Penguins Hold On To Beat Carolina, 3-2

Without star centers Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin for the second straight game, the Pittsburgh Penguins had to dig deep Saturday night at The Bird House against a Carolina Hurricanes' club that had been winning games at a near .700% clip the last month or so, and who always gives them trouble.

After breaking a 0-0 logjam with 3 goals in a span of 10 minutes of hockey starting from the end of the second period to about 7 minutes into the third, the Pens survived 2 goals from Carolina in the last four minutes and held on for a big, 3-2 victory.

Dustin Jeffrey -- called back up in Malkin's absence -- scored his second of the season on a slapshot, while Mark Letestu and Pascal Dupuis (shorthanded) also tallied for the Boys of Winter to give them the necessary margin of victory.

Dupuis' goal, which ended up being the game-winner, was a particularly nice effort, as he took a pass from Jordan Staal, broke in on a semi-breakaway and beat Hurricanes' netminder Cam Ward with a backhand high to the glove side.

It was clearly a play the former Conn Smythe Trophy winner should have stopped, but one Dupuis is not likely to make any apologies for -- especially given the late Carolina goals by Sergei Samsonov and Gronk's brother Eric with Ward on the bench for an extra attacker made things interesting.

The Pens outshot Carolina 31-26 on the night.  Marc-Andre Fleury had 24 saves in getting the win for Pittsburgh.

It was the Pens' third win over the Hurricanes this year, which marked the first time in more than 12 seasons that the Pens' actually could say they won a season series between the clubs.

It's a shame Pittsburgh's 4-game Conference Final sweep of Carolina a few seasons ago doesn't count in that picture.

The local hockey club now has one more game before the upcoming weekend's All-Star break, and that's tomorrow at home against the New York Islanders (7:00 PM EST).

I'll have more on that game tomorrow, and more on where things are with Crosby, since there's some more recent news on that front.

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