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Conklin, Malkin help Penguins beat Rangers

Jan 15, 2008 - 4:52 AM PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- It's been quite a month for Ty Conklin.

Conklin made a career-high 43 saves and Evgeni Malkin notched his second career hat trick to lead the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 4-1 triumph over the New York Rangers on Monday night.

Conklin is now 6-0-0 on home ice and has made 33-plus saves in six of his last seven games.

"Every win's important but certainly those divisional games are the most important ones," Conklin said. "You have to look at them as four-point games now."

Defenseman Sergei Gonchar added a goal and set up another and captain Sidney Crosby had two assists for the Penguins, who are 9-0-1 over their last 10 contests, moving into a tie with the New Jersey Devils atop the Atlantic Division with 55 points.

Crosby is now tied with Tampa Bay Lightning center Vincent Lecavalier for the league lead in points with 63.

Since being recalled on December 7, 2007, after starting goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury suffered an ankle injury, Conklin has been nothing short of excellent for Pittsburgh.

The 31-year-old Conklin won his first nine starts before suffering his first defeat, a 3-2 shootout loss to the Atlanta Thrashers on Saturday.

Conklin bounced back nicely, turning aside 14 shots in the first period, 17 more in next and 12 in the third.

"It's been the same story," Crosby said. "It's like a broken record. He's been so consistent and made some key saves, some big ones when we needed him to and gave us a chance to chip away."

Malkin supplied Conklin with all the offense he would need in the opening session.

The Penguins started the scoring at the 3:31 mark when the reigning Calder Trophy recipient scored on the power play.

Malkin darted out of the corner and skated untouched towards the net where he took a hard wrist shot that beat Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist to give the Penguins an early 1-0 lead.

"The first penalty kill put us right on our heels right away," Rangers coach Tom Renney said.

Pittsburgh would strike again just over three minutes later when Crosby took a long lead pass from defenseman Rob Scuderi, split the New York defense and threw a wrist shot on net that trickled behind Lundqvist. Malkin pounced on the rebound and put the puck into the wide-open net at 6:33.

Malkin would pick up his second hat trick of the month when he sent shot from center ice into the empty net with 24 seconds left in the contest. The 21-year-old Russian also scored three goals against the Toronto Maple Leafs on January 3.

"I don't think about hat tricks; I just try to work hard every game," Malkin said. "It was thanks to Crosby; he gave me two great passes, and the third goal was just an empty-netter."

Lundqvist stopped 19 of the 22 shots he faced for New York, which has lost six of its last seven games.

The Penguins took a 3-0 lead into the first intermission after Gonchar scored on a man advantage with 3:22 left in the period.

"I never picked it up until it was too late," Lundqvist said of Gonchar's tally.

Rangers captain Jaromir Jagr would end Conklin's bid for his third shutout of the campaign when he grabbed his own rebound and fired a shot past the Penguins netminder at 9:16 of the third period.

Jagr felt the Rangers should have taken a different approach against his former team.

"We've got to play them differently, they're too young, too quick," he said.