Pittsburgh, PA (SportsNetwork.com) - Evgeni Malkin scored in the third round of the shootout and the Pittsburgh Penguins continued their hot start with a 4-3 victory over the Vancouver Canucks.
Sidney Crosby and Chris Kunitz each had a goal and two assists for the Penguins, who have won four in a row to improve to 7-1-0 on the young season. Olli Maatta also lit the lamp, recording his first NHL goal.
Marc-Andre Fleury kept his perfect record intact by stopping 36-of-39 shots.
"Today wasn't our best game, but [Fleury] shut the door when we needed him to and we found some ways to get back in the game and get a big goal from [Malkin] in the shootout," Crosby said.
Zack Kassian, Brad Richardson and Alexander Edler scored for the Canucks, who had a brief two-game winning streak snapped. Roberto Luongo turned aside 25- of-28 shots.
"For half the game, I thought we played great," Canucks captain Henrik Sedin said. "The second half, I thought we gave up a little too many scoring chances. They came out on 3-on-2s, 2-on-1s a few times and [Luongo] made some big saves for us.
"But for half the game we were all over them."
The Canucks drew first blood at the 13:49 mark of the first period on a goal whose memory the host netminder will want to erase. Edler, in his first game back from serving a suspension, shot from center ice and the puck bounced off Fleury's chest before crossing the goal line.
Less than two minutes later, Crosby put home his own rebound to tie the game. Pascal Dupuis' shot from the top of the left circle resulted in a rebound for Crosby, who scored on his second try.
Kunitz's power-play goal at the 7:56 mark of the middle stanza gave Pittsburgh a 2-1 lead. Malkin controlled the puck behind the net before finding the two- time Cup winner in front.
The back-and-forth battle continued when Richardson lit the lamp at the 12:44 mark. He received a pass from Dale Weise and beat a sprawling Fleury, making it a 2-2 contest.
The Canucks went back in front when Kassian tipped in Kevin Bieksa's shot at the 12:50 mark of the third stanza.
Just 22 seconds later, Maatta found the back of the net to make it 3-3. The rookie Finn put home a rebound off Kunitz's shot from the left circle for the milestone marker.
The home team had a great chance to break the tie when Canucks defenseman Chris Tanev tripped up Brandon Sutter on a breakaway with 1:24 left. However, Sutter failed to beat Luongo on the ensuing penalty shot.
Game Notes
Crosby's goal in the first period extended his point streak to eight games, extending his career-long streak to start a season ... Vancouver is back in action Sunday at Columbus, while Pittsburgh hosts Colorado on Monday.
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