Pittsburgh Penguins rise, shock Florida Panthers

PITTSBURGH — This article originally appeared on PGHHockeyNOW.com.

The Pittsburgh Penguins (4-6-1) had the deck stacked against them going into their game with the Florida Panthers (5-4-2) on Thursday night at PPG Paints Arena. They were returning home from a winless four-game road trip and were without Ben Kindel, Bryan Rust, and Egor Chinakhov, all key cogs of their offense. On top of that, their opponent was a Florida team many consider a Stanley Cup contender.

With all that working against them, it would have been easy to write this one off, but that was not the case. The Penguins showed resilience, grit, and determination in defeating the Panthers 4-0. Nick Robertson scored twice and Arturs Silovs turned aside all 24 Florida shots for his second shutout of the season.

Pittsburgh had the better of the play in the first, outshooting Florida 8-5. The Panthers managed only five shots in the period, but Silovs had to be sharp on the very first one, a point-blank chance from Sam Bennett 5:39 into the game. Without three of their top scorers, the Penguins needed offense from elsewhere, and they got it when Robertson and the fourth line broke the scoreless stalemate at 15:19.

Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts.

Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW