12-18-2015, 03:34 AM
DENVER -- Their stars were spectators on this night and the Pittsburgh Penguins still managed to cool off the Colorado Avalanche. Christine Michael Jersey . Jussi Jokinen skated across the front of the crease and roofed a shot over sprawling goalie Semyon Varlamov to give the Penguins a 3-2 win in a shootout on Sunday night. After Jokinens goal, Marc-Andre Fleury made a pad save on Gabriel Landeskogs shot, snapping Colorados six-game winning streak and denying Varlamov franchise records for most home and overall wins in a season. Colorado coach Patrick Roy said his team might have taken the Penguins lightly after seeing Sydney Crosby and Chris Kunitz joining centre Evgeni Malkin (foot) in street clothes, leaving Pittsburgh without its top three scorers. "Tonight when we saw Crosby not in the lineup, Kunitz not in the lineup, on and on, I think it was a normal reaction to say, Hey, we have an easier game tonight," Roy said. Locked into the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference, the Penguins sat several of their regulars. Crosby missed his first game of the season because of an unspecified injury. He has never played all 82 games in a season. They also were without defencemen Brooks Orpik and Olli Maatta, scratched with unspecified injuries, just like Kunitz. "I probably would have done the same," Roy said. "Were thinking of doing the same at the end depending where we are in the standings. Were going to rest Varly probably the last two games. Absolutely not (offended). I think they did what was the right thing for their team. The only sad part theres a lot of people coming here to see Sidney Crosby play. Thats fine, thats part of our business." Landeskog had mixed feelings about Crosby sitting this one out. "Of course hes the best player in the league," Landeskog said. "I would have liked playing against him. But at the same time he took a slap shot off my knee the last time we played against him." The Penguins played with precision and poise despite having nothing on the line and a bevy of backups. "Yeah we did," Brandon Sutter after posting his first multiple-goal game of the season. "We didnt have a great game last night (a 4-0 loss at Minnesota) but to come back here 24 hours later and play the way we did was great, especially with the lineup we had. Everyone played well, top to bottom. You give guys an opportunity its amazing what can happen. A lot of guys played great, especially our goaltender. He was awesome." Fleury, who stopped all three shots in the shootout, had 39 saves, including one in the closing seconds of overtime after Penguins defenceman Paul Martin was sent to the penalty box with 38 seconds remaining for delay of game after he knocked the puck over the glass in the defensive zone. "Its a credit tto our team to be able to battle without a lot of key guys," Fleury said. The Avs lost for just the fifth time in 39 one-goal games this season (28-5-6), and they can blame their 0-for-5 performance on power plays, something Fleury had a lot to do with. After falling behind 2-0 on Sutters pair of second-period goals, Colorado scored twice in the third period. Ryan OReilly scored his team-leading 28th goal of the season 18 seconds into the period, and Patrick Bordeleau redirected defenceman Tyson Barries shot into the net with 3:13 left. Varlamov stopped all 31 shots on Saturday in St. Louis to earn his 40th win of the season, tying Roys franchise record. He finished 24-10-3 on home ice, matching Roys record for home wins set in 2000-01, when the Avs won the Stanley Cup for a second time. With the point they picked up, the Avs are two ahead of Chicago for second place in the Central Division, which would give them home-ice advantage in their first-round playoff matchup. "To get two points would have made us feel better, but at least we got one," Bordeleau said. NOTES: The Penguins avenged a 1-0 loss to Colorado at home on Oct. 21. ... Avalanche D Cory Sarich missed his third straight game with a back injury. Thomas Rawls Seahawks Jersey . Raonic, from Thornhill, Ont., came back from a break down in the first set and won the hour-long opener in a tiebreak before taking control of the match. Raonic said he is noticing signs of improvement on court after struggling somewhat in his opening match, a 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 win over Australian qualifier Nick Kyrgios. Thomas Rawls Jersey . -- Ben Maxwell scored 27 seconds into overtime Sunday as the St.ORLANDO, Fla. -- During the Magics recent struggles one of the few constants has been the offence provided by Arron Afflalo. The veteran provided another reminder of why hes so indispensable for a young team trying to find itself. Afflalo scored 23 points to lead five Orlando players in double-figures and the Magic snapped a three-game losing streak with a 109-92 win over the Detroit Pistons on Friday night. Orlando led the Pistons by as many as 22 points and cruised in the fourth quarter. Afflalo said the victory was one of the most complete efforts the Magic have posted in recent memory. "Its good to get a win at home for once," said Afflalo, who has scored at least 20 points in five straight outings. "I dont think weve won here this month. It was pretty impressive defensively. I thought the bigs did a great job trying to fight their bigs all night rebounding. I thought we shared the ball throughout the game, made the right play. "When we play like that I think were pretty good." The Magics leading scorer this season, Afflalo played eight minutes of the third quarter after lightly turning his left ankle. But after coming out of the game briefly, he was able to finish the period -- scoring six points -- before resting in the fourth. "The ankle, its one of those things where if you can fight through it, you go ahead and play," he said. The victory halted a five-game home losing streak for the Magic, who hadnt won at the Amway Center since the day before Thanksgiving. Nik Vucevic added 20 points and 11 rebounds, and rookie Victor Oladipo finished with 16 points and a career-high 11 assists. Magic coach Jacque Vaughn thought Fridays effort was sparked by what he called a surprisingly "intense" practice for this time of year. "That has to be our signature -- we have to come to work," he said. "I always tell them I dont know what results thats going to lead to wins and losses-wise, but you can look yourself in the mirror and appreciate what you do for a living, and your teammates appreciate you when you come to work." Brandon Jennings had 21 points and Will Bynum added 18 for the Pistons, who had a streak of three consecutive road victories ended. Marshawn Lynch Seahawks Jersey. "From the start of the game, we just couldnt get anything going. We got a couple stops in the third quarter, but we couldnt score, and it just kept going downhill from there," Pistons coach Maurice Cheeks said. "We couldnt get anything going offensively, they pushed the ball down our throat defensively, and then we didnt make any shots." The Pistons, who claimed eight of their 14 wins on the road, never found a flow on offence. They shot 41 per cent for the game, and were outscored in the paint 58-48. "We had no sense of urgency and we didnt muster energy at all tonight," Jennings said. "Its got to be a collective unit to try to get it back together, but we didnt have it tonight." In some of their recent losses Orlando had started fast, only to fall apart late in the games. The Magic jumped out to another early lead, but this time were able to sustain it with a variety of scoring bursts that kept the Pistons playing catch up for most of the night. Orlando hovered over 50 per cent shooting throughout and carried a 19-point lead into the fourth quarter. The Magic carved out their early advantage shooting 56 per cent in the opening 24 minutes to take a 55-48 lead into halftime. Glen Davis had eight points in less than five minutes and then yielded to Afflalo, who finished the half with 12 points. Oladipo and Tobias Harris each added 10 points. Afflalo said theres no secret to what it will take for the Magic to have another "good night" like Friday. "Just get after it, man. Theres no mystery," he said. "We know what we need to do -- same focus, same effort. It starts with our preparation in shootaround, our intensity, attention to detail. And keeping our foot on the gas pedal." NOTES: The Magic improved to 5-6 when they score 100 or more points. ... Pistons G Chauncey Billups opted to continue his recent program of resting his tendinitis-affected knee on the first game of back-to-backs. Cheeks said Billups is expected to play when Detroit visits Washington on Saturday. cheap nfl jerseys cheap jerseys cheap jerseys cheap jerseys cheap nfl jerseys wholesale jerseys ' ' '