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Dupuis, Penguins edge struggling Maple Leafs

Mar 8, 2012 - 5:33 AM Pittsburgh, PA (Sports Network) - Pascal Dupuis recorded his second three- point game of the season with two goals and an assist as the Pittsburgh Penguins edged the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-2, at CONSOL Energy Center.

Jordan Staal tallied the other goal for the Penguins, while Brad Thiessen made 22 saves for Pittsburgh, which won for the seventh straight time to improve to 19-4-1 over its last 24 contests.

Phil Kessel and Carl Gunnarsson lit the lamp for the Maple Leafs, losers in 12 of their last 14 games. Jonas Gustavsson stopped 31-of-33 shots for Toronto, which revealed earlier on Wednesday that forward Joffrey Lupul will miss 3- to-4 weeks with a separated shoulder.

Lupul has 25 goals and a team-high 42 assists through 66 games this season.

"I thought that we were better from a defensive standpoint in the critical areas tonight," Maple Leafs head coach Randy Carlyle said. "I thought that our work ethic was stronger but we ran out of bodies."

Pittsburgh trailed 2-1 entering the third period but was able to tie the game just 1:34 into the final stanza when Brooks Orpik sent a puck towards the net from the top of the left circle that was redirected into the top-right corner by Staal.

Then, at the 4:10 mark of the third period, Dupuis grabbed a pass inside the right circle and skated towards the net before backhanding a shot that snuck through the pads of Gustavsson.

Thiessen shut the door from there, stopping all 11 shots he faced in the period to hang on for the win.

"We feel like we can come back in every game and we proved it again tonight with a big third (period)," said Dupuis.

Toronto recorded just three shots in a scoreless first period but notched the game's first goal just a minute into the second frame when Jake Gardiner grabbed a big rebound off a Tyler Bozak slap shot and fed a pass to Kessel on the left side of the net, where he shot it into the open cage.

The Maple Leaf added to their lead at the 7:36 mark of the middle stanza when Mikhail Grabovski, using his defender as a screen, fired a hard wrister from the slot that was redirected into the top-left corner by Gunnarsson.

But the Penguins answered when Dupuis got his stick on a Matt Niskanen wrist shot from the left point and redirected it through the short side with 10:35 left in the second period to make it a 2-1 game after two.

Game Notes

Penguins forward James Neal played in his 300th career game...Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin had his eight-game point streak snapped. He had six goals and six assists in the streak...Toronto went 0-for-4 on the power play, while Pittsburgh was also 0-for-4 with the man advantage.