Fleury of Wins Continue Against Lightning

The Pittsburgh Penguins improved their record to 7-1-0 on Saturday night as they beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-1 at Mellon Arena. The early season success of the Penguins has been bolstered by the excellent play of Marc-Andre Fleury, who remains unbeaten at 7-0 in what is his career best start to date. Fleury’s league leading 7 wins, 0.922 save percentage and 2.09 Goals Against Average have been vital to the Penguins’ early flurry of wins. They are tied in points (14) for the League and Eastern Conference lead with the red hot New York Rangers. It isn’t just Fleury, however, as the Penguins’ defense has looked magnificent and the offense is getting contributions from across the roster. Everything seems to be clicking right now for the Penguins who are showing no signs of a Stanley Cup hangover.

On Saturday night, the Penguins got goals from Sergei Gonchar, Mike Rupp, Pascal Dupuis, and Bill Guerin. Sidney Crosby had 2 assists, and Malkin contributed with an assist. Newcomer Jay McKee continued his role on the Penguins’ defense with a game-leading 7 blocked shots, while Brooks Orpik dished out the most candy with 4-hits. Alex Goligoski kept up his torrid pace with another assist, his 5th assist and 6th point in 8-games; he leads the team with a +8 rating. The one area the Penguins didn’t fare so well on Saturday night was the faceoff circle where they only managed to win 41% of their faceoffs. The Penguins powerplay continued to be somewhat anemic as they went 1 for 7 on the powerplay.

The Penguins get a few nights off before returning to the ice on Wednesday night against the St Louis Blues, the 2nd of their 5-game homestand at Mellon Arena. The game will be televised on Versus, so unless a miracle happens between now and Wednesday night, DirecTV fans will once again be left out in the cold. If you are affected by the DirecTV/Versus issue, plase feel free to sign the petition to DirecTV.

Close Bookmark and Share This Page

Save to Browser Favorites / Bookmarks