Malkin sparks 3-goal 3rd to beat 'Canes

Evgeni Malkin scored a goal and set up two others during Pittsburgh's offensive breakout in the third period, and the Penguins turned another strong game by goaltender Ty Conklin into a 4-1 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday night.

Petr Sykora had a goal and an assist as Pittsburgh scored on four of its first nine shots in the third against Carolina goaltender Cam Ward after Ward stopped all 18 shots he faced in the first two periods.

Malkin, surging since Penguins star Sidney Crosby injured his right ankle, cut down the right wing boards and split between defensemen Bret Hedican and Tim Gleason to score his 28th goal and put the Penguins up 3-1 with their third goal in slightly more than nine minutes.

Erik Christensen and Ryan Malone also scored for Pittsburgh, which got yet another effective game from Conklin, who started the season in the minors. Conklin made 27 saves and didn't allow a goal after Sergei Samsonov scored his fourth at 8:27 of the first period.

Since being called up following Marc-Andre Fleury's ankle injury on Dec. 6, Conklin is 12-3-1 in 16 starts and has led Pittsburgh back into contention in the Atlantic Division. The Penguins have 62 points, one fewer than division-leading Philadelphia, after being in last place in late November.

The Penguins were frustrated for two periods by Ward, who played a succession of excellent games in net as Carolina seized the Southeast Division lead by winning four of five.

But Christensen's goal only 37 seconds into the third period seemed to get the Penguins going after a lethargic first two periods. Christensen took Maxime Talbot's pass from along the goal line to beat Ward from in front for his eighth goal, and Malone made it 2-1 less than seven minutes later on a goal awarded after a video review.

With Pittsburgh on a power play, Sergei Gonchar's shot from the point deflected to Malkin, who missed on his rebound attempt only to have Malone push the puck toward the net. Replays showed the puck trickling across the goal line before Ward turned it back.

Until then, Carolina — despite being 30th in the league on the penalty kill — had allowed only one goal in 18 opponent power play chances over six games.

Malkin has five goals and four assists in the six games since Crosby went down for six to eight weeks with a high ankle sprain. The Penguins, coming off a 4-1 loss Wednesday in Atlanta, are 3-2-1 without Crosby and still have not lost successive games in regulation since Dec. 11-13.

Sykora added a second power-play goal, his 16th, later in the period with Gonchar and Malkin getting assists.

Notes:@ Carolina failed to score on the power play for only the second time in eight games. ... Penguins F Colby Armstrong returned after sitting out two games with a flu-like ailment. ... Despite the loss, Carolina is 10-4-2 in Pittsburgh since 1999. The Hurricanes also lost a 4-3 shootout decision in Mellon Arena on Oct. 19. ... Hurricanes F Erik Cole fought with Penguins D Brooks Orpik less than five minutes into the game. Cole's neck was broken when Orpik ran him into the boards in Pittsburgh late in the 2005-06 season, and Cole didn't return until Game 6 of Carolina's seven-game Stanley Cup finals win over Edmonton.