Pittsburgh Penguins end their long San Jose victory drought
The Penguins received two goals from right wing Phil Kessel and goalie Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 33 of 34 shots to win Tuesday in San Jose, 5-1, for the first time since October 1997.
San Jose head coach Peter DeBoer opted to lift goalie Martin Jones in favor of an extra skater just 30 seconds earlier.
Center Matt Cullen capitalized on a broken play deep in the San Jose end to skate behind the left post and ricochet a shot off the back of Jones’ left skate at 4:40.
Malkin first beat San Jose defenseman Paul Martin while skating wide in the left circle, and took advantage of Jones, who came out in an attempt to poke check.
Right wing Joe Pavelski took two Penguins with him as he skated hard through the right circle.
The Sharks thought they had narrowed the deficit to a single goal 17 seconds later when center Tomas Hertl punched home a loose puck in the slot, but right wing Tommy Wingels was called for interfering with Fleury upon video review at 15:52.
Kessel scored at 2:30 from behind the goal line when his attempted centering feed caromed off the skate of Martin and again off the right skate of Jones before landing in the net.