Fleury, Penguins Top Devils 2-0 For 3rd Straight Win
PITTSBURGH (AP) - Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 25 shots for his fourth shutout of the season and the surging Pittsburgh Penguins beat the New Jersey Devils 2-0 on Tuesday night for their third straight win.
Sidney Crosby got his 17th goal of the year for the Penguins. The two-time MVP has scored in each of Pittsburgh's last seven home games, the longest home scoring streak of his career.
Phil Kessel added an insurance goal, and the Penguins have won four of five to draw even with the Devils for eighth place in the Eastern Conference heading into the All-Star break.
Cory Schneider made 29 saves for the Devils, who saw their four-game winning streak snapped. New Jersey went 0 for 4 on the power play, managing just one shot on goal during 8 minutes with the man advantage.
The Penguins are starting to show extended flashes of their formerly high-scoring selves heading into the All-Star break. Evgeni Malkin's 10th career hat trick powered a comeback victory over Vancouver on Saturday, and Crosby continued his recent surge with the kind of skillfully dirty goal coach Mike Sullivan promised his club would create if it would stop worrying about style points.
Fleury withstood an early surge, including a memorable stretch in which he was left to fend for himself with his stick hopelessly out of reach following a scrum in front of the net. The Devils fired off 10 of the game's first 12 shots, but when Fleury's teammates found their footing, Pittsburgh dominated.
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Crosby ended the Penguins' scoreless streak against Schneider at 135 minutes, 27 seconds when he picked up a rebound off Kris Letang's shot from the point and flipped it into the net for his ninth in Pittsburgh's last seven games at Consol Energy Center.
Kessel doubled the lead 15:21 into the second, though Carl Hagelin did most of the work. The forward, acquired from Anaheim on Jan. 16, broke in with Kessel 2-on-1 and spun around New Jersey defenseman Eric Gelinas before slipping the puck to Kessel, who had little trouble beating Schneider for his 15th of the year.
That was enough for Fleury, who received a bit of help from the left post and the crossbar in the third period. The goaltender even rubbed the crossbar affectionately when it kept a New Jersey shot at bay in the final minutes of his 42nd career shutout.
The game was a homecoming of sorts for former Penguins general manager Ray Shero, who helped the franchise to its third Stanley Cup in 2009 before being fired in the summer of 2014 following a second-round collapse against the New York Rangers. The Devils hired Shero last May to rebuild a team that hasn't reached the playoffs since losing the 2012 Cup Finals to Los Angeles.
The reboot appears to be ahead of schedule. New Jersey is right in the mix with just over two months to go in the regular season and despite his contentious exit from Pittsburgh, Shero chatted up Penguins CEO David Morehouse before the game and waved graciously when the in-house camera cut to him during a brief video tribute in the first period.
NOTES: Penguins F Chris Kunitz missed his second straight game with an undisclosed injury. Pittsburgh also scratched D Ian Cole and F Sergei Plotnikov. ... New Jersey scratched Fs Stefan Matteau and Tyler Kennedy and D Marc-Andre Gragnani. ... The Penguins start the post All-Star break at home against Ottawa on Feb. 2. ... New Jersey hosts the New York Rangers on the same day.
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