SUNRISE, Fla. _ One popular topic during this week-long road trip was the power play. And, yes, the Penguins finally scored a goal on one of those Saturday.
But the Penguins were buoyed again here just off the Atlantic coast by their other special-teams unit, which killed three more penalties in a 3-2 win over the Florida Panthers, who have one of the NHL's top power plays, at BB&T Center.
At a pivotal point with 3:51 left in the second period with the Penguins leading by a goal, the Panthers, the better team Saturday, got another power play.
Kris Letang and Teddy Blueger, who both got goals in the win, each got their body in front of a Panthers shot early in the power play. Their four killers then flustered Panthers All-Star forward Jonathan Huberdeau into coughing up the puck.
Brandon Tanev burst in alone on Sergei Bobrovsky and nearly made it 4-2. His shot rang off the left pipe and Blueger couldn't hammer the rebound home.
But the Penguins kept the Panthers under wraps for the rest of that Juuso Riikola penalty, allowing just one shot from 29 feet out that was hardly threatening.
The penalty kill got it done again Saturday. In their previous two games, they went a combined 7 for 7 against the Washington Capitals and the Tampa Bay Lightning _ two teams that also rank in the NHL's top 12 with a man advantage. The Penguins have allowed just two power-play goals in the last eight games.
The Panthers had the Penguins on their heels in the game's first five minutes. Tristan Jarry had to make a pair of difficult saves, including a sliding stop to deny Dominic Toninato's one-timer. Then the Panthers got a power play.
The Penguins would kill the penalty and when Letang stepped out of the box, the puck fortunately skipped right to him. The All-Star blue-line busted out of his signature shootout move, freezing Bobrovsky with a flick of the stick then pulled it to his backhand. Letang flipped the puck past the goalie to make it 1-0.
Less than five minutes later, Blueger whacked a loose puck past Bobrovsky after Panthers defenseman MacKenzie Weegar blocked Jack Johnson's shot.
The Panthers scored on a 4-on-2 rush late in the first to pull back within a goal. Mike Hoffman finished it off by snapping a shot past Jarry's blocker.
Sidney Crosby scored on the power play, redirecting a Jared McCann shot past Bobrovsky, early in the second period to restore the two-goal lead. The Penguins had 11 power plays in their previous two games and didn't score on any.
That was Crosby's 10th goal of the season. Pittsburgh now has nine players with a double-digit goal total. That is tied with Nashville for the most in the NHL.
But the Panthers made it 3-2 just 1:09 later with another goal off an odd-man rush. This time it was Brett Connolly who scored, burying a pass from Pittsburgh native Vincent Trocheck as Marcus Pettersson scrambled to get back in the play.
The Penguins, compared to last season, had been much improved at preventing odd-man rushes before the All-Star break. But that has been a major problem in their four games since. Penguins defensemen have been caught flat-footed at the blue line and the forwards haven't as often busted back to bail them out.
The Penguins got that critical penalty kill late in the second then hung on for dear life in the third period. Evgenii Dadonov got a breakaway with a few seconds left but Jarry stood tall, forcing Dadonov to fire just wide of the left post.
The Penguins went 2-1 on their three-game road trip that started with a win in Washington on Super Bowl Sunday. They lost in Tampa Bay on Thursday.
The Penguins avoided a season sweep by the Panthers. That last happened in the lost 2003-04 season that helped them land Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.
The Penguins will get a rematch with the Lightning back in Pittsburgh on Tuesday. That will be the first game of a four-game homestand at PPG Paints Arena.
