 |
| AP |
The Penguins and Coyotes came into
Monday night’s game separated by 24 teams and 16 points in the NHL’s overall
standings.
It certainly looked that way, too.
The Penguins routed the Coyotes,
7-0, to run their winning streak to six games and continue their offensive hot
streak.
BOX SCORE: PENGUINS 7, COYOTES 0
Over the course of that six-game
streak, the Penguins have averaged 5.83 goals per game.
Against Arizona, they got
contributions from up and down the lineup, with 13 different players
registering points.
Matt Murray, making his third
consecutive start, stopped 31 shots for his second shutout of the season.
The only real drama of the night
came with three seconds left in the first period, when Crosby took a stick to
the face and had to leave the ice for the second consecutive game.
Skating near his own blue line, Crosby
got in a three-way tangle-up with Patric Hornqvist and Martin Hanzal. Hanzal’s
stick caught Crosby in the face, sending him sprawling to the ice. Crosby went
straight to the dressing room with three seconds left in the period, and missed
the first two minutes of the second period.
Before that, Scott Wilson got the
Penguins on the board midway through the first on a wrist shot from the left
circle. With Tom Kuhnhackl screening Arizona goalie Mike Smith, Wilson’s wrist
shot found the upper left corner of the net, above Smith’s glove.
It was Wilson’s third point in as
many games, with two assists in the Penguins’ 5-1 win against Florida Thursday.
Crosby also had to leave the
Penguins’ game against Tampa Bay Saturday briefly after taking a a cross-check,
and potential head injuries are always a precarious situation given Crosby’s
history. Both then and tonight, though, he returned to play after missing only
a few minutes
With Crosby back, the Penguins blew
the game open in the second period, thanks to some timely help from the
listless Coyotes.
Nick Bonino was the first
beneficiary, as he collected a turnover from Arizona defenseman Oliver
Ekman-Larsson right in front of the Coyotes’ net and pushed it past Smith to
make the score 2-0.
Trevor Daley and Bryan Rust added
two more goals in the second — Daley’s also coming of an Arizona defensive zone
turnover — and Crosby proved he was just fine after the earlier scare by
scoring his 21st goal of the season at 15:13 of the second. Evgeni Malkin’s
shot rebounded off Coyotes’ goalie Louis Domingue, who replaced Smith after the
Penguins’ fourth goal, and bounced up in the air. Crosby, positioned in front
of the net, waited for the puck to drop below the crossbar and batted it in out
of midair to make the score 5-0 heading into the third.
Phil Kessel and Justin Schultz added
third-period goals for the final margin.
The Penguins will attempt to extend
their winning streak to seven games Wednesday, when they host the Bruins at PPG
Paints Arena.
No comments