Goaltender Casey DeSmith stopped all 33 shots he faced and Brock McGinn scored Saturday to stake the Pittsburgh Penguins to their fourth straight win, 1-0 over the visiting Anaheim Ducks.
DeSmith, the Penguins’ backup goalie making just his sixth start of the season after struggling early on, picked up his seventh career shutout, first of the season and first against Anaheim.
He lost his first four starts before earning his first win five days earlier at Seattle.
McGinn’s first-period goal held up for the Penguins, who were playing their first home game after five straight on the road. It was also the second game of a back-to-back set after a 4-2 win Friday at Washington.
The Ducks had won two straight and were 4-0-2 in their previous six games. They are 2-1-1 on a five-game road trip.
Anaheim goalie John Gibson, facing his hometown team, stopped 15 of 16 shots through two periods before he left because of what the team called a lower-body injury.
Anthony Stolarz relieved Gibson for the third and stopped all 13 shots he faced.
Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf returned after being out since Nov. 30 because of an unspecified injury. He played on a line with Sam Steel and Troy Terry and had two shots and three hits.
The Penguins continued to play without three of their top forwards, who are injured, center Evgeni Malkin and wingers Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust. Guentzel is the team’s leading scorer.
McGinn, on Pittsburgh’s first shot, produced a 1-0 lead at 5:12 of the first. From near the left point, Zach Aston-Reese sent a backhand, cross-ice pass for McGinn near the right dot. McGinn one-timed the puck past Gibson’s short side for his second goal in as many games.
There was a delay as it seemed Anaheim might challenge that the play had been offside, but play eventually continued. According to AT&T Sportsnet, the Ducks had a malfunction with their replay pad and could not make a determination on whether to challenge.
–Field Level Media
