Staal’s 2 goals includes 100th

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH

The wrong player was charged with the crime, and the true offender went free and tied the game.

Jordan Staal and the Pittsburgh Penguins played as if they were intent on administering their own justice.

Staal’s second of the game and 100th of his career was part of a three-goal outburst in a 6:07 span of the third period as the Penguins beat the New Jersey Devils 4-1 on Saturday night.

New Jersey’s Petr Sykora was given a double high-sticking penalty 37 seconds into the third, even though television replays clearly showed it was the stick of Patrik Elias that struck Steve Sullivan and drew blood.

Elias scored a short-handed goal 1:10 later to tie the game at 1.

“It was unrespectful to the referee for me, but I was trying to help my team and I didn’t want to have [Elias] go in for four minutes to the penalty box,” Sykora said. “We need him on the [penalty kill]. I just got the idea, and it worked out and [Elias] actually got a goal there. After that, [the referee] came up to me, he wasn’t happy and I apologized to him.”

The incident appeared to make Pittsburgh play with anger. The Penguins dominated play the rest of the way, cruising to their third consecutive victory.

“We weren’t too happy on the bench,” Staal said. “Obviously, it’s tough for the refs to catch the right guy sometimes. It was tough to see the guy who should have been in the box score the goal, but the guys definitely rebounded nice off that one.”

James Neal’s NHL-leading eighth goal closed out the scoring after Chris Kunitz allowed the Penguins to retake the lead for good with a tally 1:10 after Elias’ goal. Staal scored his fifth of the season 70 seconds later.

“I think Kuny had a great goal to kind of keep us going, put us back in the right direction,” Staal said. “And from then on I felt like we pretty much dominated.”

Pittsburgh outshot New Jersey 15-4 after Elias’ goal.

In the postgame locker room, none of the Penguins showed anger about the penalty-call gaffe. They let their play over the final 18 minutes do their talking.

“You could see it pretty clearly it was the wrong guy in the box,” said Marc-Andre Fleury, who had 23 saves. “But I guess it turned out all right in the end.”

Penguins defenseman Kris Letang returned after serving a two-game suspension for boarding, but Pittsburgh still was without star centers Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.

Crosby (concussion) continues to practice but said Saturday that he needs to see how he will respond to absorbing hits before he return to game action. Thus far, his teammates have been loath to make much contact with him since he was cleared to handle it last week.

Malkin missed his fifth game in a row because of soreness in his right knee. Without their two former scoring champions for the vast majority of the past nine months, usual third-line center Staal played a game reminiscent of Crosby or Malkin.

He scored for the fourth and fifth times this season to give him 100 goals less than six weeks after his 23rd birthday.

“Staalsy’s a guy who flies under the radar with the superstars on this team,” Kunitz said. “We know how good he is. He’s proven it year after year.”