Penguins chase Marc-Andre Fleury early, win home opener

It was a hockey night in Pittsburgh on Saturday.

An announced total of 18,420 fans packed into PPG Paints Arena for the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 633rd consecutive sellout, a sequence that dates to February 2007 and across the street where Civic Arena stood.

And they got to see one of the franchise’s foundational players make his return.

With Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin sidelined because of injuries, Marc-Andre Fleury was in town, this time as a member of the Chicago Blackhawks.

And he did not receive a warm welcome.

Buoyed by four goals in the first period, the Penguins torched their former goaltender in a lopsided 5-2 victory during the home opener.

Saturday’s contest also marked the third consecutive occasion in which the Penguins scored at least four goals. Considering the absences of Crosby and Malkin to open the season, there was plenty of consternation about whether the Penguins could generate adequate offense.

“We’re a good team,” said forward Jason Zucker, who scored his first goal of the season Saturday. “We’ve got great players up and down the lineup, from fourth line to first line and all the way through our six (defensemen). We feel we can produce.

“We’ve had a lot of guys scoring goals.”

The return of Fleury, who spent the previous four seasons as a member of Vegas Golden Knights, was a highly anticipated event, especially for his former teammates.

“To see him wearing a different uniform is always weird, but we’re always looking forward to seeing him and playing against him,” Penguins defenseman Kris Letang said before the game. “It’s going to be fun tonight.”

That was evident very early. Like 15-seconds-into-regulation early.

That’s how long it took for forward Teddy Blueger to get his second goal of the season.

Rushing up the left wing into the offensive zone, Blueger shuffled a backhand pass attempt for linemate Brock McGinn in the slot. Blackhawks defenseman Seth Jones slid down to block the pass but inadvertently deflected it with a skate into the cage past a surprised Fleury.

Rookie forward Drew O’Connor scored his first career goal at 5:33 of the first period. As Fleury left his crease to play a dump-in that took an odd hop out of the left corner boards, Penguins forward Dominik Simon forechecked and forced Fleury into a turnover. O’Connor chased down the puck and tucked a backhander into the vacant net.

“Not the prettiest goal,” O’Connor said. “But it went in, I guess.”

McGinn got his first goal as a member of the Penguins in a far more cosmetically pleasing fashion at 10:59 of the first. Off a two-on-one rush, O’Connor gained the offensive zone on the left wing and fed a cross-ice forehand pass to the right circle for McGinn, who leaned down and whipped a forehand shot past Fleury’s glove on the near side.

Fleury’s night came to an end 26 seconds later. That’s when Penguins forward Danton Heinen scored his team-leading third goal — in his third game as a member of the team — with a rising wrister from the slot through traffic and over Fleury’s right shoulder.

After making only six saves on 10 shots, Fleury was pulled — perhaps for humanitarian purposes — in favor of backup Kevin Lankinen.

The Blackhawks got on the scoreboard five minutes into the middle frame when forward Patrick Kane got his first on a power-play opportunity.

Late in the second, at the 17:55 mark, Zucker scored by corralling a rebound to the right of Chicago’s crease and chipping a backhander that deflected off Blackhawks defenseman Connor Murphy’s left skate and into the cage.

Blackhawks forward Kirby Dach capped the scoring at 15:57 of the third with his second goal.

Current Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry finished with 18 saves on 20 shots in a victory that was coach Mike Sullivan’s 253rd with the Penguins, a new franchise coaching-win record for a team doing some impressive things without some of its franchise players.

“We still have a fair amount of skill in our lineup that’s very capable of scoring goals,” Sullivan said. “We believe we have enough in our lineup each and every night to compete in this league, even with the guys that we have out.”