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Pens bump slump, down Sens for first win of the year

Patric Hornqvist, Craig Anderson

Patric Hornqvist, Craig Anderson

AP

All’s well in Pittsburgh -- for tonight, anyway.

After an 0-3 start to the year, the Penguins got their first win of the season on Thursday, downing the Ottawa Senators 2-0 at Consol.

All of Pittsburgh’s offense came in a three-minute burst to open the second period. Evgeni Malkin scored his first goal, and point, of the year at the 23-second mark, followed by rookie Daniel Sprong netting the first of his NHL career just over two minutes later.

Marc-Andre Fleury stopped all 22 shots faced for the shutout.

This was, as far as 2-0 games go, a pretty comprehensive victory.

Pittsburgh out-shot the Sens by 14, and limited Ottawa to just five shots in the final period. And it wasn’t just Malkin that bumped his scoring slump; Patric Hornqvist, Kevin Porter and Matt Cullen also recorded their first points of the season.

Of course, there’s one notable Penguin that remains scoreless: Sidney Crosby.

Pittsburgh can look past that for now, though, as it relishes a pretty important win. The Pens definitely didn’t want to fall to 0-4, especially with three more games left in this current five-game homestand.

For the Sens, Thursday’s game is one they’ll want to forget. The offense dried up in a major way, especially after scoring seven times against Columbus on Wednesday.

Ottawa also went 0-for-3 on the power play, after scoring four PPGs in its last three games.