RALEIGH, N.C. — Frustration was mounting and Sidney Crosby had seen enough.
He scored the go-ahead power play goal in the second period to turn the Penguins from sluggish to outstanding in a 3-1 win over the Hurricanes Tuesday night at PNC Arena Tuesday night.
"He’s our leader," Matt Cullen told me afterward. "He makes us go. When he’s going like that, he’s nearly impossible to stop. It’s good, and I think as we go here we need more guys to get that mentality. We can’t just have Sid going. We need to have everybody going."
The Penguins (37-14-8) avoided a three-game losing streak despite missing Trevor Daley, who left the game after his first shift of the second period, and Nick Bonino, out with an illness.
Not much was going well for two periods. Crosby took two minor penalties and Evgeni Malkin three, and the team has a whole struggled to clear the defensive zone.
One moment provided the needed spark.
Crosby's second penalty — a minor for slashing — infuriated him. He exited the penalty box and threw a pair of hard checks in the offensive end. Neither play was all that effective, but that energy seemed to fuel his teammates. From there, Carolina took two penalties soon to give the Penguins a 5-on-3 power play for 1:04.
It took 50 seconds to capitalize:
Kris Letang corralled the puck near the blue line and passed to Phil Kessel at the left circle. Kessel skated toward the blue line, then forward -- a common path from his days in Toronto -- before powering a shot that Crosby directed past Cam Ward for his 33rd goal and a 2-1 lead at 16:21.
"I don’t think it was our best effort," Cullen said. "It was a pretty ugly hockey game. We were in the box way too much and didn’t allow ourselves to get into any rhythm, but we needed Sid to step up like that and do what he does."
The result produced more questions about the Penguins' inconsistent play in their own end, but Crosby said winning a game such as this is needed.
"It wasn’t pretty," he said. "I don’t know where you’d rate it, but sometimes that’s how you have to win."
LANCE'S THREE THOUGHTS
1. Kill or be killed.
Tuesday did not begin as planned for the Penguins. Bonino was not feeling well and did not participate in the morning skate. That forced Sullivan to mix and match his penalty-killing units against the Hurricanes. And when Malkin and Crosby took two penalties each in the early going, the task was that much tougher.
But the Penguins killed 4 of 5 penalties, with Cullen performing well and Tom Kuhnhackl effectively forcing the Hurricanes to take low-percentage shots.
"The penalty kill, for the most part, I felt was really good," Sullivan said. "We got hemmed in the one time we got scored against, but most of the shots were from the perimeter. I thought most of the kills we had — and we had a fair amount — were pretty solid."
A bad bounce gave Skinner his team's only goal:
The Penguins have killed 27 of 30 penalties in February, and Cullen said the group even played well during the shift that ended with the Hurricanes' goal:
It did not alter the progress the Penguins have made in that regard, though.
"We were pretty good, I thought," Murray said. "Really good. The first couple (of power plays) they got a couple shots, but after that I really don’t think we gave up many chances on the PK. Really good work by everybody. Even on the goal there, it’s just a broken play. We did a good job and we’re going in the right direction."
2. Murray was outstanding again.
Don't overlook the Penguins' work in their own end. They made the Hurricanes' forwards work for quality shots and did so missing three of the top six defensemen.
That being said, Murray was outstanding again. He made 29 saves to earn the win and the 22 year old is now 22-7-3 this season.
"Awesome," Cullen said when asked about Murray. "He was so awesome tonight."
Murray robbed Joakim Nordstrom on a breakaway, stopped Elias Lindholm's wrist shot from the slot in the second period and made this impressive sliding stop on Jordan Staal when the Penguins were on the power play early in the second:
The Penguins needed Murray to be at his best on a night when they were at their worst for long stretches. He did not disappoint. Sullivan has been forced to use a patchwork defense for the past six weeks because of injuries. Murray has been the not-so-secret weapon to help the Penguins overcome adverse situations.
"We got the two points and that's all that matters," Cole said.
3. Third-period lift.
The Penguins were dreadful during their loss to the Red Wings on Sunday afternoon and that seemed to carry over for most of the first two periods against the Hurricanes. They lacked energy and were making careless mistakes.
Everything changed late in the second period.
Crosby's shift after the penalty seemed to provide the spark. The Penguins' ability to carry that momentum into the third period was more impressive. They are now 25-0 when leading after two periods, and were outstanding in that regard again, allowing just six shots in the final 20 minutes.
The Penguins secured the win when Malkin gave them the two-goal lead by depositing this feed from Carl Hagelin over Ward's glove:
