Hornqvist's 2 Goals Help Penguins Beat Ducks, 5-2
ANAHEIM (AP) — Patric Hornqvist scored twice in the second period, and the Pittsburgh Penguins also got goals from Evgeni Malkin and Blake Comeau in a 5-2 victory over the league-leading Anaheim Ducks on Friday night.
Thomas Greiss made 27 saves, improving his record to 8-3-3 and helping the Penguins win for the fifth time in six games. They lost, 3-1, at Columbus in the opener of a four-game road trip.
Sidney Crosby scored into an empty net with 10.3 seconds remaining. The Penguins are 6-0 when he and Malkin have goals.
Tomas Fleischmann and Corey Perry scored third-period goals for the Ducks, who had won seven of their previous eight games. Frederik Andersen stopped 16 shots in his first career start against Pittsburgh, and his second start after missing three weeks because of a neck injury.
The game was a homecoming for ex-Ducks Chris Kunitz, Daniel Winnik and Ben Lovejoy, who was traded to Pittsburgh on Monday in exchange for Simon Despres.
The Penguins opened the scoring midway in the second period as rookie Derrick Pouliot carried the puck across the blue line and slid it to Comeau for a 50-foot slap shot that whizzed past Andersen's glove.
Hornqvist made it 2-0, playing the puck off the end boards and banking it in off Andersen from the right of the net. Hornqvist scored again 63 seconds before intermission, redirecting Ian Cole's slap shot from the right point past Andersen just 4 seconds after the Ducks killed off a slashing penalty against Despres. The goal was Hornqvist's 21st this season and 10th in 21 career games against Anaheim.
Malkin made it 4-0 early in the third period with his 28th goal, a short wrist shot that caromed off Andersen and trickled across the goal line.
NOTES: The Ducks and Penguins are 1-2 in NHL regular-season wins since the start of the 2012-13 campaign with 126 and 124, respectively. ... About 6 1/2 minutes in, Andersen went way out of his net to play the puck and shot it off the boards. He had to scramble back to the crease to prevent it from going in. ... The Penguins beat the Ducks 6-4 at Pittsburgh in the season opener for both clubs, with Crosby's two goals offsetting Perry's hat trick. Anaheim won its next seven in a row. ... This was the ninth head-to-head showdown between Crosby and Perry, both of whom have been league MVP and have scored 50 goals in a season. Crosby has six goals and six assists in those games, Perry 10 goals and three assists - and the Penguins own a 7-2 advantage. ... Kunitz played his 400th regular-season game with the Penguins, who acquired him from the Ducks in February 2009. ... Kunitz, who won Stanley Cups with Anaheim in 2007 and Pittsburgh in 2009, has no goals in six career games against the Ducks - the only NHL team he has never scored against.
