“It was a good win tonight,” said Brodziak. “We did a good job offensively. With the exception of a couple of five-on-three goals that we allowed, I thought we did a pretty good job of shutting them down,” he said.

That stifling mentality kept things going in the Penguins favor, as solid team defense prevailed in the second.

Minutes into the period, Matt Hendricks corralled a puck and skated in on Pens goalie Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers on a partial breakaway. Deslauriers, who had seen just 6 shots through 25 minutes of play, was equal to the task though, snuffing Hendricks’ wrister.

Less than a minute later, Kurtis McLean would widen the gap as he came flying down the wing and fired a lazer five-hole on Bears netminder Daigneault to put the Penguins up 4-0.

The Bears countered when Deryk Engelland recorded his first of the year, but Noah Welch would fire back 19 seconds later, continuing his point streak to four games, when he rocketed a Wade Skolney feed top-shelf for his fifth of the season at 17:57 to put the home team up 6-1 entering the second intermission.

The wounded Bears would turn to rookie netminder Daren Machesney to stop the bleeding in the third, but the high-flying Penguins onslaught would continue, as Jonathan Filewich picked up his team-leading 16th goal of the season when he shuffled home an Alexei Mikhnov rebound.

Tyler Kennedy kicked home the extra point, making things 7-1 with a powerplay tally, when he walked in on goal, deked to his backhand and slid the puck just beyond the outstretched pad of Machesney to pickup his second of the game.

But Kennedy was far from finished on this night, as he fed Brodziak who recorded his 13th of the season in completing the hat trick at 11:02. The feat was the first career three-goal game for Brodziak, who also had an assist to tie his career-high point total set December 16th versus Philadelphia.

Not to be outdone, the assist on Brodziak’s goal gave Kennedy his fifth point on the evening, tying a team record held by Kurtis McLean and former Penguin John Slaney.

“We had a little bit of a letdown last night, and everyone knew we had to come out and play hard tonight, so we did and we got a good result,” said Kennedy. “After a loss, good teams come out and win. That’s what we did tonight.”