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PITTSBURGH -- The Pittsburgh Penguins started defense of their Stanley Cup championship without their captain and Stanley Cup-clinching goaltender, but that hasnt been a problem thanks to Marc-Andre Fleury.Fleury made 33 saves, including several quality third-period stops while the Anaheim Ducks pressed for the tying goal, allowing Phil Kessels power-play goal in the second to stand as the game-winner in the Penguins 3-2 victory Saturday night.They threw a lot of pucks at the net from anywhere, Fleury said. They had guys around the net trying to screen and tip, but it worked out all right in the end.It has worked out for Fleury, too.Fleury, who led the Penguins to a Stanley Cup in 2009, lost his starting job to Matt Murray after sustaining the second of two concussions late in the regular season last spring. That opened the door for the 22-year-old Murray to backstop the Penguins to their fourth Stanley Cup in franchise history.Murray, however, broke his hand during the World Cup of Hockey and Fleury has stepped up in his absence, stopping 73 of 77 shots in two wins.Were not surprised by it, defenseman Trevor Daley said. Thats just Marc, thats the way he is. Hes a great goalie.Ian Cole and Conor Sheary also scored for the defending champion Penguins, who won their fourth straight home game against Anaheim and are 6-1 in their last seven games overall against the Ducks.Chris Kunitz got his 200th assist with the Penguins in his 500th game with the team. Kunitz, who was acquired from Anaheim in 2009, became the 18th player and fifth active to play 500 games with Pittsburgh.Anaheims Corey Perry scored his first of the season and 13th goal in 14 games against Pittsburgh. Cam Fowler scored on the power play for the Ducks, who havent won in Pittsburgh in more than four years.Jonathan Bernier stopped 42 shots in his debut with the Ducks after being acquired from Toronto in the offseason. Bernier got the start over Pittsburgh native John Gibson, who allowed six goals during each of the previous two starts in his hometown.We knew it would be a quick game with their speed and the way they like to play, Perry said. I thought we had a great start, but I thought we relaxed a little bit in the first period and they took it to us. We had to start playing catch-up.Crosby remains day-to-day with a concussion sustained during practice last week. The Conn Smythe Trophy winner missed practice Friday, but skated on his own Saturday morning before sitting out the teams optional morning skate.Evgeni Malkin, the 2011-12 NHL MVP, had one assist to help the Penguins improve to 96-49-18 in 163 regular-season games without Crosby.The Ducks are still looking for their first win under returning coach Randy Carlyle, who is back on the bench for his second stint with the team. Carlyle, who was with the team from 2005-11, is the Ducks all-time winningest coach and led the franchise to a Stanley Cup in 2007.To me, its too early, Carlyle said. Our teams not playing to the level thats required right now from our group.Fleury turned aside 12 shots in the first 10 minutes, including a sharp pad save on Chris Wagner from the top of the crease. That allowed Cole to put the Penguins in front with a seeing-eye shot from the point.The Ducks tied it soon after, cashing in on a two-man advantage, as Fowler beat Fleury with a slap shot from the right faceoff dot.Shearys goal early in the second period gave the Penguins a 2-1 lead. Bernier misplayed the puck along the side of the net and Sheary scored after a scrum in front.The puck was kind of bouncing around the crease, Sheary said. The ref had a good angle and Im glad he didnt blow it down because Bernier didnt have possession. I kind of whacked away at it and it went in.Kessel extended the lead with a power-play goal, but Perry cut the deficit to 3-2 less than three minutes later. Fleury made the initial pad save off the faceoff, but Perry scored on the rebound.Fleury shut the door the rest of the way.I thought Marc was great and he made some timely saves when we broke down, Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said.Game notes The Penguins paid tribute to players from the franchises first decade on Saturday as part of a 50th-season celebration. ... Anaheim scratched Clayton Stoner, Simon Despres and Emerson Etem. Derrick Pouliot and Matt Murray were scratched for Pittsburgh.UP NEXTDucks: Continue a season-opening five-game road swing at the New York Islanders on Sunday.Penguins: Host Colorado on Monday. PORTLAND, Ore. -- The Western New York Flash won just three games on the road during a National Womens Soccer League regular season that stretched from spring blooms into fall foliage. All three road wins came against teams that ultimately failed to make the playoffs, the last of those wins necessary on the final day of the regular season to ensure they avoided that same playoff-less fate.On Sunday afternoon at Providence Park, in front of an NWSL postseason record crowd of 20,086 and against the leagues best team, the Flash did enough to win another road game.Then they did it all over again, a 4-3 overtime victory earning a place in next weeks title game.When it ended, Portland coach Mark Parsons called it the game of the year. He was half right.It was one game. And what a game it was. But Western New York had to win it twice.Which is in its own way twice as impressive.Ahead by two goals against a host that had trailed by that margin just once at home this season, Western New York watched its lead evaporate. Instead of victory, there was 30 minutes more soccer. So the Flash, without momentum on their side, without the crowd on their side and without their ejected coach on the sideline, did it all over again. Two goals in the first period of overtime finally proved enough to win the day.It was the antithesis of so much that is postseason soccer, when the stakes tempt coaches and players to tread caution. Portland not only won the regular season title but compiled the best goal differential and allowed fewer goals than any other team. It did that without many of its best players for long stretches -- seven of 11 starters in Sundays semifinals were also Olympians who spent a good bit of the summer in Brazil. Despite all of that, Western New York refused to play it safe.There was never a chance we were going to park the bus, said Western New York coach Paul Riley, who was ejected late in the first half after arguing with officials and watched the remainder of the game from behind the scenes while assistant Scott Vallow took charge. Were just not that type of team. Even if I told them to park the bus, they wouldnt park the bus. Theyd just ignore me.But with a field littered with proven international stars, almost all of them in Portlands red uniforms and most of them occupying the entirety of the midfield, the Flash floored it. They were direct, aggressive and full throttle.You let Allie Long get on the ball, Lindsey Horan get on the ball, and eventually theyre going to break you down, Riley said of two of Portlands many game-controlling midfielders. The problem is if you do that, and then they score, then what? Whats Plan B after that? Because now youve got to come and open the game up. I think from the start we felt make it an attacking game, open the game up, make it a free-for-all and see what happens.Already sparsely coiffed, Parsons said he lost more hair and felt as if he had four heart attacks. Which more or less sums up the Flashs success in making it a roiling tempest of a game.Western New York struck first, against the early run of play, when a teammates scuffed shot fell to Sam Mewis in the box and she stuck the ball in the back of the net in the 16th minute. Rookie Makenzy Doniak made it 2-0 in the 38th minute, heading in a cross from Jessica McDonald. Both goals were indirectly the result of long McDonald throw-ins. In fact, three of the four goals Western New York scored began with McDonald chucking the ball into dangerous space and seeing what the ensuing chaos produced.Throw the ball far, Christine Sinclair half joked when asked what Western New York was able to do to be so successful. We knew it was a huge weapon for them. And we faced it before. Its just we werent able to deal with that todayy.dddddddddddd We talked about it before the game, [that] its almost better for them to have the ball at their feet than for us to kick the ball out for a throw-in. But we didnt learn from it, and we kept giving them those opportunities. And they made us pay.Notably gracious in defeat, though it had to sting for a player who has been so good for so long that is easy to forget even her prime will eventually end, Sinclair wasnt diminishing the Flash. But if the goals came courtesy of a not-so-secret weapon, the win was much more involved.After goals from Portlands Sinclair and Emily Sonnett leveled the game after 90 minutes, Western New Yorks Lynn Williams scored both of her teams goals in the first overtime. That pushed the lead to 4-2 before the Thorns pulled one back in an ultimately fruitless effort to force penalty kicks.One Williams goal was the eventual result of another throw-in, the other a terrific first-touch finish off an assist from Mewis at the end of a long counter attack. But this wasnt a result earned through momentary opportunism. More than the goals, Williams embodied Western New Yorks game plan on the day when she pressed a Thorns defender in the corner nearest Portlands goal early in the second overtime period. The crowd roared their approval, rightly, when a corner wasnt conceded. But in the bowels of the stadium, Riley had to be cheering the effort still present in his young forward nearly two hours into the match.The part that I like about her is shes very coachable, Riley said. She wants to learn. She knows how to run now. We spent a lot of time with her. I had Amy Rodriguez when Amy was this age, and shes very similar. Great speed, great turn of pace. She knows how to run. Shes now learning how to hold the ball up a little bit. Her finishing is getting better. Shes got all the tools. She didnt play at a big school, she didnt play in a big club program. Shes a brilliant story.The leagues Golden Ball winner, tied for the regular-season lead in goals with Houstons Kealia Ohai, Williams is a star in the making. Western New York has several of those.I think she deserves to be MVP, to be perfectly honest with you, Riley said.There was, of course, some sweet vindication for Riley, even in absentia. Let go by the Thorns after two disappointing seasons and no playoff wins, he took over Western New York only a couple of months before the regular season. He recalled a meeting early in the process when it seemed both he and the players were wondering if it was the right fit. But the Flash won their opening game at FC Kansas City, one of those three road wins, after a late missed penalty.Maybe that changed the season for us, I dont know, Riley said.Defeat has a thousand fathers. Portland didnt deal well with McDonalds throw-ins, or generally with the size and physicality she and Williams offered. The fans inside Providence Park certainly made it clear they felt the officiating didnt help, either, a possible handball and several other penalty shouts uncalled. Horan hit the crossbar in the first overtime, and Western New York cleared a potential leveler in the second overtime.Western New York could have lost. More important is a team with so little experience played to win.Maybe the playoffs were a possibility, they reasoned after that opening win in Kansas City. Then in another year or two, the young players more seasoned, perhaps a run at a championship. Instead, its on to Houston.We just didnt expect it, Ill be perfectly honest with you, Riley said. But here we are.They could have fooled a lot of people Sunday. Its hard enough to win in Portland once.Let alone twice. ' ' '