Kunitz, Pens take on Leafs
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Chris Kunitz and the Pittsburgh Penguins will take aim at a fourth straight victory when they visit the Toronto Maple Leafs for Saturday's battle at Air Canada Centre.
Kunitz enters Saturday's game with a red-hot stick, having scored seven times during a five-game goal streak. He also has eight goals and four assists on an seven-game point tear.
Kunitz scored twice in Thursday's 5-4 comeback win at Philadelphia, giving him 14 goals this season and leaving him one shy of James Neal, who leads the club with 15.
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Pittsburgh trailed 4-1 after the first period on Thursday, but scored the game's final four goals to grab two points. Kunitz provided the go-ahead score early in the third period.
Pascal Dupuis added a goal and an assist for the Penguins, who avenged a 6-5 loss to Philadelphia in Pittsburgh on Feb. 20 and took a 2-1 lead in the season series. Neal and Tyler Kennedy also lit the lamp, while Sidney Crosby had three assists to push his point streak to six games.
Pittsburgh goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury gave up four goals on 18 shots and was pulled after the first period. Tomas Vokoun made 14 saves over the final two frames.
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"I certainly liked how we came out and played," said Pens head coach Dan Bylsma. "I think we've talked about the emotions in a game against the Flyers and we didn't play very well in the first. We came out and stuck with it. We just got to our game, started playing, started coming after them and started playing a whole lot better."
The Pens are 10-4-0 as the road team this season, but they've dropped three straight in Toronto. The only meeting between the clubs this season was in Pittsburgh on Jan. 23 and the Maple Leafs recorded a 5-2 victory in that one. Toronto has won four of six overall in this series.
The Maple Leafs had won three straight before losing Thursday in Boston. Tyler Seguin scored the go-ahead goal in the second period and later sealed the win with an empty-netter, as the Bruins downed Toronto, 4-2, at TD Garden.
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Nazem Kadri and Jay McClement each scored for the Maple Leafs, who dropped their eighth straight meeting against Boston. Ben Scrivens gave up three goals on 24 shots.
"We deserved a better fate," Toronto head coach Randy Carlyle said. "We did a lot of good things in the game, and I want us to build on that as a team."
Kadri has reached the scoresheet in seven straight games, matching Kunitz for the longest current point streak in the NHL. Kadri has six goals and five assists during his run.
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Toronto has won its last two games at home, upping its record at the ACC this season to 6-5-0.