PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- A power outage was the least of the Pittsburgh Penguins' problems in the first period.
Antti Laaksonen scored twice before the lights went out at Mellon Arena and Marian Gaborik converted a penalty shot in the second period, leading the Minnesota Wild to a 6-2 rout of the reeling Penguins.
Pittsburgh has been outscored, 26-4, for the worst first-period goal differential in the NHL. By the time the power failed in the final minute of the period, the Penguins were facing a 3-0 deficit.
Asked why his team struggles early, Pittsburgh coach Ed Olczyk said, "I don't know. We are going to continue to fight and try to figure it out. ... I thought we did a lot of strong things in the first period."
Laaksonen started the scoring at 8:03 when he banked a shot from the side of the net off defenseman Patrick Boileau and past rookie goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury. Just 37 seconds after Sergei Zholtok converted a perfect cross-ice pass from Pierre-Marc Bouchard at 18:51, Laaksonen capped his second two-goal game of the season.
"When you shoot the puck, it can go in the net," said Laaksonen, who ended a six-game drought.
Pulled down from behind by Pittsburgh's Steve McKenna with 5:44 to go in the second period, Gaborik made no mistake on his second career penalty shot as he beat Sebastien Caron between the pads.
"I didn't want to try dekes," Gaborik said. "Saw the five-hole, hit it as good as I could and it went in."
Wild coach Jacques Lemaire liked what he saw from Gaborik, just days after criticizing the team's leading scorer each of the previous two seasons.
"I really loved Gabby tonight because I tried him on the point (on the power play) and he did well," Lemaire said. "I made him kill penalties tonight."
Caron came on after Laaksonen's second goal, ending the shortest start of Fleury's brief career.
"Not too surprised they took me out," Fleury said. "Three quick goals there, maybe it was good to shake up the team. My job is to stop the puck. ... The last couple of games, I've not had good beginnings, just have to find a way to work harder in practice."
Before the game, Penguins general manager Craig Patrick suggested that Fleury might be returned to his junior team soon to avoid incentives that could push his 2003-04 salary to $5 million.
"He deserves to be here, he is the best 18-year-old goalie in the world," Olczyk said. "Everybody goes through tough times, that will not change. What's going to happen tomorrow or two weeks from now or two months from now, I don't think any of us can know."
Minnesota's Dwayne Roloson stopped 38 shots and squared his record at 5-5-1, meaning he no longer has the best save percentage among goalies with losing records.
"If you stop the puck, wins and everything else will come," he said. "All year, I've been trying to think about everything except winning or losing, just stopping as many pucks as I can."
The Wild improved to 4-2-1 in their last seven road games, while the Penguins have lost six of seven overall.
