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  Friday, Nov. 3 10:00pm ET
Lang's three points spark Penguins
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) -- Robert Lang has become the Pittsburgh Penguins' power-play specialist.

Lang scored a pair of man-advantage goals and added an assist as the Penguins ended a two-game losing streak with a 4-2 victory Friday night over the Vancouver Canucks.

Bob Boughner
Penguins defenseman Bob Boughner had a team-high five hits vs. the Canucks on Friday.

All seven of Lang's goals this season have come on the power play.

"So far it's been bouncing our way on the power play so hopefully it's going to keep going our way for a while," said Lang, who also assisted on Jaromir Jagr's empty-net goal in the closing seconds.

Lang's goals helped Pittsburgh win for just the second time in five games and improve to 6-5-1 despite being outshot 32-14.

Lang opened the scoring with 1:36 left in the first period when he elected to shoot on a 2-on-1 break with Jagr. Lang faked the pass, then snapped a quick wrist shot from the circle that beat Bob Essensa on the short side.

He added his second goal at 7:41 of the second period. Essensa robbed Martin Straka with a diving cross-crease save, but the rebound bounced straight back to Lang in the low slot and he snapped in a quick wrist shot.

"It's not by any special focus or anything like that," Lang said. "It's a big part of the game, especially now with so many power plays, but you have to score 5-on-5 too."

Greg Hawgood and Todd Bertuzzi scored for the Canucks, who failed to earn at least one point for the first time in nine games. Vancouver dropped to 7-3-2-1.

Lang's special teams scoring touch may have given Pittsburgh the lead, but it was goaltender Garth Snow who saved two points for the Penguins.

Snow stopped 30 shots, including 13 in the third period to record his first win with the Penguins. The Canucks had several great chances to tie it after pulling Essensa with 1:15 left, but couldn't beat Snow.

"We had more than enough chances at the end of the game to get a tie and even win the game," Canucks forward Matt Cooke said. "They had three shots in the third period and unfortunately we just didn't come through with the last goal."

Jagr sealed the win at 19:37 with his 10th goal.

"I wanted this more than you could imagine," said Snow, who played for Vancouver last season. "I played all right, but I didn't play as good as I can. I was pretty fired up and I had to just try to stay calm. I don't have my best game right now because I missed training camp so I'm just trying to get back into it technically."

Pittsburgh, with the NHL's third-best power play, finished 2-for-3 with the man advantage. Vancouver was 0-for-5 on the power play.

"Special teams was the difference tonight," Canucks coach Marc Crawford said. "I thought we outplayed Pittsburgh if you look at all the elements of the game, except the special teams. I really thought that was all they had. The got their momentum off their special teams play -- off the penalty kill and off the power play -- and we allowed them to be around because of that."

Rene Corbet was the only Penguin to score at full strength.

Corbet made it 3-1 at 15:32 of the second when he slid headfirst along the ice and knocked a bouncing puck out of the air and over Essensa's blocker for his first goal of the season.

"That's my style," Corbet said with a smile. "I don't care. A goal is a goal, but two points is the key."

Essensa only stopped nine shots and lost for the first time this season after four victories.

Game notes
When Pittsburgh wraps up their three-game road trip at Calgary on Saturday, it will be the fifth time the Penguins have played on consecutive days this season. ... Vancouver has only one victory over Pittsburgh in the last 17 meetings. ... Pittsburgh coach Ivan Hlinka played for the Canucks with Crawford when the team went to the Stanley Cup finals in 1982. ... Vancouver defenseman Adrian Aucoin missed his second straight game with a strained groin.

 


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 Rene Corbet pushes the shot past Bob Essensa.
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