Casey DeSmith stopped 39 shots Saturday as the Pittsburgh Penguins broke a five-game losing streak with a 4-0 win over the visiting Arizona Coyotes.
DeSmith, the backup to Matt Murray, got his second straight start and picked up his second shutout this season and third of his career.
Sidney Crosby and Dominik Simon each had a goal and an assist, Patric Hornqvist and Brian Dumoulin also scored, and Jake Guentzel had two assists for the Penguins, who had been on an 0-4-1 skid and had scored just two goals in their previous three games.
Pittsburgh, which scored three goals in the second period to break open the game, had been an uncharacteristic 2-4-1 at home going into the game.
Darcey Kuemper, filling in while No. 1 goaltender Antti Raanta is out with an injury, made 28 saves for Arizona, which lost its third straight (0-2-1) following a five-game winning streak.
Pittsburgh is 5-0-1 in its past six games against the Coyotes.
The best scoring chance for either team in the scoreless first period was Kuemper's glove save on Crosby's point-blank backhander off a two-on-one at 11:40.
The Penguins' Juuso Riikola hit the post twice in the first.
At 6:42 of the second, Crosby gave Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead. He took a feed from Phil Kessel in the neutral zone, broke into Arizona's end and shoveled a high backhander short side from the bottom of the right circle.
Simon, from the slot, redirected a Bryan Rust pass past Kuemper to make it 2-0 at 8:34 of the second.
With 15.3 seconds left in the second, Simon sent a pass from behind the net to the slot, where Hornqvist slammed it home to make it 3-0.
Dumoulin picked up his first goal of the season at 7:24 of the third. On a three-on-two, he scored from the right circle for a 4-0 lead.
--Field Level Media
Arizona | Pittsburgh | |
N/A | Points | Sidney Crosby 2 |
N/A | Goals | Sidney Crosby 1 |
N/A | Assists | Jake Guentzel 2 |
N/A | Power Play Goals | N/A |
N/A | Short Handed Goals | N/A |
Darcy Kuemper .875 | Save Percentage | Casey DeSmith 1.000 |
Darcy Kuemper 28 | Saves | Casey DeSmith 39 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
Arizona | 39 | 0 | 0-4 | 2-2 | 6 | 33 |
Pittsburgh | 32 | 4 | 0-2 | 4-4 | 10 | 33 |