Stewart's Go-Ahead Goal Helps Ducks Beat Penguins, 2-1
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Chris Stewart had the go-ahead goal in the second period, Corey Perry also scored and the Anaheim Ducks overcame a disallowed goal to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 2-1, on Sunday night.
John Gibson made 23 saves in his sixth straight start — a stretch that included shutouts against Vancouver and San Jose.
The Ducks are 10-5-2 after a 1-7-2 start. The three-time defending Pacific Division champions, coming off a 1-0 victory over the Sharks on Friday night, have won consecutive games for the first time since beating San Jose by the same score Nov. 7 for their fourth straight victory.
Olli Maatta scored for Pittsburgh and Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 23 shots. The Penguins are 5-5-2 following a 9-1 stretch.
Evgeni Malkin nearly got the tying goal, but misfired on a backhander from the edge of the crease with 1:22 remaining after faking Gibson to the ice with Fleury pulled for an extra skater.
Stewart beat Fleury to the glove side with a one-timer at 15:49 of the second for a 2-1 lead after Nate Thompson set him up in the slot.
The Penguins, who had only one shot on net through the first 17 minutes of their 5-3 loss to the Kings on Saturday afternoon, opened the scoring at 3:02 of the first period with their second shot against the Ducks.
Maatta jumped on a loose puck in the high slot and beat Gibson to the stick side with a 30-foot wrist shot for his fourth goal of the season. It was his second in two games after missing the previous six with an upper-body injury.
The Ducks appeared to have tied it at 7:30 of the first on a shot by Rickard Rakell during a power play while Sergei Plotnikov was off for goalie interference. But Penguins coach Mike Johnston initiated a replay challenge, claiming the play was offside — and was proven to be right.
Ducks defenseman Sami Vatanen failed to keep the puck in the zone along the right boards on an attempted clearing pass by Rob Scuderi, as Matt Cullen came out to check Vatanen at the blue line. The goal was disallowed, and the extra 22 seconds of elapsed time was put back on the scoreboard clock.
The Ducks eventually tied it 36 seconds into the second period, with the teams skating 4-on-4 as a result of coincidental roughing penalties to Malkin and Anaheim's Ryan Kesler following the first-period horn.
Perry got the puck from Ryan Getzlaf in the slot and beat Fleury from short range. Perry has 10 goals this season, nine in the last 16 games since Getzlaf returned from an appendectomy that sidelined him for four games.
This was the 10th head-to-head showdown between Crosby and Perry, both of whom have been league MVP and scored 50 goals in a season. Crosby has six goals and seven assists in those games, Perry 11 goals and three assists, and the Penguins own a 7-3 advantage.
NOTES: Cullen is one of four players on the Penguins' roster who used to play for the Ducks, including Chris Kunitz, Ben Lovejoy and Nick Bonino. Kunitz won a Stanley Cup with Anaheim in 2007. . Ducks D Simon Despres, acquired last March in a trade that sent Lovejoy to Pittsburgh, missed his 24th straight game because of concussion symptoms that began when he was hit by Colorado's Tyson Barrie on Oct. 16. Barrie received a three-game suspension. . Gibson, who was born in Pittsburgh, lost 6-4 in his only other start against the Penguins on Oct. 9, 2014, in the Steel City. Sidney Crosby had two goals in that game. . This was the fourth of 13 road games this season that Crosby, Malkin and Co. did not sell out, and the third in the Pacific time zone. The turnout of 15,836 was the smallest to see them play.
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