DALLAS -- It had become the Penguins' mantra.
They've been playing the right way, they'd say. Just keep doing it and the victories will come.
Players and coaches alike repeated it so often -- and with such conviction -- that you knew they genuinely believed it. But while it all seemed perfectly reasonable, that didn't mean it was inevitable.
Oh sure, the Penguins were going to win again -- did anyone really think they'd finish 6-76? -- but there was no guarantee when. And considering the circumstances during the second intermission Saturday night at the American Airlines Center -- the Penguins were being outshot, 22-11, had turned in a lackluster second period and Sidney Crosby had just stopped a Kris Letang shot with the left side of his head -- there wasn't much reason to think they would be flying home Sunday with anything more than a fourth consecutive loss.
Indeed, it looked as if it would take something extraordinary, if not unprecedented, for the Penguins to have any chance of winning.
And they got something that qualified on both counts: A goal by Dominik Kahun. Yes, that Dominik Kahun. The one who hadn't scored in 11 games since being acquired from Chicago.
"I'm definitely happy," Kahun said.
And while his goal from along the goal line to the right of the Dallas net wasn't worth the 12-game wait -- few goals shy of a Stanley Cup-winner would be -- it wasn't all that far from it, either.
That's because Kahun's goal was the only one the Penguins would need in what became a 3-0 victory over the Stars, a win that pulled them out of a three-game skid and provided a payoff for adhering to the style Sullivan has been preaching.
While getting those two points was critical for the Penguins, having Crosby be able to return a few minutes into the third period was even more important. Although he didn't speak with reporters after the game -- a team official said Crosby was meeting with the medical staff -- Mike Sullivan gave a fairly encouraging assessment.
"We're always concerned when somebody gets hit with a shot like that," he said. "But he was able to come back into the game. He was evaluated by the doctors. We'll continue to evaluate him."
Whether the Penguins' inspired performance during the third period had anything to do with Crosby's return might never be known, but it probably wouldn't have mattered much if Matt Murray hadn't been so exceptional during the first 40 minutes.
"I just tried to do my job," he said. "I just tried to make as many saves as I could."
Which, in this case, worked out to exactly one for every shot he faced.
Murray earned his 11th career shutout by recording 25 saves, but only three of those came during the third period, during which the Penguins launched 15 at Stars goalie Ben Bishop and another into an empty net. For the previous 40 minutes, however, Murray singlehandedly kept the Penguins in the game.
"Matt was big," Sullivan said. "He made the timely saves for us, like he does."
Bishop made a few over the course of the evening, too, but the Penguins overwhelmed him and his teammates during the third.
"They came out and shoved it right down our throat," Stars coach Jim Montgomery said. "We never recovered. We never responded."
Not unless a figurative whimper counts as a response, anyway.
Although Kahun's goal -- and Murray's goaltending -- was all the Penguins would need, Bryan Rust, who was activated from Injured Reserve just hours before the game, made it 2-0 at 9:07 of the third, as his wraparound attempt near the left post caromed off the skate of Dallas defenseman John Klingberg and past Bishop.
By then, the Penguins were controlling play all over the ice.
"We said after the second period that we have to step up," Kahun said. "We have to play better."
And they did. Maybe better than they have all season.
So while they only took two of a possible six points out of this three-game swing, it hardly was an abject failure.
"We only get one win on this road trip, but we could have had more," Sullivan said. "When I look back on the whole road trip, we probably had one period that we didn't like, and it was the second period tonight. But I really liked the response our team had in the third. We pushed hard."
And, he might have added, they did it the right way.
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