TORONTO -- Simply seeing the Penguins score a power-play goal -- a game-winner, at that -- probably would have been enough novelty for one night.

Or week.

But that's not how things played out during the Penguins' 4-1 victory against Toronto at the Air Canada Centre last evening.

Not even close.

The man-advantage goal Sergei Gonchar scored late in the second period to put them in front to stay served mostly to trigger one of the more peculiar sequences in recent franchise history.

Gonchar beat Maple Leafs goalie Jonas Gustavsson at 14:44 to break a 1-1 tie, but neither the on-ice officials nor the goal judge saw the puck enter the net.

Consequently, play continued and, not many seconds later, Maple Leafs penalty-killer Alexei Ponikarovsky broke in on Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, prompting Gonchar to hook him from behind.

The referees determined that a penalty shot was in order but, after a video review determined that Gonchar actually had scored, that infraction was changed to a minor penalty.

The key to the ruling can be found in Rule 78.6 which reads, in part, that "Only one goal can be awarded at any stoppage in play."

Had Ponikarovsky scored when Gonchar hooked him, his goal would have been waved off after it was determined that Gonchar's goal should have counted. Penalties assessed after a goal is validated by video review, however, must be served to deter teams from taking liberties against the opposition when they know they will be awarded a goal at the next stoppage.

Penguins assistant coach Tony Granato had witnessed a similar sequence at some point because coach Dan Bylsma said he briefed the bench on how things would play out, but most players said they never had witnessed anything like it. "It's the first time it's happened in my life," Gonchar said. "I was talking to the guys, and they said the same thing. I never seen it before, and I don't know if I'll see it again."

Just to be clear, he wasn't talking about the Penguins scoring a power-play goal, even though his was just their second in the past seven games.

The victory was the Penguins' second in three games, and raised their record to 28-17-1.

The only significant negative was that defenseman Brooks Orpik missed most of the game with an unspecified injury. He apparently was hurt in a collision with Toronto's Niklas Hagman.

Bylsma said he did not know if the injury is severe but didn't seem terribly optimistic.

"My hope is that it's not too severe, but there wasn't a chance he was going to come back and play," he said. "We'll see how [it is today]."

The two-goal game by Gonchar, who had missed the previous four games with a bruised bone in his leg, and the circumstances surrounding his first goal overshadowed a sensational performance by Fleury.

He stopped 42 shots after being yanked during the Penguins' 7-4 loss to Philadelphia Thursday.

"I had a chance to bounce back, to play better," Fleury said. "It was fun to win again."

Bill Guerin got the Penguins going in that direction at 7:24 of the opening period. He was stationed at the left side of the crease and received a backhand feed from Sidney Crosby that appeared to carom off his left skate and into the net for his 14th of the season.

"It might have hit my foot," Guerin said. "But I just felt it hit my stick."

The Maple Leafs countered with a power-play goal by Matt Stajan at 18:48, but Gonchar put the Penguins ahead for good at 14:44 of the second, then made it 3-1 at 17:17.

Crosby put the game out of reach with a sensational individual effort at 3:49 of the third, as he carried the puck into the Toronto end and got by Maple Leafs defenseman Tomas Kaberle before sweeping the puck by Gustavsson with one hand on his stick.

But even that wasn't enough to deflect attention from the circumstances surrounding the Penguins' second goal.

Guerin, who played in his 1,231st game last night, said he never saw anything like it and that referee Don van Massenhoven, who worked his 1,000th, told him that he hadn't, either.

"It's pretty unbelievable," Guerin said. "That was crazy."

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