ANAHEIM, Calif. -- It could have been so much easier.

The Penguins came away from Honda Center with a 4-3 win against the Anaheim Ducks last night, giving them a slew of notable milestones.

But they would not have needed to eke out the game in the third period on Pascal Dupuis' winning goal if they had not squandered four power-play chances in the first period.

As it was, they extended their road record to 7-0, putting them into a tie for the most NHL road wins to start a season. The previous teams to do that were the 1940 Toronto Maple Leafs, the 1985 Philadelphia Flyers, the 2005 Detroit Red Wings and the current New Jersey Devils.

It also gave them just their second regulation win in their past 16 games in California, dating to the start of the 1999-2000 season.

The Penguins entered the game ranked 19th in the NHL on the power play with a 19.4 percent success rate, 23rd on the road at 15.4 percent. The Ducks had not been a force when killing penalties, either. They were ranked 27th, or fourth-worst, at 71.4 percent overall, 29th at home at 70 percent.

It's not as if the power play was not on the minds of the Penguins' coaches going into the game. Coach Dan Bylsma went into some detail after the morning skate about what his team needed to do to get more goals with a man-advantage.

"We need to rely less on skill and skill plays and focus on breaking teams down with zone time and chances and second chances," Bylsma said.

"We need to be ready to pass the puck, move around, break the team down and then get shots and second chances."

The Penguins are playing without regular right point man and power-play quarterback Sergei Gonchar, who missed his sixth game because of a broken wrist.

"I think early on, when Gonchar was gone, we looked initially for one play and a shot," Bylsma said. "We haven't gotten in position. We haven't gotten puck support. We haven't gotten a lot of zone time as a result.

"It's almost the 'Hoosier' mentality in basketball -- you need four passes to set it up, break them down, get them running around, spread them out and then get shots and chances."

Before the Penguins got any power-play chances or any shots, the Ducks took a 1-0 lead when top-line right winger Corey Perry swept the puck past goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury from the slot for his 100th career goal at 3:57 of the first period.

The Penguins tied the game, 1-1, on Mike Rupp's fourth goal of the season, from the left circle, at 2:49 of the second period.

It was not a power-play goal, but defenseman Kris Letang gave the Penguins a 2-1 lead at 10:02 of the second period during a delayed penalty call against Anaheim. Letang, who had not scored in the regular season since the finale last season, carried the puck inside the blue line from the left point and blasted it past Jonas Hiller.

Perry scored his second goal of the game on a rebound, at 16:01 of the second period to pull the Ducks even, 2-2.

The teams broke loose in the third, starting with a goal by the Penguins' Alex Goligoski at 7:55 followed 19 seconds later by a Saku Koivu goal that tied it, 3-3, followed 59 seconds later by a slap shot by Dupuis that gave the Penguins a 4-3 lead.

Koivu came close to tying it at 14:21 with a point-blank shot, but Fleury, moving to his left, made a sharp glove save.

The play was reviewed to see if Fleury carried the puck back over the goal line inside his glove, but it was not deemed a goal.

Hiller answered seconds later with a strong save on Tyler Kennedy, who was back in the lineup after missing three games with what is believed to be a groin injury.

Penguins center Sidney Crosby got into the act with a sliding save on the Duck's Scott Niedermayer to preserve the win.

Looking for more from the Post-Gazette? Join PG+, our members-only web site. You'll get exclusive sports content, opinion, financial information, discounts from retailers and restaurants, and more. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.