The Pittsburgh Penguins won their eighth game in a row on Friday night, pulling out a 2-1 shootout win over the Florida Panthers. Florida goaltender Jose Theodore held the Pens scoreless through two plus periods, but a Steve Sullivan goal finally evened it up at 1-1 early in the third period. Sullivan took a feed from Jordan Staal before burying the equalizer.
Florida held a 1-0 lead on the 21st goal of the season by veteran Tomas Fleischmann, who knocked in a rebound off of a Wojtek Wolski shot to give the Cats the lead. But Marc-Andre Fleury would keep it right there, stuffing 28 of 29 shots and forcing the overtime and shootout.
The shootout wouldn't last long, as James Neal and Evgeni Malkin easily converted their two attempts on Theodore. The Panthers, meanwhile, went 0 for 2 as Fleury stoned Wolski and a Mikael Samuelsson shot went wide to end it. Looking for nine in a row and now chasing the Rangers for the division and Eastern Conference lead, Pittsburgh hosts the Boston Bruins in a Sunday afternoon showdown at Consol Energy Center
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