Pittsburgh Penguins rally in third to stop Carolina Hurricanes 4-2 -NHL Update
Carolina was on a roll with two straight victories but so was Pittsburgh. The Penguins grabbed their fourth consecutive win by stopping Hurricanes, 4-2, on Tuesday night, December 27, 2011, at the CONSOL Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United
States.
Pittsburgh is showing its dominance and will continue to do so as many teams are undermining the club due to the departure of their captain, Sidney Crosby, but with that gap, a number of players have come up to perform and make it seem like he never left.
The Penguins now stand fifth in the Eastern Conference with 46 points and are tied with their state rivals, the Philadelphia Flyers.
After Carolina’s Tim Brent made the go ahead goal for the visiting team midway through the opening period for his fourth of the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season, Pittsburgh came right back up on a lucky chance.
James Neal potted his 21st of the regular season at the 8:10 mark in the second period rather by mistake when Chris Kunitz failed to shoot it past Carolina goalie, Justin Peters, but before Hurricanes could clear the puck, Neal’s skate forced
it right back in to level the contest.
"If you keep putting pucks on net and controlling the offensive zone like that, you're going to get your bounces", Neal said. "We just wanted to stick with it, and we did that".
Steve Sullivan made the one-timer successful, which was set up by Evgeni Malkin on the right side of Peters while Pascal Dupuis extended the lead nearly a minute later.
Jordan Staal secured the match for the Carolina Hurricanes on another quick breakaway with Tyler Kennedy, for his second straight assist of the night.
Tuomo Ruutu added his first and last of the match at the 14:53 mark, which put the Carolina team within two of the score but unable to pot any more in the remaining minutes.
"We wanted more shots", Hurricanes captain, Eric Staal, said. "But I thought they were firing it from pretty much everywhere, all over the ice and a lot from the outside. I don't think we were totally getting killed every time we were on the ice, but obviously
we wanted to generate a little bit more offensively, and we didn't".
Pittsburgh has the next game at home against Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday while Carolina Hurricanes will be hosting Toronto Maple Leafs the same day.
Tags: