With Expanded Toolbox, Pittsburgh Penguins Show There's More Than 1 Way to Win

On Thursday night, shootout goals from Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby sealed the Pittsburgh Penguins' sixth-consecutive win as they beat the Winnipeg Jets 4-3.

The idea of the mighty Penguins beating typically hapless Winnipeg doesn't seem especially outlandish, but the streaking Jets were undefeated in six games going into Thursday's matchup. They also dished out a punishing physical game on a Penguins team that's better known for dazzle than it is for getting down and dirty.

As Pittsburgh continues to win games away from the friendly confines of Consol Energy Center, fans are starting to see that this year's team is armed with some new weapons in its arsenal.

Typically, Penguins teams are all about offense. With Crosby and Malkin leading the way, this year's group hasn't lost its scoring touch. They're still the highest-scoring team in the league; Sid's tied for first in the league with 19 points, and Geno's close behind with 16. New arrival Patric Hornqvist is nearly a third of the way to annihilating his previous season high of 53 points: He has 15 points with the Penguins in just 12 games. 

Hornqvist has proven to be a key addition to the power play, which Pittsburgh is performing with a record-breaking 37.2 percent success rate, but that just dips into the first layer of the team's bag of tricks this year.

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Yes, Marc-Andre Fleury came back to earth on Thursday. He gave up three goals in his first game after signing a new four-year, $23 million contract extension on Wednesday, per NHL.com. That performance is a rough outing for him these days.

The veteran goaltender won't truly be judged until we see how he performs in the playoffs, but his recent stretch of three shutouts in four nights has turned some heads. Fleury's also boasting stats this season that are a marked improvement from his career averages: a .930 save percentage and 1.99 goals-against average through 10 games that are better than his career numbers of .911 and 2.61.

Fleury wasn't a difference-maker on Thursday, but he stopped enough pucks to give his team a chance to win by turning aside 34 of 37 shots. 

The Penguins should give themselves more chances to win this season thanks to better team defense under new coach Mike Johnston. The team is currently ranked a solid 10th in the NHL with 2.17 goals allowed per game. It is also ranked 10th in 2013-14 but gave up an average of 2.49 goals per game over the course of the year.

Fleury didn't steal the win from the Jets, nor did the crazy power play or the scoring prowess of the top six. The Jets played Pittsburgh physically, and on a night that ended with 102 penalty minutes dished out, Pittsburgh bent but didn't break.

Among the highlights, Robert Bortuzzo stepped in to fight Blake Wheeler in the first period, showing why Bortuzzo's absence was felt when he missed the first 10 games of the season with a lower-body injury. In the middle frame, the game heated up—punctuated by a fight between Simon Despres and Evander Kane, then a nasty late hit by Dustin Byfuglien after agitator Steve Downie scored to put the Penguins up 3-1.

Downie earned two misconducts in the third period—one from the penalty box—while Craig Adams hung in to fight the much larger Adam Lowry after Adams threw a hit on Grant Clitsome that was deemed objectionable.

All told, emotions ran uncharacteristically high between two teams in different conferences that don't cross paths very often. The Penguins were outhit 35-23, the power play went 0-of-6 and the team let a two-goal lead slip away, but Pittsburgh prevailed in the end.

Brandon Sutter led the team with a goal and two assists, with all scoring at five-on-five, and the Penguins stood up to Winnipeg's snarl long enough to give their skill players a chance to work their magic against Ondrej Pavelec in the shootout.

Maybe a win against Winnipeg shouldn't have been quite so hard. But it's heartening to see Pittsburgh taking some varied approaches to winning hockey games—and to see them working. The more tools the Penguins have available in their toolbox, the better off they'll be when the playoffs roll around.

All stats courtesy of NHL.com.