Yinzers,This weekend boasted two tough road games for the Pens on back-to-back days. On Saturday afternoon, the Pens took on the Habs at Bell Centre in Montreal. After a delayed flight to Newark and a bus ride to D.C., the Pens arrived at 4:30 am Sunday to skate against Alexander Ovechkin and the red-hot Washington Capitals at 12:00 noon that same day. Here is how it went down:
The major role player in this contest was former New Jersey Devil, Brian Gionta. As a member of the Devils, he was a virtual Penguin killer and that tradition carried over Saturday in Montreal. Gionta amassed 2 goals and an assist in the contest, including a break-away goal that made Marc-Andre Fleury look like a fish out of water. Tomas Plekanec opened up the scoring 30 seconds into the game with his 15th of the season. Pascal Dupuis answered right back 30 seconds later and it seemed like the game would go back and forth all afternoon. It did not, however. Gionta added his break-away goal to the running tally at 9:38 in the second period, followed by a quick powerplay goal from Scott Gomez, another former Devil, one minute later. Billy Guerin buried one at 13:57 to keep the Pens in the game at 3-2 after two periods. Matthieu Darche and Brian Gionta added two more to the Habs' total in the third, while Geno Malkin added a short-handed goal off the bench at 16:44. But to no avail, the Pens drop this one 5-3 in regulation, the first time Montreal has beaten the Pens this season. The tell-tale of this game, in this guy's opinion, was the frequency of the PK. The Pens PK killed 6 of 7 opportunities, but how can you expect to stay in an NHL game if you are going to give the opponent 7 powerplays? Discipline, fellas.
The Pens/Caps rivalry has seemed to take a turn in recent games. No longer is the talk about how Alexander Ovechkin goes hunting for fellow countryman Evgeni Malkin's head, but now it is all about the Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin rap sheet. Who can amass more points in one game? The NHL has a real pot of goal-d at the end of the rainbow in this rivalry with every game being the most intense and entertaining game of the season. Sunday afternoon was no different. The Pens came out flying in spite of the late travels the night before. Sidney Crosby tickled the twine twice, unanswered in the first period, the latter of which coming on the powerplay. The Capitals finally responded of the stick of Alexander Ovechkin about half way through the second period. Jordan Staal then took control scoring two unanswered of his own. The second period closed out with a goal from Washington's Eric Fehr, bringing the totals to 4-2 in favor of the Pens. The third period was the Alexander Ovechkin "I shoot from anywhere" show, two of such shots ended up behind Marc-Andre Fleury. The game was tied at the end of regulation, so we go to overtime where Mike Knuble picked up some garbage giving the Caps a 5-4 victory. The story of this game: the Pens go just 1/6 on the power play. This is the exact opposite of the day before. You have to bury these chances against good teams. Washington has now won 14 straight. Someone please beat those guys so the 17 in a row record stays in Pittsburgh.
The Pens next games are Wednesday and Friday nights against the Islanders and Rangers, respectively. Games are 7:30pm at the Igloo on FSN-Pittsburgh.Lets go Pens,
B Brog
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