Penguins drop Maple Leafs for seventh straight victory

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH

The Pittsburgh Penguins honored their past Wednesday, unveiling a bronze statue outside Consol Energy Center showcasing the singular talents of Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux.

Then the Penguins went out and showed the present looks pretty good, too.

Pascal Dupuis scored twice and had an assist, and the Pittsburgh rallied to beat the slumping Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 for their seventh straight victory.

“The way we’ve been playing, we feel like we can come back in every game and we proved it again tonight,” Dupuis said.

Jordan Staal added a goal and an assist to extend his points streak to a career-best six games, and rookie Brad Thiessen stopped 22 shots for Pittsburgh, which has won 11 of its last 12 home games.

With Lemieux watching from the owner’s box a few hours after the 4,700-pound bronze statue showing him split a pair of defenders during a 1988 game was unveiled, Pittsburgh strengthened its hold on fourth-place in the Eastern Conference by once again roaring back against the Maple Leafs.

On Jan. 31, the Penguins scored three goals in the third period on their way to a shootout victory over Toronto, the tying goal coming on a deflection off Evgeni Malkin’s shoulder in the final seconds of regulation.

There were no such heroics necessary this time thanks to Dupuis, who let a handful of chances get away in a victory at Colorado last weekend. He didn’t miss while beating Toronto’s Jonas Gustavsson for his first multiple-goal game in nearly a year.

“In Colorado I think he had about five breakaways,” Staal said. “He’s creating a lot of opportunities.”

Phil Kessel and Carl Gunnarsson scored for Toronto. The Maple Leafs let an early two-goal lead slip away while falling to 1-2 since Randy Carlyle took over as coach following Ron Wilson’s firing.

Carlyle was supposed to rejuvenate a team that has fallen to the fringe of the playoff picture over the last month.

Toronto beat Montreal on Saturday night in his first game behind the bench, but there has been no bounce. The Maple Leafs have lost six of seven.