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  Friday, Jan. 7 7:30pm ET
Penguins keep winning for Brooks
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Matthew Barnaby got Toronto goalie Curtis Joseph's attention with some rough play. Maple Leafs coach Pat Quinn is still trying to get the referees to take notice.

"I'd like to take a stick and hit them over the head, but you can't do that," Quinn said after Toronto's 5-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday night.

Jaromir Jagr and Cory Cross
Toronto's Cory Cross couldn't stop NHL scoring leader Jaromir Jagr from getting his 70th point on Friday.
"What do you do? You cry. I'm sitting here crying."

The Penguins were only called for three penalties, none of them involving contact with Joseph. Quinn and Joseph were particularly upset about a sequence that led to Michal Rozsival's goal that gave the Penguins a 3-1 lead.

"They ran the goaltender on it. He hadn't recovered when it goes in the net," Quinn said. "They ran the goaltender several times and it seemed to be all right."

Pittsburgh coach Herb Brooks won for the 200th time in his NHL coaching victory. Brooks, 10-4 since replacing Kevin Constantine on Dec. 9, has a career record of 200-202-61 with the New York Rangers, Minnesota, New Jersey and Pittsburgh.

Alexei Kovalev scored a short-handed goal with 2:01 left in the second period to give the Penguins a 2-1 lead. Kovalev's first shot was blocked by defenseman Alexander Karpotsev, but the Pittsburgh forward was able to get the puck through goalie Curtis Joseph's pads for his 15th goal.

Darius Kasparaitis, Michal Rozsival, Jan Hrdina and Martin Straka also scored for the Penguins. Dimitri Yushkevich and Jonas Hoglund scored for the Maple Leafs, 1-3 since a season-best six-game winning streak.

Kasparaitis scored on the first shot of the night, one game after Brooks complained that his team didn't shoot enough.

"We had a meeting before the game about how we have to concentrate on putting the puck on net," Kasparaitis said. "I just threw it on the net and sometimes it goes in. I didn't even know I scored until I saw the light."

Brooks said he told the players they had to shoot more, particularly against a goalie as skilled as Joseph. After Wednesday night's 3-1 loss to New Jersey, he complained that the Penguins were trying too hard to make finesse plays and overpassing the puck. He said his players were "painting the Sistine Chapel and we want someone to paint a garage."

Hoglund tied it with 4:09 left in the first period, scoring off Steve Thomas' pass from behind the net.

After Kovalev broke the tie late in the second, Rozsival made it 3-1 at 2:36 of the third, firing a shot from the point that went in just under the crossbar.

Yushkevich countered for the Maple Leafs at 3:51, but Hrdina countered for the Penguins at 5:40 to restore the two-goal margin. Straka added an empty-net goal with 1:04 left.

Jaromir Jagr assisted on Pittsburgh's final two goals to increase his NHL-leading points total to 70. He has 32 goals and 38 assists in 38 games.

 


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RECAPS
Anaheim 4
Carolina 4

Pittsburgh 5
Toronto 2

Vancouver 3
Dallas 1

Colorado 4
Montreal 1

Edmonton 5
Tampa Bay 1

AUDIO/VIDEO
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 Darius Kasparaitis scores the first goal for the pens.
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