The Penguins won their third game in a row, 6-3, over the Dallas Stars today at Mellon Arena.
They have not lost in regulation in their past six games.
The Penguins opened the scoring with a well-executed, rink-long play. Sergei Gonchar, from the end boards, threw a pass to Matt Cooke in front of the Penguins bench. He sent a touch pass to Jordan Staal cutting through the neutral zone. Staal caught up with the puck around the blue line for a breakaway.
With the Stars' Jeff Woywitka sweeping at the puck from behind, Staal slid it under the stick of Dallas goaltender Kari Lehtonen to make it 1-0 at 2:11 of the first period.
Mike Ribeiro tied it, 1-1, for Dallas when he scored on his own rebound at 12:05 of the first period.
The teams combined for five goals in the second period.
Dallas got the first two. Brandon Segal finished off a two-on-one break at 1:29 and Loui Eriksson took a cross-crease pass from Mike Richards and scored from the left corner of the net at 2:28 ??? for a 2-1 lead.
They got the next five goals.
Chris Kunitz scored from above the left dot after a cross-zone pass from Sidney Crosby to pull the Penguins to with 3-2 at 4:01.
Pascal Dupuis tied it, 3-3, at 9:10 from just in front when he tipped in a hard shot from the right boards by Kris Letang.
Crosby put the Penguins in front, 4-3, with the final goal of the second period when he carried the puck behind the net and banked it off of the Stars' Travor Daley at 16:47. Jordan Leopold got an assist, his first in a Penguins uniform after being acquired Monday in a trade with Florida.
Crosby struck again, this time on a two-on-one while shorthanded, at 1:35 of the third period to give the Penguins a 5-3 lead.
The Penguins' other newcomer, Alexei Ponikarovsky, scored at 15:13 of the third period to make it 6-3. He jumped on a rebound of a Gonchar shot and chipped the puck over the right leg of Lehtonen for a power-play goal.
The Penguins (39-22-4) have another afternoon home game tomorrow, against Boston.
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