The Pittsburgh Penguins will try to bounce back from their
first road loss of the season when they visit the San Jose Sharks for
tonight's battle between first-place teams at HP Pavilion.
The Penguins started out with wins in their first seven road games this year,
but were dealt a 5-2 setback Thursday in Los Angeles. The seven straight road
victories tied a club record from the 1992-93 season.
Pittsburgh, which leads the Atlantic Division with 24 points, has lost two of
its last three games and has been playing without last year's Art Ross Trophy
winner Evgeni Malkin as well as top defenseman Sergei Gonchar. Malkin suffered
a strained right shoulder on October 28 and is expected to be back later this
month, while Gonchar could be out until early December.
Anze Kopitar scored two goals to lead the Kings to the easy win over the
Penguins at the Staples Center. Jordan Staal and Chris Kunitz scored for the
Penguins, while Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 27 of the 32 shots he faced in
defeat.
"I think we would have liked to have been a little better. We didn't play
great and sometimes you get away with that. It's a good lesson for us," said
Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby. "We have gotten away with bad periods in the
past but tonight we didn't."
Crosby has gone three straight games without a point and has registered just
six total shots on goal over that span.
The Penguins will return to the East Coast to wrap up their four-game road
trip, as they are scheduled to visit Boston on Tuesday.
The Sharks had a streak of their own snapped their last time out, as they
dropped a shootout decision in Detroit to halt a six-game winning stretch. San
Jose, which leads the Pacific with 24 points, still has just one regulation
loss over its last 10 games (8-1-1).
Henrik Zetterberg tied the game in the third period and added another goal in
the shootout to lift the Red Wings to a 2-1 victory at Joe Louis Arena.
Logan Couture scored his first career goal for the Sharks, while Evgeni
Nabokov finished with 35 saves in defeat.
Couture, San Jose's top pick (ninth overall) in the 2007 draft, has one goal
and one assist in his first six games since making his NHL debut on October 25
against Philadelphia.
"Yeah, it's definitely one I'll remember for the rest of my life," Couture
said about his first NHL goal. "It's too bad it didn't come in a win."
Sharks winger Devin Setoguchi has missed the last six games with a leg injury
and is questionable for tonight's game. Setoguchi was off to a fast start to
the season, posting seven goals and two helpers in 11 games.
In other injury news, San Jose captain Rob Blake missed Thursday's game with
an upper-body injury and has been placed on injured reserve. The veteran
defenseman has one goal and five assists on the season.
Tonight's test marks the first of three straight home games for the Sharks,
who are 4-0-1 as the host this year. San Jose will also welcome Nashville and
Dallas before completing the residency.
The Penguins and Sharks split two meetings last year with each club winning on
its home ice. San Jose has taken five of six overall in the series and
Pittsburgh is winless (0-7 with a tie) in its last eight trips to the Shark
Tank.
©2009 Sports Network. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
