at least in part from being calmer, relying less on making wild acrobatic saves and more on strong positional and steady post play, rebound control and an ability to shake off the frustration of giving up an occasional goal.
Crosby doesn’t expect anything less when the playoffs arrive.
“I don’t see that being anything major with him.” Crosby said. “He’s been playing great for us.”
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Thursday, March 05, 2015

Taillon ready to shed top prospect label


By John Perrotto, Times MLB Correspodent 
http://www.timesonline.com/sports
March 5, 2015


BRADENTON, Fla. — It seems Jameson Taillon has been a prospect forever.
The Pirates selected the right-hander with the second overall pick in the 2010 amateur draft following his senior year of high school in suburban Houston. Nearly five years later, he has yet to pitch in a major league game.
Compounding matters is that the player selected behind him, infielder Manny Machado, has already won an American League Gold Glove as a third baseman for the Baltimore Orioles and been selected to an All-Star Game. He is just 22, eight months younger than Taillon, who turned 23 last November.
It is only natural to wonder how good an already very formidable Pirates lineup would be with Machado in it, especially with Taillon rehabbing from the Tommy John elbow ligament replacement surgery he underwent last April.
However, the Pirates don’t second-guess their decision and have been encouraged with how Taillon has looked this spring.
“What I’m seeing (is) that he’s feeling real good, the ball is coming out of his hand very nice,” Pirates pitching coach Ray Searage said after a recent spring training workout. “He looks free and easy. You don’t have to watch him long to understand why he is so highly regarded.”
The Pirates signed Taillon to a $6.5 million bonus to persuade him to give up a scholarship to Rice University. Like many young pitchers, his development has not been linear, as he has gone 16-21 with a 3.72 ERA in 75 games over four minor league seasons.
Taillon made it to Class AAA Indianapolis for seven starts at the end of the 2013 season and seemed primed to make his major league debut sometime last summer. Tommy John surgery halted that timetable.
However, Taillon is getting closer to the end of his rehab. He will likely face hitters in live batting practice next week for the first time since the surgery and could be in Indianapolis’ rotation by May 1.
He is still considered a top prospect. Baseball America ranks him No. 2 in the Pirates’ strong farm system behind only fellow righty Tyler Glasnow.
“The positive about this whole process is that it’s been a learning experience,” Taillon said. “I’ve learned more about taking care of my arm and taking care of my bod. I’m going to be (a) better pitcher in the long run because of this.”
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