Just when the Pittsburgh Penguins thought they had put their injury streak behind them, fate struck again in Dallas. The Penguins defeated the Dallas Stars 4-3 in a shootout, Wednesday night, but lost Kris Letang and Steve Sullivan in the process.
Letang was injured in the middle of the first period when Eric Nystrom’s shoulder caught him on the chin. Letang laid on the ice for about a minute before being helped off by the trainers. He never returned, hopefully as a precaution to recent concussion-related injuries that kept him out of 20 games this season.
Steve Sullivan left the game in the second period after he was knocked down in the defensive zone on the power play. He did not return from the game and was not immediately diagnosed with a specific injury. Sullivan missed 38 games last season due to injury and has only played in 70+ games in a season once in the past 8 years.
The Penguins still managed to come away with a victory, thanks to a shootout goal from Pascal Dupuis and excellent goaltending from Marc-Andre Fleury. Fleury stopped Loui Eriksson on a breakaway midway through the third period. The game went into a shootout where Fleury made a save on Michael Ryder to clinch the win for the Penguins who have now won four in a row.
Jamie Benn scored 15:25 into the first period to give the Stars a 1-0 lead. As the Stars started to build momentum, Steve Sullivan quickly turned it in favor of the Penguins. Sullivan took a bank pass off the boards from Pascal Dupuis and fired a backhand shot over the shoulder of Kari Lehtonen.
Sheldon Souray scored with 12 seconds remaining in the second period to give the Stars a 2-1 lead. The Penguins had plenty of opportunities to score in the second period, earning three power plays but failing to score on all of them.
Pittsburgh tied the game and then took the lead 4 minutes into the third period. Craig Adams received a pass from Jordan Staal in front of the net and fired the puck passed Lehtonen to tied the game at two. Just 39 seconds later, Chris Kunitz scored, tipping a shot from Paul Martin to give the Penguins a 3-2 lead.
Pittsburgh’s lead would be short-lived, however, as Michael Ryder scored on a cross crease pass from Eriksson. As the final minute wore down in the third period, Brooks Orpik took a penalty to give the Stars a power play heading into overtime. However, the Stars 26th ranked power play failed to register a goal, setting up a shootout.
James Neal, Loui Eriksson, Chris Kunitz, and Jamie Benn scored in the shootout through the first 3 rounds. Pascal Dupuis’ goal won the game for Pittsburgh and moved them three points ahead of the Ottawa Senators for 4th place in the Eastern Conference.
- The Penguins play their next game against the Colorado Avalanche Saturday.
- The Pens went 8-4-1 in the month of February.
- James Neal and Matt Niskanen played their first game in Dallas since Feb 13th, 2011, before they were traded to Pittsburgh on Feb 21st.
Photo courtesy of Yahoo!
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