Kunitz, Penguins stay unbeaten on road with 3-2 win at Carolina in shootout

Penguins beat Hurricanes 3-2 in shootout

RALEIGH, N.C. — Chris Kunitz beat Cam Ward on the 12th shot of a shootout to help the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Carolina Hurricanes 3-2 on Wednesday night and continue their early season road success.

Evgeni Malkin and Michael Rupp scored goals for the Penguins, who improved to 5-0 on the road to set a franchise record for most consecutive road wins to open a season. Pittsburgh had won its first four twice before, the last time coming two seasons ago, but bested that with its fifth straight win against the Hurricanes.

Ray Whitney scored twice for Carolina, helping the Hurricanes rally from a 2-0 deficit to force overtime.

It was the first meeting between the teams since last season’s Eastern Conference finals, which Pittsburgh swept by a combined score of 20-9 on the way to the Stanley Cup. Carolina shook up its blue line in the offseason to get bigger defensemen to match up with offensive-minded teams like Pittsburgh, only to see the Penguins again find a way to beat the Hurricanes.

But in the end, it wasn’t Malkin or Sidney Crosby who made the clinching play. Instead, it was Kunitz, who had yet to find the back of the net this season before slipping the puck between Ward’s pads in the shootout for the victory.

Pittsburgh seemed to have the game in control heading into the final period. Michael Rupp had given the Penguins the early lead when he took a short pass from Malkin to set up a 2-on-1 rush, then skated in on Ward to flip the puck by him at the right post at 14:24.

Malkin followed with an impressive goal in the second, taking a give-and-go pass from Pascal Dupuis then squeezing the puck between Ward and the right post from a steep angle early in the period.

But Whitney answered with two quick third-period goals to erase the deficit. First, he slipped a shot underneath Marc-Andre Fleury at 4:25, then redirecting a shot from Tim Gleason to tie it midway through the period and re-energize the home crowd.

Fleury finished with 27 saves for the Penguins, while Ward had 36 saves — including a key stop of Malkin from between the faceoff circles less than a minute into overtime.

NOTES: The Penguins have scored first in five of seven games this season. … Whitney scored a point for the third straight game. … Kunitz also had an assist for the fourth straight game.