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Crosby powers Penguins past Hurricanes

Jan 3, 2007 - 6:26 AM PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- Sidney Crosby was tired of losing to the defending Stanley Cup champions, so he decided to do something about it.

Crosby scored two goals and added an assist as the Pittsburgh Penguins posted a 3-0 shutout of the Carolina Hurricanes.

Defenseman Ryan Whitney scored his sixth goal of the season and Mark Recchi added two assists for Pittsburgh, which snapped a three-game losing streak to Carolina.

Marc-Andre Fleury made 31 saves for the shutout.

Crosby, who had been held without a point in his last two games vs. the Hurricanes, scored 5:36 into the game when, off a Carolina turnover, the NHL's leading scorer took a pass from Recchi, skated in and wristed a shot between the pads of goaltender Cam Ward for his 18th goal of the season.

Just 23 seconds into the second period with a man advantage, Recchi received a pass from Crosby and fired a shot toward the Carolina that deflected off the left foot of Whitney and into the Hurricanes net to put Pittsburgh up by two.

"Recchi made a great pass to me," Whitney said. "He saw I was kind of open. Luckily it kind of hit my skate and redirected in."

"We did all the necessary things you need to do to win a hockey game," Recchi said. "When we needed a big save, we got it. When we needed a penalty kill, we got it. When we needed a big goal, we got it on the power play."

Crosby added a highlight tally with 11:19 remaining in the third session. He skated up the ice and stepped through two defenders on his way to the Hurricanes net.

The 19-year-old superstar attempted a pass that was deflected back to him by Hurricanes defenseman Mike Commodore and he quickly flipped the puck past Ward for his 61st point of the season and a 3-0 advantage.

"I'd say it was one of the best games we've played," Crosby said. "It was complete. We didn't have any lapses. We had a couple bad shifts, and the next line went out there and made sure we didn't lose momentum. The PK made some huge kills, Fleury was solid, the D was solid and we got a power play goal at the right time."

"We had opportunities and we didn't execute them on the power play, and they get a power-play goal," Hurricanes defenseman Glen Wesley said. "Their second goal goes off a skate, and the third one goes of our defenseman and right back on Crosby's stick. Those are the bounces right now, and we've got to work harder for our opportunities and execute better. We're not going to get results until we do that."

Fleury made 10 saves in the final period to post his second shutout of the season and fourth of his career.

"I've just tried to concentrate these past couple games, and not take time to look too far ahead," Fleury said. "If we keep playing well, we'll move up in the standings."

"Fleury was really sharp and solid, and he's playing with confidence right now," Penguins coach Michel Therrien added. "It's good for our team. You need your goalie to be on top of his game and right now he's playing really well."

Ward, who stopped 34 shots, has made 116 saves in his last three games, two of which have been losses.

"Thirty-seven shots isn't necessarily a bad day," Ward said "It's the number of quality opportunities that we're giving up. Tonight, we just maybe weren't as tight in the defensive zone as we needed to be, especially against a team that has two of the top young players in the National Hockey League and veteran guys like Recchi."