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VANCOUVER – Evgeni Malkin scored two goals and one badist, leading his Pittsburgh Penguins to a 5-0 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday.
Sidney Crosby also scored a pair of goals and Phil Kessel had one of his own.
The victory completes the Penguins' match on their four-stop Canadian car trip. The club has also won in Toronto, Edmonton and Calgary.
Pittsburgh Guardian Casey DeSmith He ended the 29 shots he faced on Saturday for his second NHL playoff game.
The 27-year-old had already registered a clean sheet against the Ottawa Senators on April 26.
Vancouver goalkeeper Jacob Markstrom rejected 30 of 35 shots.
Despite the defeat, Markstrom kept his team in the match with several saves, including in the first period when the goalkeeper tried to make a stop left to save a Malkin rocket.
The Penguins opened the scoring in the middle of the second period, following a patient move Olli Maatta. The defender was waiting for the opportunity and fired a shot that bounced off Markstrom's protections. Kessel slipped behind the net and found the rebound for the seventh of the year. The right winger leads the Penguins to the goals.
Saturday's game marked Kessel's 255th consecutive game for Pittsburgh, surpbading Malkin for the franchise record.
Crosby scored Pittsburgh's second goal later in the period, picking up the puck in front of the net and firing back over Markstrom.
Malkin scored the third and fourth goals of the Penguins midway through the third period, just 59 seconds apart.
The first center marker came out of a saucer pbad from the right wing Daniel Sprong, that he quickly buried in the side of the net.
Less than a minute later, Malkin found the puck in front of the Vancouver goal and sliced it past Markstrom.
He now has 15 points – four goals and 11 badists – in his last seven games.
Crosby came full circle with just over two minutes remaining in the game, shooting a shot into the net.
The Penguins captain now has five goals and three badists in a four-game series.
The return of two of the team's leading strikers was one of the positives of the Canucks on Saturday.
Right winger Brock Boeser had missed two games due to an injury to the groin, while the center Elias Pettersson had been put away following a concussion after being touched by the Florida defender Mike Matheson October 13th.
Boeser has six points in nine games and Pettersson has five goals and three badists in his first five NHL games.
Vancouver head coach Travis Green skated the duo on a line with Nikolay Goldobin for much of Saturday's match. The trio combined for six shots, but did not find the back of the net.
The loss of the Canucks means Vancouver and Pittsburgh share the season. Vancouver took the first lap on October 16 when Boeser scored 34 seconds in overtime for a 3-2 win.
Saturday's game was the first of a four-game season for the Canucks. They will be back at Rogers Arena on Monday to face the Minnesota Wild.
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