Back on Track: Pens Defeat Devils 5-2

After an embarrassing loss to the Ottawa Senators, Saturday night, the Penguins knew they had to rebound against the New Jersey Devils to stay in the hunt for the top spot in the Eastern Conference.

With Sidney Crosby leading the way, the Penguins defeated the Devils 5-2 to pull back to within one point of the idle New York Rangers.  Chris Kunitz, Jordan Staal, and Pascal Dupuis each scored their 23rd goal of the season, Sidney Crosby scored for the second straight game, and Evgeni Malkin added an empty net goal for his league-leading 97th point.

Pittsburgh was able to score four goals against Marty Brodeur, but the most impressive feat was limiting New Jersey to just two, despite playing half the second period with only four defensemen.

Ben Lovejoy exited the game with an undisclosed lower body injury, midway through the first period.  Lovejoy was starting in his second straight game after Matt Niskanen was injured in Thursday night’s game against Nashville.  In the second, Kris Letang took a hit to the head and missed nearly half the period before returning.

Chris Kunitz scored 1:04 into the game after Evgeni Malkin stripped Brodeur of the puck behind the net.  The usually excellent puck moving goaltender did not see Malkin who snuck up behind him, stole the puck, and dished a backhanded pass to Kunitz in front of the wide open cage.

The Devils evened the score on Pittsburgh’s own passing gaffe.  Sidney Crosby one-touched a pass to Ben Lovejoy in front of his own net but Zach Parise intercepted the puck and buried his 30th goal of the year.  The turnover was one of many by the Penguins over the course of the game.

After goals by Jordan Staal and Pascal Dupuis, the Penguins were leading 3-1 going into the final period.  Just 3:37 into the third, Ilya Kovalchuk scored his 32nd goal of the season after the Penguins turned the puck over several times.  Both Kris Letang and Tyler Kennedy attempted to clear the puck but the Devils were able to keep it in.  Former Penguin, Alex Ponikarovsky went behind the net and passed the puck to Travis Zajac on the far face-off dot.  Zajac quickly found Kovalchuk in front of the net, who one-timed the puck past Fleury from three feet away.

Any momentum generated off that goal was quickly erased by number 87.

Just over a minute after the Devils scored to cut Pittsburgh’s lead to 3-2, Sidney Crosby scored another highlight-reel goal.  Crosby tipped a loose puck and danced around Devils’ defenseman Marek Zidlicky before beating Brodeur five-hole.  Oddly enough, Crosby made the exact same play on Zidlicky earlier in the game but was stopped by Brodeur.

The goal gave Pittsburgh another two goal lead and the Penguins never looked back.  Evgeni Malkin scored an empty net goal from center ice and the Pittsburgh Penguins notched their 99th and 100th point of the season while extending their home winning streak to ten games.

• Pascal Dupuis has a career high 50 points this season, ranking him fourth on the team behind Evgeni Malkin (97), James Neal (76), and Chris Kunitz (53).
• Marc-Andre Fleury has 225 wins, one shy of Tom Barrasso for the franchise lead.
• The Penguins have not lost a home game since February 15th (2-1 loss to Anaheim Ducks).

Photo courtesy of Yahoo! sports