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Fleury, Christensen lead Penguins in shootout

Jan 27, 2007 - 6:53 AM DALLAS (Ticker) -- The shootout was a mismatch on paper. Fortunately for Erik Christensen and the Pittsburgh Penguins, they weren't buying it.

Christensen scored the lone goal in the shootout and Mark Recchi scored two goals, including his 500th career, as the Penguins posted a 4-3 victory the Dallas Stars.

Marc-Andre Fleury made 32 saves before stopping all three shots in the shootout and rookie Jordan Staal tallied for Pittsburgh, which won for the first time in Dallas since December 15, 1991.

"It was an important game for us to win," Penguins coach Michel Therrien said. "If we want to have a chance in the playoffs, we have to win big games on the road. That's what we talked about before the game. We were resilient. The team we were playing, when they get a lead in the third period, they're really tough to play against."

Dallas entered the shootout a league all-time best 17-2, including 5-1 this season, while Pittsburgh had managed just one triumph in six tries this season.

"We haven't been very successful in shootouts and we know they've been very good," Recchi said. "So it was nice to get this big win tonight, we really needed this."

"It's not so much that we didn't score tonight, it's how often they have scored," Dallas goaltender Marty Turco said. "Our shooters have been great, so you can't really complain the one night when they don't, but the kid at the other end made some big saves. If we could have held on to the lead in the third period, it would have been better, but we can't win all our shootouts."

After Fleury sprawled out over the ice to stop Sergei Zubov's attempt, Christensen beat Turco top shelf over the pad for his fourth goal in six shootout attempts.

Fleury then made a stick save against Jussi Jokinen and stopped Mike Ribeiro with his left pad to improve the Penguins to 4-1-1 in their last six games and end a six-game winless streak in Dallas.

"It's the first time I've stopped all of them. It's about time," Fleury said. "Ribeiro had a good chance but the puck bounced there. That was good for me."

"He made some great saves, not just in the shootout but the whole game," Pittsburgh All-Star center Sidney Crosby said. "That's when you need your goalie to be great and he was."

With 10 seconds left in the contest, Fleury made a stick save on a wicked wrist shot by Antti Miettinen. He finished with 32 saves.

"He battled hard tonight," Recchi said. "He made the saves when he had to. He's really grown into a superb goalie. He has a great work ethic and it's paying off."

After recording his seventh career hat trick last Saturday against Toronto, Recchi toed in his first tally after Crosby weaved through the middle of the Stars defense before feeding him in front of the net for his 16th goal and a 2-1 lead.

Recchi tied the game at 3-3 with 8:01 left in the game after he poked in a feed from the left boards by defenseman Ryan Whitney that deflected off the skate of a defender. He is the 38th player in NHL history to reach 500 goals.

"I was never really supposed to play in this league, and to get to that number, I'm obviously very proud," Recchi said. "I'd like to thank the fans of Dallas. It was a pretty neat feeling what they did (standing ovation) out there. It's pretty impressive. Sidney was talking before the game about how great the people are here in Dallas, and they showed it right there."

"He's kind of the big brother of those younger guys," Therrien said. "It's quite an accomplishment for him. There's not many guys with 500 goals. It was a great reaction from the fans here in Dallas to give him a standing ovation like that. He certainly deserved it."

Zubov, who missed the three previous games with an upper body injury, Jokinen and Patrik Stefan tallied for Dallas, which had a three-game winning streak snapped.

"It was an exciting game all the way around," Dallas coach Dave Tippett said. "We would have liked to get two points out of it, but we'll go back and get to practice tomorrow and get ready for a big road trip."

The Stars open a four-game road trip Sunday at Anaheim.