Pens stretch winning streak to 4

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH

Dan Bylsma has been around the Pittsburgh Penguins long enough to recognize troubling games such as this one.

The Penguins coach felt uneasy as he saw that his club held a sizable advantage in shots, but was still tied with the Carolina Hurricanes through two periods. He knew the game could turn in one of two ways: the Penguins could have the game stolen by the hot goalie, or his club could finally figure out Justin Peters and skate off with a win.

The answer played out quickly in the third period.

Steve Sullivan, Pascal Dupuis and Jordan Staal all scored on Peters during the first 8:05 of the third, and the Penguins stretched their winning streak to four with a 4-2 victory over the Hurricanes on Tuesday night.

“Both those thoughts went through our brains,” Bylsma said after Peters stopped 36 of Pittsburgh’s first 37 shots. “The goalie was playing really well and looked really good ... but you want to keep playing on and want to keep putting pressure on their whole team, including their goalie. When you force it that way, you eventually feel like you’re going to break a team and get to their goalie, which we were able to do.”

James Neal scored his 21st goal, one behind the NHL leaders. He has scored in every game of the Penguins’ winning streak and has 14 goals in 16 home games.

Evgeni Malkin had two assists to move into second place in the NHL scoring race. He and Neal both extended point streaks to eight games.

Pittsburgh outshot Carolina 52-18, giving Peters a difficult test in his season debut. Peters finished with 48 saves.

“We had a lot of Grade-A chances. A few you’d like to have back, but he made some great saves and played really well,” Neal said. “If you’re putting pucks on the net and controlling the offensive zone like that, you’re going to get your bounces. We just wanted to stick with it, and we did that.”

It began paying off 1:18 into the third when Sullivan gave Pittsburgh its first lead. Dupuis scored 70 seconds later for the Penguins, 5-3 since captain Sidney Crosby’s latest concussion absence. Staal added a goal against his older brother Eric’s team.

Tim Brent and Tuomo Ruutu scored for the Hurricanes, who had won consecutive games for only the third time this season before coming to Pittsburgh.