PITTSBURGH – James van Riemsdyk scored twice, James Reimer stopped 28 shots and the Toronto Maple Leafs raced past the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-2 on Wednesday night.
Clarke MacArthur, Mikhail Grabovski and Tyler Bozak also scored for the Maple Leafs. Nikolai Kulemin added three assists as Toronto spoiled Pittsburgh’s home opener by giving the Penguins a reality check.
Sidney Crosby and reigning NHL MVP Evgeni Malkin scored their first goals of the season for Pittsburgh, but the Penguins struggled with Toronto’s speed and failed to play with the kind of discipline that highlighted opening weekend wins over Philadelphia and the New York Rangers.
Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 19 shots for the Penguins, but Pittsburgh couldn’t get off to its first 3-0 start in 18 years.
The Penguins began the shortened 48-game season with rousing road victories over the Flyers and Rangers, the kind of electric start that did little to dampen expectations about Pittsburgh being an early Stanley Cup favorite.
And that was without Crosby or Malkin scoring.
Malkin ended his drought — such as it is for a player who scored 23 goals while playing in Russia as the lockout dragged on — late in the first period when he stuffed a pass from Crosby in between Reimer’s legs to give Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead.
Toronto scored twice early in the second period to jump in front, including van Riemsdyk’s first goal for Toronto after being acquired in an offseason trade with the Flyers. Crosby needed just 25 seconds to tie it.
The speedy Maple Leafs just kept coming, with van Riemsdyk collecting his second goal of the night to give Toronto a 3-2 lead.
Grabovski and Bozak scored third-period goals for Toronto, which has won two of its first three games.
NOTES
AVALANCHE: Forward Steve Downie is out for the rest of the season after tearing his ACL against Los Angeles on Tuesday night.
SHARKS: San Jose signed free-agent center Scott Gomez to a one-year deal.
Gomez, a 12-year NHL veteran and two-time All-Star, had two goals and nine assists in 38 games with Montreal last season.
RED WINGS: Defenseman Ian White will be out 2 to 3 weeks after having surgery to repair a deep leg laceration. Some muscles in White’s leg had to be reattached during the surgery.
FLYERS: The NHL suspended forward Brayden Schenn for one game for charging New Jersey Devils defenseman Anton Volchenkov.
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