Beau starts on No. 3 line

Friday, 15 February 2013 12:29

Written by Dave Molinari

Penguins rookie Beau Bennett will make his NHL debut when the Penguins visit Winnipeg tonight, but he won't be alongside Evgeni Malkin and James Neal.

Not immediately, anyway.

Coach Dan Bylsma said after the game-day skate that Bennett will start the game with Brandon Sutter and Tyler Kennedy on the No. 3 line, while Matt Cooke will play with Malkin and Neal.

Cooke worked there during the final two periods of the Penguins' 4-2 victory against Ottawa Wednesday and turned in arguably his best performance of the season.

"Beau is a skilled forward," Bylsma said. "He's going to play in the top-nine forwards tonight. ... I thought (Cooke) did a very good job with that in the last two periods of the last game, and that's going to continue.

"There are going to be some situations where you see Beau, in four-on-four or other situations, where (Bennett) will be on the ice with other players."