Penguins Storm Carolina, Win 5-2

So much for the theory that it's harder to play against a team in their first game with a new coach ....

On the 2nd half of back-to-back games ...

In a town where you historically haven't played all that well ....

The Penguins debunked all of those theories and more last night, storming past the Carolina Hurricanes, 5-2.

The Boys of Winter jumped out to a 2-0 first period lead and stretched their advantage to 3-0 in the second period. Carolina was finally able to get a few pucks by Penguins netminder Dany Sabourin after that, but never got closer than 2 goals and were matched by the Penguins adding 2 more on the scoreboard the rest of the way.

Petr Sykora scored twice for Pittsburgh -- both power play goals. The Pens' went 2 for 3 on the power play, which is an excellent showing for a team surprisingly near the bottom of the league barrel with the man advantage on the road.

Wingers chipped in the Penguins' other 3 goals too, with Pascal Dupuis, Miroslav Satan, and Ruslan Fedotenko adding the other tallies.

Dany Sabourin, getting the start for the 2nd straight night, was strong in stopping 34 of 36 shots.

The other Penguins' lynchpin performer last night was #87. He assisted on 4 of the Penguins 5 goals to raise his point total this year to 39, 2 behind NHL leader and teammate Evgeni Malkin, who had 2 assists of his own to raise his league leading tally to 41.

Crosby has been unstoppable lately. He now has 14 points in his last 5 games.

The Penguins raised their record to 15-6-4, good for 34 points. They also gained ground on the Rangers who, after barely coming back to beat the flightless birds on Wednesday night, promptly went up to Montreal and got spanked, 6-2, by the Canadiens. Pittsburgh now sits 4 points back of New York.

I can't get over how well the Penguins have played overall on the road. They are 8-3-2 away from home, just a hair better than their 7-3-2 home record thanks to last night's win. If they keep playing like that away from Mellon Arena, they're going to rack up a lot of points. Great road play is a hallmark of a great hockey club.

While I'm talking about the hallmarks of a good hockey team, another key to the Penguins success this season has been their ability to avoid going on losing streaks -- or even losing 2 games in a row. Aside from their long road trip earlier this season where they went 1-2-1 (with the win coming at the end of the trip against St. Louis), the Penguins have done well to avoid getting in a losing rut. They've done an excellent job of this the last 2 seasons as well. I think coach Michel Therrein deserves some credit in this area. They are usually ready to bounce back strong after a loss.

NOTES:

Mike Zigmoanis and Tyler Kennedy, both injured in Wednesday night's game against the Rangers, returned to Pittsburgh and did not travel with the team to Carolina. Zigomanis was able to do some on-ice work, and is listed as day-to-day. Kennedy's injury -- whatever it is -- appears a bit more serious. Don't expect to see him back in action for a few weeks or more.

Have I mentioned I hate the NHL's new injury disclosure policy?

Marc-Andre Fleury continues to work in drills before and after practice, but hasn't yet returned to full practice with the team. He's still at least a week away.

I would say that Ryan Whitney also remains at least a week away. He, too, hasn't participated in a full contact practice yet and given the amount of time he's been out of action, I would expect Therrein to want him to be involved in those for a week or so before trying to insert him back into a game.

The Penguins are back on the ice Saturday afternoon in Ottawa against the Senators.

Look for a weekend recap.