Murray, Letang lead Penguins in blowout over Ducks

ANAHEIM, Calif. - Kris Letang scored a power-play goal and had an assist in his return from an upper-body injury, Matthew Murray stopped 32 shots in his season debut, and the Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Anaheim Ducks 5-1 on Wednesday night.

Patric Hornqvist, Bryan Rust, Matt Cullen and Evgeni Malkin also scored for the Penguins, who improved to 7-2-1 despite not having Murray to start the season after breaking his hand during the World Cup of Hockey.

Ducks goaltender John Gibson made 29 saves, including stopping a penalty shot by Scott Wilson after being bowled over by the Penguins forward.

Malkin put the Penguins ahead 7:41 into the first period, scoring his sixth goal of the season.

Cullen scored 2:33 later to give the Penguins a 2-0 lead on his 40th birthday. The Ducks challenged that Tom Sestito was offside when playing a long pass from Eric Fehr before setting up Cullen, but video review was inconclusive and the play stood as called.

Cam Fowler scored the Ducks' lone goal on the power play with 4:11 left in the first period, with Ryan Kesler adding an assist for his 500th career point.

NOTES:

Penguins: Sidney Crosby extended his points streak to four games with an assist.

Ducks: C Ryan Getzlaf and LW Nick Ritchie did not play and are day-to-day with upper-body injuries. . Ducks RW Ondrej Kase made his NHL debut. The 20-year-old played 8:42 and had a minus-1 rating.

UP NEXT:

Penguins: Visit Los Angeles on Thursday.

Ducks: Host Arizona on Friday.