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Penguins win seventh straight, edge Panthers in shootout

Mar 11, 2009 - 4:45 AM PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- Defenseman Kris Letang and All-Star Evgeni Malkin scored in the shootout to lift the Pittsburgh Penguins to their seventh consecutive victory, a 4-3 triumph over the Florida Panthers on Tuesday.

Marc-Andre Fleury, who made 18 saves in regulation and overtime, stopped Richard Zednik and Stephen Weiss in the bonus format as the Penguins extended their longest winning streak of the season.

Letang opened the shootout by deking to the forehand and lifting a wrist shot past Tomas Vokoun, who turned aside 47 shots before the bonus format.

"I'm pretty tired," Vokoun said. "But obviously, you have to give them credit. They made it tough for me. They got a lot of screens and you have to fight to see the puck."

Malkin sealed the win in third round, fooling Vokoun with a sensational move and depositing the puck into the nearly vacant net.

"I did something different because I did not score last time," Malkin said. "I practiced my move a couple times, and it worked good tonight."

"Sometimes in practice, the skill guys try different moves and try to be overly fancy and try to do different things," Pittsburgh interim coach Dan Bylsma said. "I asked Geno (Malkin) in Washington if he wanted to go and he said yes, and he didn't get to go. So he got to go tonight, and it turned out pretty good."

Captain Sidney Crosby scored a goal and set up another and Malkin and Jordan Staal also tallied in regulation for Pittsburgh (36-26-6), which climbed into sixth place in the Eastern Conference.

"I thought we deserved a better fate than having to go to overtime," Crosby said. "But we kept going and made sure we played a full 60 minutes, and we came out strong in the third and tied it up."

Kamil Kreps and defensemen Nick Boynton and Keith Ballard scored in the second period for the Panthers (34-24-9), who squandered a two-goal lead in the final session and fell one point behind the Penguins.

"There are some pretty good players over there," Florida coach Peter DeBoer said. "You tell me a team that can shut down those guys, well that's a pretty good team. They were on."