Kunitz powers Penguins past Kings

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH

Marc-Andre Fleury’s formula for success is pretty simple.

If the Pittsburgh Penguins goalie can see the puck, he figures there is a pretty good chance he is going to stop it.

His teammates appear to have gotten the message.

Fleury turned aside all 36 shots he faced in a 3-0 win over the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday night, most of them relatively harmless forays from the point as his defense cleared space in front of the net to let Fleury go to work as he earned his 30th NHL shutout.

“Guys are blocking shots and not giving up good scoring chances,” Fleury said. “I think beginning of the season we had a little bit of a rough time but lately it’s been good.”

Chris Kunitz had two goals and an assist for Pittsburgh. Kris Letang scored his first goal of the season, and Evgeni Malkin became the fifth player in team history to register 400 assists as the Penguins used their dominant power play and a steady performance from Fleury to hand the defending champion Kings just their second regulation loss.

Pittsburgh went 2 for 6 with the man advantage, including two first-period goals that put the Kings on their heels.

“I know there’s a big deal made about the offensive juggernaut that they are, but there’s only a couple goals difference actually five-on-five coming into the game,” Los Angeles coach Darryl Sutter said.

Maybe, but it was enough for Pittsburgh to win for the seven time in nine meetings with the Kings. The fast start was a stark contrast from the Penguins’ victory over New Jersey on Tuesday, when they spotted the Devils a 3-1 lead before scoring the final seven goals.

“We’re trying to learn from our mistakes,” Kunitz said. “We wanted to come out and have a better start tonight.

“Our goaltender had a great first period, really kicked it off for us.”

Martin Jones made 20 saves for Los Angeles, but the Kings failed to score for the second time in 10 games this season.

“[Fleury] made the saves he’s supposed to make,” Los Angeles forward Dustin Brown said. “I don’t think he had very many hard saves to be honest with you.”