Now, it’s Crosby’s turn to return the favor.

Crosby had two goals and an assist to lead Pittsburgh past the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-3 on Sunday night in the Penguins’ first game since reigning MVP Malkin was injured.

“They’re a dangerous team, so we wanted to make sure we played in their end as much as we could,” Crosby said. “They don’t need much room in order to create chances.”

Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said Malkin was diagnosed with a concussion after slamming back-first into the end boards during Friday night’s win over Florida.

Bylsma said Malkin, whose head snapped back when he hit the boards, initially suffered short-term memory loss, but he is improving. Still, Malkin will not join the team when it begins a three-game road swing Tuesday.

“He’s feeling fine and his memory is returning,” Bylsma said.

James Neal, Malkin’s regular linemate, played alongside Crosby and Chris Kunitz against the Lightning. Neal is tied for second in the league in goals.

Beau Bennett scored his first career goal on the power play to help Pittsburgh take over sole possession of first place in the Atlantic Division. Matt Cooke and defenseman Paul Martin each had a goal and an assist for the Penguins, who have won five of six to tie Montreal for the top spot in the Eastern Conference.

Steven Stamkos had a three-point night for Tampa Bay, with his 13th goal and two assists. Stamkos and John Tavares of the New York Islanders are tied for the NHL lead in goals.

Cory Conacher, the NHL’s leading scorer among rookies, and defenseman Eric Brewer also scored for the Lightning, who are tied with Carolina for first place in the Southeast Division.

Stamkos, with 29 points, is one ahead of Crosby for the NHL scoring lead.

“You can’t give a team like that a three-goal lead in the first,” Stamkos said. “We made a game of it, we did a lot of positive things, but we’re shooting ourselves in the foot.”

Marc-Andre Fleury, tied for first in the league with 10 wins, won his fifth straight game.

Anders Lindback started in goal for the Lightning and allowed three first-period goals on 10 shots before he was replaced at the start of the second by Mathieu Garon.

Tampa Bay, which outshot Pittsburgh 30-22, nearly crawled out of the 3-0 first-period hole with two goals early in the second period. The Lightning scored another in the third after the Penguins’ second-period power-play goal, cutting the deficit to 4-3, but Tampa Bay, which scored four goals in the third period during a 5-2 win one night earlier at Carolina, couldn’t complete the comeback.

“We’re the No. 1 team in the league for comebacks after two periods the last three years and we proved again why,” Lightning coach Guy Boucher said. “It’s just we can’t dig ourselves that big of a hole early, especially in a back-to-back.”

Crosby faced the Lightning for the first time since absorbing a check into the glass from Tampa Bay defenseman Victor Hedman two years ago. It was a hit that contributed to the concussion problems that plagued the Penguins’ captain, forcing him to miss the final 41 games of the that regular season, the Stanley Cup playoffs, and most of last season as symptoms lingered.

Those days appear behind Crosby, who has 21 points in his last 12 games. The Penguins’ captain put his team ahead early with two goals less than 8 minutes into the game.

The first one came just 1:16 in. Crosby took a pass from Kunitz, skated alone down the left side and roofed a short-side wrist shot over Lindback’s shoulder from the faceoff dot.

Crosby’s second goal came 6 minutes later. Lindback had trouble trying to glove Martin’s shot from the point. Crosby got a stick on the puck, which bounced between Lindback’s legs and into the net after the Lightning goalie kicked it in.

Martin scored with 33 seconds left in the first period, tapping the rebound from Cooke’s initial shot into a partially empty net to give the Penguins a 3-0 lead.

The Lightning, after a dismal opening period, needed just 3:14 to score twice in the second.

Brewer got the first one 1:37 into the period on a tip-in from Stamkos, who followed it up by scoring the second — his fifth straight game with a goal — just 20 seconds into a two-man advantage.

Stamkos, with Pittsburgh’s Simon Despres and Craig Adams in the penalty box, wasted little time scoring on the power play, ripping a one-timer from the left side past Fleury to make it 3-2.

“They got right back into it and our three-goal lead evaporated,” Bylsma said. “I like how we stabilized the ship.”

The Penguins regained a two-goal lead, scoring on their own two-man advantage. It was the 11th straight game in which they scored a power-play goal, and the first time in five games Tampa Bay allowed a goal with the man advantage.

Kris Letang rushed to keep the puck in the zone at the blue line, sending a spinning pass to Crosby, who set up Bennett’s first NHL goal, a one-timer past Garon.

“Beau was in a good spot there,” Crosby said. “He’s a pretty gifted player, he has a lot of talent and he found the open lane.”

Conacher scored 3:15 into the third period, one-touching Hedman’s pass past Fleury to make it 4-3. But the Lightning, whose 32 third-period goals rank No. 1 in the NHL, couldn’t forge a tie despite Hedman’s near miss in the final minute.

“They’re a good team that has great offense and it’s going to bite you if you give them the puck, and that’s what happened tonight,” Boucher said.

Game notes

Crosby moved into third all-time in team history with 637 points, behind Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr. … Cooke got his 200th career assist on Martin’s goal. … Both teams play again Tuesday. Tampa Bay returns home to host Buffalo, while Pittsburgh opens a three-game road trip at Florida. In an odd scheduling quirk, the Penguins’ next home game is March 4 against Tampa Bay.

The post Sidney Crosby lifts Penguins in 1st game since Evgeni Malkin injury appeared first on IdealCapper.

Given the way he’s playing, the backup is making a strong case for even more playing time.

Fasth stopped 31 shots for his first NHL shutout, and Francois Beauchemin scored in his 500th career game, lifting the surging Anaheim Ducks to a 3-0 win over the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday night.

In just a short time — four starts, to be exact — Fasth has earned the trust of his teammates and his coach.

“He’s giving me confidence that I never knew I’d have in him when he came over,” said Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau, whose team won its fourth straight game. “It’s a great, pleasant surprise that Viktor has come over and played so well.”

Fasth, 30, certainly has been quite a find for the Ducks since he signed as a free agent during the offseason. According to the Ducks, Fasth is the first goaltender in NHL history over the age of 30 to win his first four games.

Fasth stymied the struggling Avalanche with one sprawling save after another to help Anaheim start a six-game road swing on a good note.

“Vik’s really on the puck, making it easy on us,” Beauchemin said. “If it wasn’t for him, there was no way we would’ve won that game.”

The Avalanche players were in a sour mood after the game, as they were shut out for a third time this season. That especially didn’t sit too well with Matt Duchene.

“We’ve got to find a way to score, bottom line,” Duchene said. “We’ve been shut out three times in 10 games; it’s unacceptable. It’s almost 50 percent of the games we’re getting shut out. It’s a joke.”

No one is laughing about Fasth’s fast start. In his first four NHL appearances, he’s stopped 101 of 105 shots. But the ever-humble Fasth shrugged off his recent play, even his first shutout.

“It’s nothing you go and think about. You just try to do your best and help the team out as much as you can,” Fasth said. “I’m really glad I had (the shutout). It’s a little bonus. Most important thing is we got the win and started off this road trip really good.”

The competition between Fasth and starter Jonas Hiller is heating up. Not that Boudreau views it quite that way.

“Hilly will be playing very soon,” Boudreau said. “He will be doing the same thing, I hope.”

Fasth’s best save against Colorado was when Milan Hejduk skated in late in the final period and lined a shot that Fasth gobbled up with his chest.

That was the type of night it was for Fasth, who was the Swedish Elite League’s goaltender of the year the previous two seasons.

“Tonight, he stole us a victory,” Boudreau said.

Sheldon Souray and Saku Koivu each added a goal and an assist for the Ducks.

Kyle Palmieri nearly added a goal early in the third period on a 2-on-1 breakaway, but Semyon Varlamov slid over, stuck out of his glove and trapped the puck against the post. The referees took a quick look on replay before upholding the ruling of no goal.

Beauchemin all but wrapped up this game with a goal in the second period that gave the Ducks a commanding 3-0 lead. The play was set up by Koivu, who took a bone-jarring hit along the boards to send the puck into the offensive zone, where Daniel Winnik corralled the puck and sent it over to Beauchemin for his second goal of the season.

The Avalanche had David Jones back in the lineup after he missed the previous two games with a knee injury. But it didn’t ignite the offense as Colorado lost for a second straight time at home.

Boudreau had a chance to catch up with Varlamov, his former goalie, in a Pepsi Center hallway at the morning skate. The two were together while with Washington.

Asked the biggest difference between Varlamov then and now, Boudreau said, “He’s way more consistent. From when I watch, there are no soft goals.”

And then Varlamov proceeded to surrender two soft ones in the first period. He let a liner from Souray near the blue line slip between his pads.

Later, Varlamov failed to bat away a pass through the goal crease, allowing Koivu to tap it in with the Ducks on a 5-on-3 advantage. It was the first goal the Avs allowed in 21 power-play chances at Pepsi Center this season.

“If you look at the overall game, they didn’t outplay us,” Colorado coach Joe Sacco said. “At the end it got a little helter-skelter. We had some chance, we didn’t score. We’ve got to stick with it and keep grinding it out.”

Game notes

Avs captain Gabriel Landeskog (head and leg) missed a sixth straight game. … The injury-riddled Avalanche claimed F Aaron Palushaj off waivers from Montreal. He didn’t play Wednesday. … Ducks D Toni Lydman (flu) was a scratch. The team recalled D Jordan Hendry from Norfolk.

The post Viktor Fasth gets first NHL shutout as Ducks rout Avalanche appeared first on IdealCapper.

Pittsburgh at Winnipeg
When: 8:00 PM ET, Friday, January 25, 2013
Where: MTS Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba
TV: 8 p.m., ROOT (Pittsburgh), TSN (Winnipeg)
Prediction: Penguins 4, Jets 1

Pittsburgh has a good chance to return to its winning ways if recent history holds true. The Penguins have won three straight and 15 of 16 against the Jets’ franchise. Evander Kane and Blake Wheeler collected a goal and an assist apiece in Winnipeg’s 4-2 triumph over Southeast Division foe Washington on Wednesday.

Malkin, who has secured points in all three games this season, has tormented the Jets by registering five-point performances in each of the last two meetings. James Neal led all scorers with five goals in the season series – including a hat trick in Pittsburgh’s 8-4 victory on March 20, 2012. The eight-goal effort was the second straight in the set by the Penguins, who won three of four against Winnipeg.

While the MTS Centre was pretty much a safe haven for Winnipeg last season, coach Claude Noel’s club lost its final four home tilts in the 2011-12 campaign before suffering a 4-1 loss to Ottawa in Manitoba on Saturday. The Jets collected three points (1-0-1) on their two-game road swing – and doubled their previous scoring output by erupting for four goals versus the Capitals. Ondrej Pavelec boasts a spectacular .929 save percentage this season, but – like his team – has struggled versus the Penguins.

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