Penguins 3, Sharks 2 (shootout)

Some news and notes, numbers and quotes from the Penguins’ 3-2 shootout victory against San Jose at Consol Energy Center Sunday:

*** David Perron, who was a late addition to the Penguins’ lineup, and Sidney Crosby scored in the shootout, while Melker Karlsson and Logan Couture of the Sharks were unable to beat goalie Marc-Andre Fleury to give the Penguins their first two-game winning streak since March 6-7.

*** With Kris Letang (concussion) and Christian Ehrhoff (undisclosed injury) unavailable, the Penguins played with five defensemen, and the unit acquitted itself nicely. “I thought out whole defense corps picked up their game,” coach Mike Johnston said. The workload on defense broke down like this: Scuderi (25:36), Martin (27:25), Ben Lovejoy (27:44), Ian Cole (25:05) and Derrick Pouliot (18:21).

*** The Penguins had to kill 3:49 of a double-minor to Patric Hornqvist to get the game to overtime, and six guys – forwards Daniel Winnik, Craig Adams, Max Lapierre and Brandon Sutter, along with Scuderi and Martin – did an outstanding job of neturalizing a menacing Sharks power play. “Obviously, you don’t want to be in that situation,” Adams said. “But I thought the guys did a good job.”

*** The victory raised the Penguins’ record to 42-23-11 and allowed them to retain a share of second place in the Metropolitan Division with the New York Islanders. Fourth-place Washington is three points back.

*** The Penguins also have trimmed their magic number for clinching a playoff spot to six.

*** Johnston had expected to have to go with 19 players for the second time in three games, but Perron, who had missed a 3-2 victory against Arizona Saturday because of illness, let him know a few hours before game time that he wanted to try to play. He ended up logging just over 10 minutes of ice time and got the shootout-deciding goal.

*** The Penguins have had problems with slow starts of late, but took a 2-0 lead on first-period goals by Hornqvist and Chris Kunitz, who scored for the first time in 15 games.

*** Kunitz steered in a cross-ice pass from Crosby, who pushed his league-leading points total to 79.

*** Ben Smith and Couture got goals for San Jose during the second period, as the Sharks, who remain barely alive in the Western Conference playoff race, began to dictate the pace of play after a sensational stop by goalie Alex Stalock on Evgeni Malkin just over 5 ½ minutes into the period. “We got a little complacent with the 2-0 lead, and that can’t happen,” Winnik said. “It was good that we stuck it out and won the game in a shootout, but it’s unfortunate that we keep giving up these two-goal leads.”

*** Winnik picked up an assist on Hornqvist’s goal. The Penguins are 5-0-1 when he gets a point.

*** Because the Penguins dressed 18 skaters and two goalies against San Jose, they do not qualify for the emergency salary-cap exception needed to recall a defenseman from their farm team in Wilkes-Barre before facing Philadelphia Wednesday.

*** The Penguins are 4-0-2 in their past six home games against San Jose, but just 4-12-4 in their past 21 overall against the Sharks.

*** Lapierre, who turned 30 Sunday, won 13 of 14 faceoffs.

*** The Penguins finished the regular season 18-6-4 against Western Conference opponents.