VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Rookie Ben Kindel scored twice in the second period to lead the Penguins to a 3-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday, sweeping Pittsburgh to a four-game Western Conference tour.
Jindel, who hails from nearby Coquitlam, B.C., had a large crowd of supporters in just his second multi-goal match. The 18-year-old has gone 20 games without scoring after scoring eight goals in his first 28 games, scoring 10 goals and assisting 12 in 48 games.
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Evgeni Malkin also scored for the Penguins (26-14-11) and Stuart Skinner stopped 19 shots and won for the seventh time in eight games.
Jake DeBrusk and Teddy Brueger scored in the third period for the Canucks (17-30-5), but they were unable to complete their comeback attempt and lost their second straight game. Kevin Lankinen stopped 21 shots.
Malkin and Jindel scored at 3:17 in the second quarter to make it 2-0. Malkin took a pass from Tomas Novak and sailed past the Canucks defender’s stick before beating Lankinen for his team’s opener. Kindel made it two goals on a shot from defenseman Ryan Shea. Kindel beat Lankinen with a shot from inside the faceoff circle to give Pittsburgh a 3-0 lead at 17:22.
Pittsburgh opened the season with a 6-3 win over Seattle on Monday, beat Calgary 4-1 on Wednesday and beat Edmonton 6-2 on Thursday.
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Veteran Chris Letang returns to the Pittsburgh lineup after missing two games with an upper-body injury.
The Canucks have won just one of their last 14 games (1-11-2). Canucks goaltender Thatcher Demko missed his eighth game with a lower-body injury.
Next
Penguins: Host the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday.
Canucks: Host the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday in their sixth of eight home games.
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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
