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Fleury, fired-up Penguins blank Rangers

Jan 18, 2009 - 9:44 PM PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- Perhaps it was the "terrible towels."

Marc-Andre Fleury recorded 33 saves Sunday for his second shutout of the season, leading the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 3-0 victory over the New York Rangers.

Spurred on by fans waving "terrible towels" in honor of the Pittsburgh Steelers, who host the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC championship later Sunday, the struggling Penguins dominated with their best effort in weeks.

"It was a good atmosphere," said Penguins captain Sidney Crosby, who returned to the lineup after missing a game with a knee injury. "It always is here, but it (was) a big game and everyone might be a little excited with what's to come later on today, too. Everyone was ready for (the game), that's for sure."

Fleury, the game's No. 1 star, skated onto the ice following the game waving a "terrible towel" and wearing a yellow Steelers helmet.

When asked of his towel-waving skills, Fleury said, "I've got to work on it. I had the blocker on, though, so it was kind of stuck in there."

The victory gave the Penguins consecutive wins for the first time since a season-high, six-game winning streak from November 1-15.

"If you want to win in this league, you need good goaltending," Penguins coach Michel Therrien said. "(Fleury) did a great job again today."

The Penguins also beat the Rangers for the first time in four meetings this season. However, Pittsburgh maintained its home mastery of New York, improving to 11-0-2 in its last 13 contests against the Rangers here.

New York appeared a step slow in the finale of its five-game road trip, but still finished with seven of a possible 10 points (3-1-1) on its longest trip of the season.

"We never gave ourselves the chance to engage in the game," Rangers coach Tom Renney said. "We had a good game plan going in. We knew what we had to do, (but) we needed to execute and commit to it."

Coming off Friday's 3-1 win over Anaheim, the Penguins were sharp virtually from the opening faceoff.

Chris Minard, recently recalled from the American Hockey League, scored his first goal of the season 7:35 into the contest and Tyler Kennedy recorded his eighth just under eight minutes later.

Stationed in the slot, Minard took a centering pass from Petr Sykora and snapped a one-timer past New York netminder Henrik Lundqvist.

"It did feel like it was slow motion," Minard said. "It was a good play by (Sykora) and I was there, so it was nice. That's normally (the area) where I score."

Lundqvist stopped Crosby on a penalty shot early in the second, but it failed to slow the Penguins' momentum.

Pittsburgh's struggling power play finally cashed in, as Sykora registered his 17th on a breakaway to give the Penguins a 3-0 cushion 7:32 into the middle period.

The Penguins entered the contest just 4-for-55 with the man advantage over their previous 13 games.

The loss snapped a three-game winning streak for the Rangers, who were coming off Friday's 3-2 overtime victory in Chicago.

"I think it was a disappointing game, no doubt about that," New York left wing Markus Naslund. "But I think we have things moving in the right direction and are playing better as of late."