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Fleury stands tall as Penguins beat Buffalo

Mar 9, 2011 - 5:31 AM Pittsburgh, PA (Sports Network) - Marc-Andre Fleury made 29 stops to help the Pittsburgh Penguins take a 3-1 victory over the Buffalo Sabres at CONSOL Energy Center.

Zbynek Michalek, Mark Letestu and James Neal each had a goal and an assist for the Penguins, who have won their past two games.

Rob Niedermayer scored the lone goal and Ryan Miller was charged with three goals on 31 shots for the Sabres, who had won three of four coming in.

"There's always going to be difficulties in every game," said Niedermayer. "We're not the only desperate team out there and we have to play better down the stretch if we want to get in."

Buffalo got the only goal of the first period when Niedermayer picked up the puck in the neutral zone, skated down the right wing and cut to the front before stuffing it past Fleury at the 2:47 mark.

Just 1:25 into the second, Deryk Engelland fired the disc from a sharp angle at the left side that saw Neal redirect it in for his 22nd goal of the season and first with the Penguins.

"I was just trying to get to the net and Engelland made a nice backhand pass," said Neal. "I got lucky and got a good bounce so it was great to get that goal and get the monkey off my back."

It was a 2-1 game just over three minutes later when a Michalek shot from the right point sailed into the back of the net.

Letestu scored with under seven minutes to play in the game, while Fleury stopped all 15 shots over the final 40 minutes to give the Pens the win.

Game Notes

Pittsburgh has off until Saturday when it will host Montreal...Buffalo plays at Boston on Thursday...Pittsburgh took all four games this season against Buffalo and has won eight of the last nine...Pittsburgh was 0-for-7 on the power play while Buffalo went 0-for-3.