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Penguins squander early lead, win shootout

Dec 21, 2007 - 5:12 AM By Brian Levine PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

BOSTON (Ticker) - After getting shut out in their last game, the Pittsburgh Penguins had little trouble making amends early. It was their performance late that almost sent them to another disappointment.

Erik Christensen and defenseman Kris Letang scored in the first two rounds of the shootout, and Ty Conklin made both saves to propel the Penguins to a 5-4 victory over the Boston Bruins on Thursday.

Evgeni Malkin opened the scoring just 55 seconds into the game.

Sidney Crosby collected a loose puck near the right boards and made a quick cross pass to Malkin, who made a move on goaltender Tim Thomas to give Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead.

The Penguins went ahead 2-0 when Colby Armstrong rushed in along the right boards and made a nifty pass to Crosby, who deflected the puck from a tough angle to beat Thomas for his 16th goal of the season.

"It is hard to win in this league and we can not make this mistake ever again; it is too hard to earn wins and you have to take two points," Crosby said.

Malkin scored again three minutes later when he accepted a feed from Crosby, skated to the high slot and wristed a shot past Thomas.

Crosby, who figured in on all three goals, now has 15 points in just eight games against Boston.

Pittsburgh built a 4-0 lead when Christensen tipped in a shot by Ryan Whitney at 11:26 of the second period.

"It is not easy any night and they smelled blood in the barn," Armstrong said. "The fans started to get behind them and they came after us - and it made it harder on us."

From that point on, it was the Bruins' offense that could not be stopped.

"We were heading toward embarrassment there for a while but, at the same time, you have to give those guys credit for bouncing back and getting at least a point," Bruins coach Claude Julien said.

Andrew Ference put a shot toward the net through a group of players that Marco Sturm tipped past Conklin for his 11th goal of the season.

The Penguins lead was cut in half at 4-2 when P.J. Axelsson scored a shorthanded goal with 2:22 left in the second period.

Petteri Nokelainen and Dennis Wideman scored four minutes apart in the third period to tie the game at 4-4.

"I am starting to get some opportunities on the power play - and to get points and stuff like that but I am just shooting it at the net," Wideman said.

"He keeps getting better and is getting more ice time," Julien said of Wideman. "But we still know that we can still make him even a better player and he is willing to work on those parts of it, which is why you see some improvement. He is getting better all the time and that goal was definitely a big one for us tonight."

Conklin, who made his first start since being called up on December 6, made 37 saves.

"I don't think I could have asked for a better start as far as the type of shots and getting in the game early," Conklin said.

Thomas had 25 saves for Pittsburgh.