PITTSBURGH: The Pittsburgh Penguins and Vancouver Canucks had gone two years and 157 games since they last faced each other.
They picked up right where they left off.
Back in 2011, Evgeni Malkin scored the deciding goal in the shoot-out as the Penguins earned a season-opening victory at Vancouver.
The site changed yesterday, but the result was the same.
Malkin scored in the third round of the shoot-out, and Marc-Andre Fleury made the deciding stop on Ryan Kesler as the Penguins remained unbeaten at home with a 4-3 win over the Canucks.
“The goal Evgeni scored in Vancouver was similar to the one he got (Saturday),” Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said. “He moved out wide, got Luongo down and scored the winner.”
Malkin skated down the right-wing boards and moved across the ice, curling his stick to stuff the puck past goalie Roberto Luongo with a backhander.
“When Malkin came down, I wasn’t quite sure what he was going to do, and unfortunately, I bit on the fake and he went backhand,” Luongo said. “ I wish I would have been a bit more patient maybe on that one.”
Sidney Crosby moved into a tie atop the NHL leaderboard with his seventh goal of the season, and had two assists. Chris Kunitz netted his fourth goal and added two assists, and rookie defenseman Olli Maatta scored his first NHL goal for the Penguins, who won for the 20th time in 22 home games.
The Penguins, who won a season-high fourth straight game, are 5-0 at home - their best start since the 1994-95 season.
Fleury stopped a season-high 36 shots for his NHL-leading seventh win of the season, denying Kesler, Alexander Edler, and Mike Santorelli in the shootout. The Penguins are 19-3 in their last 22 shootouts, winning 11 of 12 and six straight.
Luongo, who made 25 saves, stopped Crosby and Jussi Jokinen in the shootout before Malkin scored his eighth game-deciding shootout goal.
Zack Kassian scored a third-period goal, and Edler and Brad Richardson also scored for the Canucks, who had a two-game winning streak snapped. Kevin Bieksa added three assists.
“We found a way to get a point,” Canucks coach John Tortorella said. “You always want to get two points, but we’ll take one in a pretty tough building to play in.”
The teams were tied at 2 after two periods and traded goals in the third, scoring 22 seconds apart. Kassian gave the Canucks a 3-2 lead at 7:10, using a backhander to redirect Bieksa’s shot from the point behind Fleury.
Maatta scored 22 seconds later, crashing the net to slam home the rebound from Kunitz’s slap shot.
“It’s always fun to see guys score their first goal,” Crosby said.
Brandon Sutter had a chance to put the Penguins ahead when he was awarded a penalty shot with 1:24 left in regulation, but Luongo’s glove save sent the game to overtime.Agencies
