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East beats West: Pens win battle of conference leaders

Pittsburgh Penguins v Toronto Maple Leafs

TORONTO, CANADA - OCTOBER 29: James Neal #18 of the Pittsburgh Penguins skates during NHL game action against the Toronto Maple Leafs October 29, 2011 at Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Brad White/Getty Images)

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The Penguins took advantage of a depleted Stars defensive corps to beat Dallas 3-1 in a battle of conference leaders. The Stars jumped out to an early lead when Eric Nystrom popped the cork on the scoring. At that point, the Stars packed up their bags and left for Detroit. Unfortunately, there were still two more periods to be played in Pittsburgh.

The win must have felt good for Pittsburgh sniper James Neal. It was the first time Neal had faced the Stars since he was traded with Matt Niskanen for Alex Goligoski in the middle of last season. Neal said “it was a little weird at first” to play his former team, but he got over that awkward feeling pretty quickly. To celebrate the occasion, Neal buried his 10th and 11th goals of the season against his former team.

Who would have predicted at the beginning of the season that James Neal would be the second leading goal scorer in the NHL?

The big news out of the game for the Stars may have nothing to do with the final score. The other half that trade had a tough return home. Alex Goligoski left the game with an upper-body injury after taking a shot off the hand on his second shift of the game. He’s expected to get an x-ray to find out the extent of the injury, but Stars head coach Glen Gulutzan said he’ll be out “for a little bit.” In fact, he’s heading straight home while the rest of the team heads to Detroit to continue their road trip.

With Friday night’s win, the Penguins are sitting on top of the entire NHL (at the time of writing) with 23 points. Their reward for the tough victory is a visit from the struggling Carolina Hurricanes tomorrow night who have lost four straight.

Either way, Pittsburgh doesn’t need the help of a struggling team. The streaking Pens have points in eight of their last nine games and may get Sidney Crosby back as soon as Tuesday night against the Colorado Avalanche. Talk about the rich just getting richer.