Penguins still looking for first home victory

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH

The Pittsburgh Penguins’ new arena is generating additional revenue and plenty of praise from around the NHL. What it’s not doing is creating any victories for the home team.

Clarke MacArthur scored twice and the Toronto Maple Leafs withstood Sidney Crosby’s first goal of the season to keep the Penguins winless in their new home, beating Pittsburgh 4-3 on Wednesday night.

Francois Beauchemin and Colton Orr also had goals for the Maple Leafs, who scored on four of 14 shots. Toronto is 3-0 for the first time since its division-winning 1999-2000 season; last season, the Leafs didn’t get their third victory until their 15th game.

“Everyone keeps bringing up last year,” defensive Dion Phaneuf said. “Well, it doesn’t really matter right now. We’re focused on this group and this year.”

The Leafs held on despite being outshot 9-2 in the third period, when Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Mark Letestu all failed to convert good scoring chances.

Pittsburgh is 1-3 overall and 0-3 in the Consol Energy Center, which opened last week as the replacement for the 49-year-old Civic Arena.

A new-arena jinx? None of the Penguins are calling it that. Yet.

“Each game that goes by, especially when you expect to win each one, it starts to get discouraging,” defenseman Paul Martin said. “That’s something we can’t concentrate on.”

Toronto’s Jonas Gustavsson, the 6-foot-3 Swedish goalie nicknamed the Monster, turned aside 22 shots in his first start of the season.

Crosby got Pittsburgh to within a goal by scoring on a backhander from along the goal line with 44 seconds left in the period. But the Maple Leafs kept the lead despite going 16:51 without a shot at the end of the second period and the start of the third.