Malkin takes control, Penguins top Wild 4-3

“If the door is closed, nothing happens”.

Following the hit, Maatta immediately began reaching for his back in obvious pain. He was helped off the ice and taken to the hospital.

“You never want to see anything like that”, Niederreiter said.

The win was their third consecutive over the Wild after sweeping the series for the first time in franchise history last season.

The Penguins improved to 9-0 on the season after scoring the first goal in a game. The Penguins are 20-0 all-time when he has four or more points. We reserve the right to edit a comment that is quoted or excerpted in an article.

They haven’t held a lead in regulation play in the first three games of this four game road trip – ahead only when they scored a sudden-death goal to beat Carolina in overtime last Thursday.

Crosby, on the Penguins’ overall performance: “We have to keep it going now”.

It was Calgary’s sixth-successive win over New Jersey dating back to January 10, 2012. “It was good, right from the start”. Just 2.06 goals per game, above just three other teams in the league.

Letang has eight points (1G-7A) in his last 8 games at CONSOL Energy Center. They were all over us that first period.

But Tuesday night, especially in the second period, the Penguins looked far from a slumping squad.

Coach Mike Johnston lauded Malkin for speaking his mind Saturday, calling Malkin “an emotional type of guy like that”. “The third period, I thought we played well, but a little too late”. What type of response? Center’s Matt Cullen, Nick Bonino, winger Daniel Sprong and defenseman Rob Scuderi all missed practice on Monday.

“The expectations are high, but a lot of teams would love to be in our position and still feel like we can do better”, Crosby said. “We should be fine with the players we have”. Johnston indicated he’s been close, and it is important that he gets a few game action at a few point. He scored twice in the period and finished the night with four points, a factor on every Pittsburgh goal.

Sergei Bobrovsky made 19 saves for his seventh win, with only a Kevin Shattenkirk shot beating him. Their home record in that situation moves to a sparkling 21-0-1.

Wheeling’s next game is on the road Wednesday against the Florida Everblades. “He was standing on his head out there”, Scuderi said.

“We believe in how good we are”, he said. “It’s pretty much the bottom line”.

Malkin led by example, highlighted by a breathtaking goal midway through the second period in which he dragged the puck through his legs and skated by Minnesota forward Mikael Granlund before ripping a shot to the short side by goalie Devan Dubnyk for a 4-1 lead that Pittsburgh almost frittered away, winning 4-3. It’s bad penalties. Turnovers. Perron flipped it into the open net to give the Penguins a needed jolt.

The Penguins also got goals from David Perron and Beau Bennett.

The Penguins have scored five goals in their past six games at Newark. Rather than push through it, we sort of gave in to the game a little bit at times. “We need better effort, better intensity”.