Penguins Power Over Panthers, 4-1, For Fifth Straight Win

The Florida Panthers have given the Penguins fits in recent years.

Beat them in games Pittsburgh should have won on their home ice.

Embarassed them as an underdog.

Tonight, the Penguins finally got some payback in a key matchup in the Eastern Conference playoff race.

Breaking a 1-1 tie going into the 3rd period with the final 3 tallies, including 2 goals by RW Tyler Kennedy, the Penguins won their 5th straight game, beating Florida 4-1.

With the victory, the Penguins continued to go without a loss 4 games into their 5 game road trip, and moved to 10-3-1 in their last 14.

The Penguins also moved into 6th place in the East. They are tied in points with both the Panthers and the Rangers, but have more wins than both of those teams.

Pittsburgh also sits only 1 point behind the 5th place Montreal Canadiens and 4 points behind the 4th place Philadelphia Flyers.

Not to lose sight of where they have been, they also are only 3 points ahead of the 9th place Buffalo Sabres and 10th place Carolina Hurricanes, so things remain tight.

On the ice tonight, the Penguins played the better game. They carried the play, especially in the last two periods, and threw 44 shots at Florida netminder Thomas Vokoun.

Radek Davorak staked the Panthers to a 1-o lead about 15 minutes into the 2nd period on a cheapie, flipping a shot from in close that squeaked by Fleury off his body.

That was the last puck Fleury would let behind him into the 4 X 6.

Penguins' center Sidney Crosby, returning to the lineup after missing the last 4 games with a groin injury, showed no ill effects from that when he took a puck off the wall from new acquisition and linemate Bill Guerin, blew through the Florida defense, then cut to the left before ripping one far side past Vokoun to tie the game no more than a minute later.

Kennedy broke that logjam about 5 minutes into the final frame, beating Vokoun to the far side with a shot from 20 feet out in the right circle, and defenseman Kris Letang upped the Penguins' lead to 3-1 from about the same spot as he skated in from the point and beat Vokoun.

Kennedy finished the scoring with his second goal, wrapping up a 2-on-1 with Malkin by burying his pass with a one-timer by Vokoun.

The Penguins are playing with as much confidence as they've had all season and look to sweep their road trip against the Washington Capitals on Sunday afternoon. The Capitals are struggling a little bit, having lost their last 3 at home (including tonight to the Toronto Maple Leafs) and playing this evening without Alexander Ovechkin, who sat out with a heel problem following a shot he took there from one of his assistant coaches in practice. Ovechkin said he would "probably" play on Sunday.

NOTES:

Crosby played with both Guerin and Kunitz most of the game, and both were on the first power play unit.

Defenseman Sergei Gonchar missed the game after returning to Pittsburgh to be with his wife while she delivered their next child.

Guerin took #13 and Craig Adams took #27. Alex Goligoski, called up for the game becuase of Gonchar's absence, took #3 after releasing his number for Guerin to wear.