Giguere playing stingy
Colorado goalie blanks Penguins
Jean-Sebastien Giguere turned aside 34 shots for his second shutout in 11 days and the Colorado Avalanche edged the Penguins, 1-0, Monday night in Pittsburgh.
Gabriel Landeskog scored 5:26 into the second period as Colorado improved to 8-1, the best start in franchise history.
The game was billed as a fight for bragging rights between Pittsburgh star Sidney Crosby and Colorado rookie Nathan MacKinnon. The former No. 1 picks both are from Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia.
Instead, Giguere stole the show. Pittsburgh went 0 for 7 on the power play and lost for the first time at home despite outshooting the Avalanche, 3414.
‘‘It’s a new season, new attitude,’’ Giguere said. ‘‘I would have believed being over .500 [early] but not 8-1.’’ Believe it. Giguere made Landeskog’s goal stand up as the 36-year-old shut out the Bruins on the road on Oct. 10 and might have been even better against the Penguins.
Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 13 shots for the Penguins (7-2).
The Avalanche have been nothing short of a revelation during the season’s opening weeks thanks to steady goaltending and first-year head coach Patrick Roy’s fiery competitiveness.
They needed both to withstand three periods of steady pressure from Crosby.
The Penguins dominated the early going, but had nothing to show for it as four power plays went to waste.
Giguere was spectacular at times, no more so than when he robbed Chris Kunitz with a glove save on a breakout with less than eight minutes remaining. Sharks 1, Red Wings 0 — Logan Couture scored in the shootout and Antti Niemi — who got his 24th career shutout — made 24 saves to lift San Jose past host Detroit. The Sharks (8-0-1) are the NHL’s last team without a regulation loss.
‘‘We scored a lot of goals in our first eight games. We’re not going to keep scoring like that,’’ Couture said.
Niemi stopped Todd Bertuzzi on Detroit’s final shootout try with a spectacular pad save. Flames 3, Kings 2— T.J. Brodie scored a power-play goal with 30 seconds remaining in the game to power Calgary past host Los Angeles.
With 2:12 left in the third period, LA’s Anze Kopitar was called for hooking Dennis Wideman and the Flames peppered goalie Jonathan Quick (22 saves) before Brodie struck for his first goal of the season.