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Malkin leads Crosby-less Penguins to win over Stars

Mar 2, 2009 - 12:27 AM DALLAS (Ticker) -- All-Star Evgeni Malkin is making life without Sidney Crosby look easy for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Without its captain for the third straight game, Malkin recorded a power-play goal and two assists to lead Pittsburgh to its third consecutive win, a 4-1 victory over the Dallas Stars on Sunday.

Jordan Staal, defenseman Kris Letang and Miroslav Satan also scored for the Penguins, who have strung together three straight wins for the first time since November.

"We're playing right now without Sid - an outstanding player - and eventually we will get him back and add to how we're playing," Pittsburgh interim coach Dan Bylsma said. "We still need to get better and better going down the stretch, play 60 minutes and play more consistently."

Loui Eriksson had the lone goal for Dallas, which has lost a season-worst five straight and finished a six-game homestand with a 1-5-0 mark.

"A little rattled," Dallas center Mike Modano said of his team's state of mind.

"February didn't go as well as we hoped, there is still a lot of hockey left. March is a tough month for us. But it's most gratifying when your pushed to the wall."

Nursing a sore groin, Crosby missed out on the scoring spree in the opening two periods as the Penguins scored four goals on their first 13 shots against rookie goaltender Tobias Stephan.

Malkin extended his point-scoring streak to eight games when he assisted on Staal's tally to open the scoring 4:08 into the first. The Russian registered his 63rd assist of the season when Letang doubled the bulge with 3:39 remaining in the opening session.

"You can see at times when he (Malkin) grabs the puck and starts to go that he can go," Bylsma said. "He often raises his game to another level and attacks the puck. Everyone's like, 'Here he goes.'"

The Penguins, who appear to have started a playoff push without Crosby, moved past Buffalo and Carolina into eighth place in the Eastern Conference standings.

Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 20 shots and won for the fifth time in his last six starts and the Penguins took advantage of a rare day off for Marty Turco.

"Guys are playing well, chipping in more," Fleury said. "We had a good win in Chicago and another one today. We need to do it as a team. We have to keep improving if we want to make the playoffs. We had such a tough time and a battle to get back in contention."

Stephan made 19 saves as Turco had his franchise-best streak of 32 consecutive starts snapped in the second of back-to-back games.

"Three of those goals were funky bounces," Dallas defenseman Darryl Sydor said. "He made some huge saves in the third period but we couldn't get anything going."

After Satan gave Pittsburgh a 3-0 lead 8:18 into the second, Malkin picked up a loose puck on the power play and fired a shot from between the faceoff circles past Stephan for a four-goal advantage.