Ducks rally, sting Fleury, Pens
Associated Press
PITTSBURGH
Dog tired at the end of a lengthy shift, Anaheim’s Matt Beleskey saw a familiar No. 8 out of the corner of his eye, flipped the puck in that general direction and hoped for the best.
When it comes to Teemu Selanne, the best tends to happen.
Selanne took Beleskey’s feed and beat Pittsburgh’s Marc-Andre Fleury with a nifty backhand midway through the third period to lift the surging Ducks past the Penguins 2-1 on Wednesday night.
“There’s a reason he’s got a jillion goals in this league,” Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau said.
Maybe not a jillion, but he’s getting there.
Selanne’s 19th of the season was also the 656th of his career, tying him with Brendan Shanahan for 12th place on the NHL list. It came a night after Boudreau sat the veteran for much of the third period in a 2-1 victory over Minnesota.
The benching was an effort to preserve Selanne’s 41-year-old legs for the rest of Anaheim’s eight-game road trip. He certainly looked fresh Wednesday when the Ducks snapped Pittsburgh’s six-game, home-winning streak.
Corey Perry added his 28th goal for the Ducks, and Jonas Hiller made 25 saves as Anaheim won in Pittsburgh for the first time in 11 years. The Ducks are 14-3-3 since New Year’s Day, tied with Detroit for the most points in the NHL over that stretch.
“We really didn’t get too many good opportunities, and when we did, those shots didn’t go through,” Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said.
Evgeni Malkin, the NHL’s leading scorer, was held pointless for the second time this month, and his eight-game goal streak at home ended, too.
ordan Staal scored for Pittsburgh, but the Penguins’ high-flying offense was bottled up over the last two periods.
“We got lucky and [Malkin] didn’t score,” Boudreau said.
While the Ducks hadn’t won in Pittsburgh since 2001, Boudreau made it a habit while behind the bench for the Washington Capitals.
Washington dominated the regular-season series with the Penguins, beating Pittsburgh eight straight times during his tenure before he was fired in December. Staal, playing in his third game after missing six weeks with a left knee injury, gave Pittsburgh an early lead when a turnover led to a 2-on-1 break with Matt Cooke. Staal faked a pass to Cooke and then fired a shot over Hiller’s stick side for his 17th goal of the season and second since his return last weekend.
“I felt like we were in control of the game but we made too many turnovers,” Staal said.