Penguins, Neal on streaks
JAMES NEAL had a goal and an assist, and Pittsburgh fired a barrage of shots at visiting Carolina goalie Justin Peters before finally breaking him in a 4-2 victory over the Hurricanes last night, stretching the Penguins' winning streak to four games.
JAMES NEAL had a goal and an assist, and Pittsburgh fired a barrage of shots at visiting Carolina goalie Justin Peters before finally breaking him in a 4-2 victory over the Hurricanes last night, stretching the Penguins' winning streak to four games.
Neal scored his 21st goal, one off the NHL lead. He has scored in every game of the Penguins' winning streak and has 14 goals in 16 home games.
Pittsburgh outshot Carolina 52-18, giving Peters a difficult test in his season debut. He finished with 48 saves, including 36 on the first 37 shots he faced.
Steve Sullivan gave Pittsburgh the lead 1 minute, 18 seconds into the third period, and Pascal Dupuis scored 70 seconds later for the Penguins, 5-3 since captain Sidney Crosby's latest concussion absence. Jordan Staal also scored.
Cam Ward, who made 23 saves and was credited with an empty-net goal on Monday in Carolina's 4-2 home win against New Jersey, was given the night off. Peters got the starting nod because backup Brian Boucher has been out since Dec. 3 with an undisclosed lower body injury.
In other games *
At Detroit, Pavel Datsyuk and Niklas Kronwall scored 56 seconds apart in the third period to give the Red Wings a 3-2 comeback win over the St. Louis Blues. Datsyuk added an assist, and Nicklas Lidstrom also scored for Detroit, which won its 11th consecutive home game. Ian White had two assists, and Jimmy Howard stopped 29 shots.
* At Sunrise, Fla., Kris Versteeg and Jason Garrison scored powerplay goals to help the Florida Panthers to a 5-3 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs. Erik Gundbranson, Bill Thomas, and Tomas Fleischmann also scored for the Panthers, and Brian Campbell had three assists. Mikhail Grabovski scored two goals for Toronto.
* At Ottawa,Michael Cammalleri, Tomas Plekanec, Louis Leblanc, P.K. Subban and Erik Cole each had a goal and an assist, and the Montreal Canadiens ended a five-game losing streak with a 6-2 win over the Senators. Raphael Diaz had three assists and Lars Eller scored his second shorthanded goal of the season for Montreal.
* At Columbus, Jarome Iginla scored Calgary's only goal in regulation and then had the only score in a shootout to give the Flames a 2-1 victory over the Blue Jackets.
* At Denver, Evander Kane scored two goals and Ondrej Pavelec stopped 32 of 33 shots as the Winnipeg Jets topped the Avalanche, 4-1.
Noteworthy *
Johnny Wilson, a four-time Stanley Cup champion with the Red Wings in the 1950s, has died at 82. Toronto coach Ron Wilson announced his uncle's death yesterday on Twitter.
* Shea Weber, Nashville's leading scorer, has a concussion and will miss tonight's game with Minnesota.
* Vancouver left wing Chris Higgins has an undiagnosed hand problem that coach Alain Vigneault said might be related to a foot infection. Higgins' foot ailment was originally described as a staph infection, forcing him to miss two games this month.