Saturday, November 26, 2011
Associated Press
PITTSBURGH
Chris Kunitz, Tyler Kennedy, Steve Sullivan and Evgeni Malkin scored within a seven-minute stretch of the first period to power the Pittsburgh Penguins past the Ottawa Senators 6-3 on Friday night.
Pascal Dupuis and Jordan Staal also scored for the Penguins while Sidney Crosby collected three assists in his third game back from concussion-like symptoms.
Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 24 shots as Pittsburgh bounced back from an overtime loss to St. Louis on Wednesday.
The Penguins ripped off four goals in the game’s first 10 minutes, chasing Ottawa’s Chris Anderson, who stopped just four of the eight shots he faced before giving way to Alex Auld.
Pittsburgh was stifled for long stretches of a 3-2 overtime loss to the Blues on Wednesday, putting a damper on Crosby’s return following a 10-month layoff.
The former MVP lit up the New York Islanders for two goals and two assists in his season debut on Monday, but spent his second game getting clutched, grabbed and for the most part shut down against the Blues. He even picked up three penalties and got involved in a brief shoving match with St. Louis captain David Backes.
He was just as testy Friday. He absorbed a clean check from Ottawa’s Nick Foligno in the second period and tried to get a little payback in the third, mixing it up with Foligno in front of the Senators net. The two traded a couple of checks before Foligno started looking for more. At that point Kunitz jumped in to stick up for his captain, though Crosby earned a minor for roughing.
Ottawa’s Kaspars Daugavins collected a shot from teammate Zack Smith and slipped it by Fleury to give the Senators a quick 1-0 lead just over a minute into the game.
Their momentum lasted all of 27 seconds. Crosby faked a slapshot on the break then threaded a pass to Kunitz, who fired it into the wide open net.