Penguins 4, Wild 1: Chris Kunitz scored his fifth goal in three games and Thomas Greiss made 33 saves as visiting Pittsburgh recorded its fifth consecutive victory.

Nick Spaling and Brandon Sutter also tallied and defenseman Rob Scuderi notched two assists for the Penguins, who killed off all four Minnesota power plays and are a perfect 30-for-30 over the last eight contests. Patric Hornqvist added an empty-net goal with 1:34 remaining to seal the win and Evgeni Malkin had an assist to extend his season-opening point streak to 11 games.

Nino Niederreiter scored with his team short-handed for his second goal in as many contests for the Wild, who saw their three-game winning streak come to a halt and suffered their first loss in six contests at Xcel Energy Center. Darcy Kuemper turned aside 18 shots in defeat.

After Marc-Andre Fleury registered back-to-back shutouts over Los Angeles and Buffalo, respectively, Greiss nearly recorded his fourth career blanking while making the most of his first appearance since Oct. 24. Niederreiter ended Pittsburgh's scoreless stretch at 205 minutes, 28 seconds and trimmed the Penguins' lead to 3-1 midway through the third by converting a breakaway for his first career short-handed tally.

Steve Downie forced a turnover by Minnesota's Thomas Vanek at the blue line and skated in before feeding Spaling deep in the left circle to open the scoring with 54 seconds remaining of the first period. Sutter completed a 3-on-1 rush by beating Kuemper over his blocker at 2:08 of the second before Malkin's slap-pass from the left circle was redirected into the net by Kunitz at 15:33.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Spaling has recorded six goals in 15 games versus the Wild and 36 tallies in 293 contests versus the rest of the league. ... Pittsburgh's Robert Bortuzzo blocked two shots in his first game this season while playing in place of fellow D Olli Maatta, who underwent surgery to remove a tumor on his thyroid. ... New Minnesota Twins manager Paul Molitor was in attendance and was presented with a No. 4 Wild jersey by owner Craig Leipold.