Penguins roll past Devils with 5-1 win

Sidney Crosby and Chris Kunitz each had a goal and two assists, and the Pittsburgh Penguins (5-3-0, 10 pts) rolled to a 5-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils (3-1-3, 9 pts) at the Consol Energy Center on Saturday afternoon.

Pascal Dupuis and Evgeni Malkin each had 2 assists and Marc Andre Fleury (3-2-0) made 15 saves to earn his third win of the season. The Penguins for the second straight game, played a strong defensive game in front of their goaltender.

After a scoreless first period, Brandon Sutter (1) scored his first goal of the season at 2:27 of the period and Chris Kunitz put the Penguins up 2-0 mid-way through the second period.

The Penguins struggling power play would come back to haunt them as the Devils got back into the game on an Andy Greene shorthanded goal at 12:23 of the second period to cut the Penguins lead to 2-1.

The Penguins, though, would take the game over in the third period, getting goals from Kris Letang (2), Sidney Crosby (4), and Robert Bortuzzo (1) to take a commanding 5-1 lead before the 10 minute mark of the period. Crosby scored a beautiful goal off the rush and Robert Bortuzzo’s slap shot goal from point at 9:51 of the period was the first goal of his career.

Bortuzzo playing in back to back games was a +3 in the win. Defenseman Simon Despres was also a +3, while Sidney Crosby and Chris Kunitz were a team-high +4.

The Penguins scratched Dustin Jeffrey, Ben Lovejoy and Eric Tangradi. Zach Boychuk made his Penguins debut and was pointless with 1 shot on goal and 3 hits in 12:00 of ice time.

The Penguins move into first place in the Atlantic division and next play tomorrow afternoon vs Washington.