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Penguins hold off Ducks, win 7th straight on road

Nov 4, 2009 - 6:37 AM By GREG BEACHAM AP Sports Writer

ANAHEIM, Calif.(AP) -- Marc-Andre Fleury flopped around his crease, awkwardly stacked his pads and even got lucky when a couple of pucks hit him before he saw them. Sidney Crosby helped out by diving desperately into the net to block another shot during that frantic stretch of the final minutes.

Although the defending champion Penguins aren't exactly winning gracefully, they're still flawless outside of Pittsburgh.

Pascal Dupuis scored the go-ahead goal with 10:47 to play, and the Penguins tied an NHL record with their seventh straight road victory to open the season, 4-3 over the last-place Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday night.

"The way we've gotten them hasn't been perfect," Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma said. "But we battle and block shots, and our goalie makes a big save. It hasn't been as pretty as some might like, but we keep working hard."

Michael Rupp, Kris Letang and Alex Goligoski also scored for the Penguins, who won in California for just the second time since January 1999 with two goals in the third period.

Marc-Andre Fleury made 26 saves for the Penguins, who matched the seven season-opening road victories of the 1940 Toronto Maple Leafs, the 1985 Philadelphia Flyers and the 2005 Detroit Red Wings. New Jersey also is 7-0 on the road so far this season.

Pittsburgh was winless in 14 of its last 15 games in California, but the champs have a momentum that not even the Golden State could crack. After winning 12 of their first 15 games this season, the Penguins visit Los Angeles on Thursday and San Jose on Saturday.

And Pittsburgh is even doing it all without injured star Evgeni Malkin and regulars Sergei Gonchar and Max Talbot.

"We're just trying to do our best, and we're adjusting to new things," Crosby said. "I think that it's difficult when you lose two guys (Malkin and Gonchar) like we've lost. We've just got to adjust and find ways to be successful."

Corey Perry scored two goals for the Ducks, who have lost six of seven. The Ducks' slow start has left them with a conference-worst four victories, but it hasn't affected the talented young forward, who scored his 100th career goal while extending his six-game scoring streak and a career-best four-game goal streak.

"It was very frustrating for the last four minutes," Perry said. "We had some great chances, but Fleury played well and stood on his head a couple of times. We're working hard, and if we keep playing the way we played tonight, we're going to get bounces and create chances for ourselves. Everybody in here is trying their hardest."

Jonas Hiller stopped 23 shots and Saku Koivu scored his first goal since Oct. 6 for Anaheim, but Pittsburgh opened its four-game West Coast road trip by causing constant traffic in front of the Ducks' net.

Perhaps that's because the Ducks also played without defenseman James Wisniewski, who sat out the first game of a two-game suspension for a high hit on Phoenix captain Shane Doan last weekend. Wisniewski has averaged nearly 25 1/2 minutes per game for Anaheim this season.

"You don't win the Stanley Cup if you're not deep in talent," Koivu said. "They have some injuries, but they still have a lot of guys that can play the game and they play well as a team. They wait for mistakes. Tonight, it looked like we didn't even make mistakes, and they capitalized on a couple of shots from the point. That's the sign of a good team."

Letang's first goal of the season put the Penguins ahead 2-1 during a delayed penalty on the Ducks, but Perry tied it six minutes later in the second period when two defenders couldn't stop him from slamming a rebound underneath Fleury.

Goligoski's fourth goal in five games evolved after a prolonged sequence in which the Ducks twice missed easy opportunities to clear the puck from their zone, but Koivu answered 19 seconds later while sliding out from behind Fleury's net.

Just 59 seconds after that, Dupuis scored on another long shot through traffic, giving him goals in two straight games after getting just one in the Penguins' first 13 games.

"Everybody's working hard in front of the net," Hiller said. "I'll have to look at it again and see who was screening me, if it was their guy or our guy. I lost (the fourth goal) on its way. I have to do a better job of finding the puck."

NOTES: The Honda Center crowd gave a warm ovation to Chris Kunitz, a member of the Ducks' Stanley Cup-winning team in 2007. Kunitz was traded to Pittsburgh in February for defenseman Ryan Whitney. ... Bylsma also played four seasons with the Ducks. ... Anaheim RW Bobby Ryan played in his 100th NHL game.