Clarke MacArthur scored twice and Jonas Gustavsson made 22 saves in his season debut, giving the Toronto Maple Leafs a 4-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday night.
Colton Orr and Francois Beauchemin also scored for the Leafs (3-0-0), who opened the season with three straight wins for the first time since the 1999-2000 season.
Sidney Crosby, Chris Kunitz, and Maxime Talbot replied for Pittsburgh (1-3-0), which has yet to win at its new arena: Consol Energy Center.
MacArthur scored the eventual game-winner and fourth of the season at the 10:30 mark of the second period. After receiving a pretty feed from linemate Mikhail Grabovski, MacArthur slapped a shot past Marc-Andre Fleury from 15 feet to make it 4-2.
Crosby made it a one-goal game with less than a minute to go in the second, sending a backhander by Gustavsson.
But the Penguins could get no closer as a scoreless third period sealed the victory for the Leafs, despite being outshot 25-14.
Gustavsson solid in relatively easy night
Pittsburgh did not have a lot of scoring chances, but Gustavsson still had to make a few key saves to keep his team out in front, especially down the stretch.
With its net empty in the final minute of the play, Pittsburgh couldn’t solve Gustavsson, who got his body in front of a few scoring chances.
His best save came halfway through the game on a 2-on-1, robbing Pascal Dupuis. Gustavsson moved quickly to his left, just getting a pad on the Pittsburgh forward’s one-timer down low, keeping his team out in front 4-2.
Evgeni Malkin was victimized by the Leafs’ netminder moments later, getting stopped on a penalty shot with two minutes to play in the second.
The Russian started out wide before slowly moving to the front of the net. He tried to get Gustavsson to bite with some nifty stick-handling but the Swede stood his ground.
Toronto makes quick start
Orr opened the scoring five minutes into the game after some good fore-checking by Mike Brown. After stealing the puck at the blue-line, the right-winger skated in on a near breakaway, but was stopped by Fleury’s left pad.
Brown collected the rebound from the corner, swooped it around to Schenn at the point, and his slap shot was tipped in by a wide-open Orr in front of the net.
Despite getting just five shots on net in the first period, Pittsburgh took a 2-1 lead into the intermission on goals by Kunitz and Talbot.
MacArthur potted his first goal of the game early in the second when he finished off a pretty tic-tac-toe play on the power play.