Malkin carries Penguins past Bruins

PITTSBURGH (AP) - Evgeni Malkin scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period after former linemate Pascal Dupuis tied it, and the Pittsburgh Penguins remained unbeaten since the Olympic break by beating the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Sunday.

Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 21 shots by the NHL's lowest-scoring team to help the Penguins end Boston's five-game road winning streak. Boston is 1-1 during a season-long seven-game road trip.

Malkin's 23rd goal was a wrist shot through traffic from the right circle less than 90 seconds into the third period. Malkin has at least one point in 16 of 17 games.

The Bruins played the final 5:37 without center Marc Savard, who was carried off the ice on a stretcher after being leveled by a blindside hit by Matt Cooke. Savard had just released a shot when Cooke raised his shoulder and dropped Savard from behind. Cooke was not penalized.

Since captain Sidney Crosby scored the game-winning goal for Canada against the United States in the Olympic gold-medal game a week ago Sunday, the Penguins are 4-0 — rallying to win in the last three.

They trailed 1-0 Sunday after Blake Wheeler shoved the puck past a prone Fleury — who thought he had covered it — at 3:12 of the second on a Bruins power play.

Crosby, who assisted on Dupuis' goal, has two goals and four assists while getting at least a point in all four victories. For now, Crosby — the NHL's leading goal-scorer — isn't showing any signs of Olympic fatigue despite playing five games in eight days and eight in 13 days.

Neither are the Penguins, who have surged to the top of the Atlantic Division standings following a pre-Olympic slump in which they dropped four of five before the two-week break began Feb. 15.

Pittsburgh took the game's first four penalties Sunday, and got a scare when the newly acquired Alexei Ponikarovsky and Jordan Staal each hobbled off the ice only to return early in the second period, yet had enough offense to beat the Bruins. Boston had won six of seven, including its final four before the break.

Dupuis, dropped off Malkin's line when the Penguins acquired Ponikarovsky from the Maple Leafs on Tuesday night, scored his third goal in four games to tie it at 8:57 of the second. Dupuis took Crosby's giveback pass along the goal line and was twice denied by goalie Tim Thomas before finally slipping the puck into the net. Thomas made 29 saves.