In Pittsburgh, Casey DeSmith made 33 saves and the Penguins downed the Anaheim Ducks, 1-0, on Saturday.
“Having played recently helps a lot,” DeSmith said, who earned the 6-1 win Dec. 6 against the Kraken. “The more I get in the net, the more comfortable I become. Pretty standard that the more you play, the more comfortable you feel out there. That was one thing. And then, just been working on going back to playing my game.”
Brock McGinn scored the game’s only goal in the first period.
“I think I just want to come out and play my game,” McGinn said. “I always believed in my offense, but in Pittsburgh, I feel like I have a lot more confidence in my game and a lot more confidence with the puck.”
The Penguins improved to 14-8-5.
“I think the players have just done a terrific job,” Pittsburgh head coach Mike Sullivan said. “These guys are committed. They want to win. They understand that if we’re going to win games consistently, we can’t just rely on scoring goals.”
The Ducks dropped to 15-9-5.
“I thought we played a solid road game,” Anaheim head coach Dallas Eakins said. “That’s the kind of game we want to play on the road. Pittsburgh’s an extremely disciplined and well-coached team. I thought we had chances to win it. We came up short. Those sting.”
John Gibson got the start and made 15 saves for the Ducks through two periods of play; he left the game in the second intermission with an apparent lower body injury.
Anthony Stolarz made 13 saves in relief.
“Overall, a decent game. I thought it was a little bit sloppy at times,” Anaheim’s Ryan Getzlaf said. “Wasn’t a whole ton of flow to it. We did a good job of bottling up the neutral zone. … Didn’t think we played with quite enough urgency throughout the whole game when it came to bearing down in certain situations. I wasn’t overly pleased with that.”
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