ANAHEIM—A game that went even through 60 minutes of regulation turned into a battle between the leagues two best, with the Penguins coming out on top. Evgeni Malkin’s game tying goal midway into the third period set up a six round shootout where Pittsburgh took a 3-2 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Brandon Sutter’s clinching point. The Ducks lose their second consecutive overtime loss against the best in the East.

After surrendering to the Canadiens on Wednesday, a big matchup with the top team in the Eastern Conference meant a great Friday night hockey match. The Ducks holding the league with 91 points met at the Consol Energy Center where the Pens hold a commanding 16-point margin in the Metropolitan division. Their excellence would be met by a resurging California team. The Ducks got ahead nearing four minutes with Corey Perry again opening up the vulnerability of opposing goaltenders with a wrist shot giving him his 33rd goal of the season. Their dominance on the ice came as a shock to the Pens as they had troubles early turning up the offense.

It soon arrived another four minutes later on a goal from Deryk Engelland for his sixth taking a shot from a bouncing puck that met him at the center to send it high on the slot surpassing Jonas Hiller in net for Anaheim. The goal set the game at a perfect pace with a new rivalry heating up.Pittsburgh’s Tanner Glass and Anaheim left winger Patrick Maroon traded punches in a wild fight that had Penguins fans in a roar. Both took the fight majors with pride setting up further trades on the power play. Neither team converted in the first period with the Penguins failing on two man advantages in five minutes. The Ducks outshot the Pens 12-3 with their power unfaltering.

Anaheim got back into the game during the second, but the Pittsburgh defense was around after the first intermission with support for Marc Andre Fluery as netminder. The Penguins combined a number of blocked shots indicating that the swing of power from the Ducks would be short lived.

Anaheim responded in the third with another goal from their star forward 70 seconds into it. Teammates Kyle Palmieri and Ryan Getzlaf made a steal behind the Penguins net to set up Perry out front regaining the lead. Pittsburgh would not let their opponents goal go unanswered fighting hard to bring the game into the Ducks zone and force more time on their side. Their wish came with Palmieri getting called tripping Simon Despres in the processing setting up a power play unit that was best in the NHL. Malkin’s line with Sidney Crosby on his side set him up seconds later on a shot he rifled past two Ducks defenders to even the game at two. It was Malkin’s 19th goal and the one to push the game to its limits.

A shootout became necessary with both teams even on having some of the best shooters in the league. Crosby struck first in round two with a short tap that caught Hiller completely by surprise. The efforts from Palmieri went unanswered until Hiller made the stop on Malkin that sent Perry to save the game. His attempt pushed the game to extra frames that became a fight in round five. Chris Kunitz and Teemu Selanne both scored putting Brandon Sutter up against Hiller. Sutter ended the game on a terrific backhander over the stick side to set Getzlaf up for disappointment.

It was clearly a game for one to win and the other to lose. Fluery took the winning moment adding his 33rd victory making 29 saves for a .935 save percentage. Hiller couldn’t be totally down about the loss with his team holding strong to the Pacific Division. In any event, the Swiss held the Penguins to 15 shots with a .882 save percentage. The Ducks move on to face Toronto on Monday before returning to Honda Center for a lengthy homestand.

By Rudy Martinez