Penguins Beat Ducks To Tie NHL Record For Most Consecutive Road Wins To Start Season

The road warriors march on.

The Pittsburgh Penguins tied an NHL record last night with the most consecutive victories to open up a season on the road by beating the Anaheim Ducks, 4-3, at the Honda Center in Anaheim.

The Boys of Winter are now 7-0 away from Mellon Arena this season.

The Pens' weren't able to generate their ususal shot barrage in this one, but they got goals when they needed them -- and got them without #87 registering a single point all evening.

After failing to capitalize on FOUR power plays in the first period, the Pens' entered the opening intermission, not surprisingly, down 1-0. However, the Pens' got the next two on goals in the second period, and both were from near the same area -- high in the slot on the edge of the left wing circle. Mike Rupp got the first by flipping a shot past Anaheim goalie Jonas Hiller to tie the score just a few minutes into the 2nd frame.

That goal was Rupp's 4th of the season, which is one more than he had all of last year with New Jersey.

Defenseman Kris Letang put the Pens' up by one at near the halfway point when he beat Hiller with a wrister on a delayed penalty.

Later in the 2nd, Corey Perry tied the score again for the Ducks by tallying his second of the night.

Then things got interesting.

Just past the 7 minute mark of the 3rd, the Pens' were buzzing in the Ducks' zone and Jordan Staal tried to get a puck from the far wall to the slot to Tyler Kennedy -- who did return to the lineup last night, after all. Staal's pass was broken up on the way and was drifting away from TK. Kennedy lunged to tap the puck back to the point, though, where defenseman Alex Goligoski was waiting and completely wired a slapshot past Hiller from 50 feet to give Pittsburgh a 3-2 lead.

About 20 seconds later, however, Ducks' center Saku Koivu got away with inteference when he shoved Pens' D Brooks Orpik down from behind on a play behind the net when Orpik didn't have the puck. Teemu Selanne, who Orpik was eyeballing, then fed the puck back to Koivu out towards the short side of the goal, to the left of Pens' netminder Marc-Andre Fleury. Koivu then, just like that, somehow snuck the puck underneath Fleury or between him and the post to again tie the score.

Orpik complained vociferously to the official, but no matter. The Pens' retook the lead right back less than a minute later on bullet point slapper from Pascal Dupuis, similar to the goal GoGo scored. Pittsburgh had controlled the play in the Ducks' zone for a good 30-45 seconds, with Dupuis, Orpik and others passing the puck around like they were on a power play, even though they really weren't. Ultimately, Dupuis took advantage of the traffic in front of Hiller and made his shot count.

That was Dupuis' second goal in two games.

While the Ducks' buzzed the Pens' zone for the final four minutes, they couldn't get the tying marker. And some credit for that has to go to Sidney Crosby because, while he didn't tally a point last night, he literally stacked his legs in the crease to stop a shot from Anaheim defenseman Scott Niedermayer while Fleury had gotten himself out of the play trying to reach for -- but failing to get -- a loose puck.

Dad Troy Crosby -- a former Montreal Canadiens' goaltender -- was certainly proud after that one.

So, despite being outshot 29-27, the Penguins came away with their first victory in California since 1997. With it came the spoils of again being on top of the NHL standings with a league-best 12 wins and 24 points.

No team has scored more than the Pens' this season, and only 5 have given up less goals. Fleury's GAA presently sits at 2.14

Pittsburgh will go for the NHL record for most consecutive road wins to start a season on Thursday in Los Angeles against the Kings and former Penguin' defenseman Rob Scuderi (10:30 PM EST).