PHILADELPHIA — The Pittsburgh Penguins won 10 straight games for the sixth time in franchise history, getting two goals each from Bryan Rust and Jake Guentzel to beat the depleted Philadelphia Flyers, 6-2, Thursday night.
The Penguins won the second game of a back-to-back and haven’t lost since Dec. 1 against Edmonton. The Penguins won five games during the streak on the road and can think about the team record of 17 straight set over March-April 1993. The Penguins also won 15 straight games in March 2013 and have winning streaks of 12, 11 and 10 games, all since 1999.
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The 29-year-old Rust has keyed the recent surge with seven goals in the last three games since he returned from an 11-game absence with an undisclosed injury. He scored a power-play goal in the first period — with an assist from noted Flyers tormentor Sidney Crosby — and then added his ninth goal of the season just 2:34 later to make it 2-0. Rust recorded a hat trick and had five points against San Jose on Sunday.
Guentzel scored against Carter Hart to make it 3-0 in the first, giving the forward a point in each of his last 16 games. Guentzel scored again with 9:40 left in the game for a 5-1 lead.
The Penguins played a Flyers team ravaged with injuries and even more players in the COVID-19 protocol. The Flyers had six players in the protocol, including top-point scorer and team captain Claude Giroux, defenseman Ivan Provorov and forward Travis Konecny. The NHL postponed Thursday’s game between Anaheim and the Detroit Red Wings because of COVID-19-related issues affecting the Ducks.
Yet the Flyers played on and lost their fourth straight game.