Bill Guerin's contribution to the Penguins' 5-2 victory against the Anaheim Ducks last night at Mellon Arena won't get a catchy nickname.

You know, like the Gordie Howe hat trick, which consists of a goal, an assist and a fight.

But it was a microcosm of the talents that have allowed him to play 1,206 games in the NHL, and figure to keep him here for a few more.

"It's kind of the way I've played my whole career," he said. "I'm playing my best when I'm doing things like that."

Things such as making the Penguins' first goal possible by setting an impenetrable screen that prevented Ducks goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere from seeing Matt Cooke's backhander from the slot at 1:31 of the first. Like scoring their second during a power play -- yes, a power play -- a few minutes later. Like capping his performance by scrapping with Ducks center Ryan Getzlaf early in the third.

Vintage Guerin, especially the net-front presence and scoring touch.

"When he's at his best, he's playing with an edge," Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said. "And you saw that tonight."

Not that Guerin's fingerprints were the only ones on this victory, which was the Penguins' second in a row and raised their record to 14-7.

Cooke scored their first and final goals, for example. Jordan Staal got a short-handed goal and picked up an assist. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 23 of 25 shots. Defenseman Martin Skoula scored his first goal as a Penguins player, and recent call-ups Deryk Engelland and Ben Lovejoy were excellent on the blue line.

"They made smart plays with the puck and they made some smart plays defensively," Bylsma said.

The contributions of Engelland and Lovejoy -- who were joined yesterday by Hopewell High School product Nate Guenin -- were particular important because Alex Goligoski joined fellow defensemen Sergei Gonchar, Brooks Orpik and Kris Letang on the injured list.

Gonchar could be back in the lineup soon, however, and the same is true of injured forward Max Talbot.

Anaheim, meanwhile, closed out a 0-3-1 road trip and fell to 6-10-3, a disappointing record for a team with the nucleus of talent the Ducks possess. Even more troubling for Ducks coach Randy Carlyle was the shaggy performance his players produced.

"We didn't execute at an NHL level," Carlyle said. "It's as simple as that."

That began with the earliest shifts of the game.

Cooke put the Penguins in front to stay 91 seconds after the opening faceoff, when he floated a shot past Giguere from above the hash marks. Although no assists were awarded on the goal, Guerin made it possible by not allowing Giguere to follow the puck.

"Billy did an unbelievable job getting the screen," Cooke said. "I mean, let's face it, I didn't shoot it very hard. [Giguere] just didn't see it, because Billy had a great screen."

He got off a pretty fair shot at 5:13, too, when he one-timed a Sidney Crosby pass by Giguere from about 35 feet to break the Penguins' 0-for-30 drought on the power play. They were just 1 for 7 with the extra man for the game, but simply scoring once was a start.

"It feels good," Guerin said. "We definitely have some work, because we could be better. But it was good to finally get one."

After Todd Marchant got the Ducks back into the game with a short-handed goal at 9:06, Staal countered that with one of his own for the Penguins at 4:09 of the second.

He pulled in a lead pass from Engelland and carried the puck down the right side, then cut to the net and flipped a shot past Giguere high on the stick side for his fifth of the season.

"I'm starting to think that's the only way Jordan scores, putting that leg in and driving the net," Bylsma said. "That was a huge goal for him, a penalty-kill situation against a dangerous power play."

It also netted Engelland his first NHL point.

Skoula put the game out of reach at 3:28 of the third and, after Teemu Selanne of the Ducks bounced a shot past Fleury at 17:21, Cooke closed out the scoring with an empty-netter 12.9 seconds before time expired.

Guerin didn't figure in on Cooke's second goal, but he already had done plenty by that time.

"He's been getting better every game, and really taking over, helping to be a leader on this team," Cooke said. "And leading by example."

Penguins Plus, a blog by Dave Molinari and Shelly Anderson, is featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.