Monday Igloo Update

Yinzers,

Your Pittsburgh Penguins have played 3 games since we last spoke...and three technically-sound games at that. The Pens are now 4-0 since coming back from Olympic break, and now hold second place in the Eastern Conference with 84 points. The Washington Capitals continue to hold first place with 96 points and the Devils and Banana Slugs are tied for third with 79. Just 3 points are separating places 7-10…like I said before, “every point matters from here on out.”

Thursday night, the Pens took on Henrik Lundqvist and the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. The game was being broadcast on Versus, but the feed was from MSG network, so at least we got to hear play-by-play from Al Michaels, rather than that God-awful Versus staff. Marc-Andre Fleury would be matched up opposing Lundqvist on this night, but it would not finish as such after MAF let in 4 goals on just 12 shots. Granted, it took until the second period for him to face those 12 shots, but coach Dan Byelsma probably did not want those goals to go to either MAF’s or the team’s head. Brent Johnson would replace him in the second period. The game itself looked more like a Pittsburgh/Philthadelphia game than a Pittsburgh/New York game. Bodies were flying left and right and the game seemed to have a genuine hate in the atmosphere, so thick you could cut it with a knife from your own couch. There was static between Sidney Crosby and Henrik Lundqvist, Max Talbot and Sean Avery, and Matt Cooke and the entire city of New York. The Pens ended up coming from behind to take a 5-4 victory in overtime, stealing away a precious second point. Here is your scoring breakdown. In the first period: Artem Anisimov (NYR), Chris Kunitz (PIT), Jordan Staal (PIT) and Chris Drury (NYR). In the second period: Michal Rozsival (NYR), Brandon Dubinsky (NYR) and Mike Rupp (PIT). In the third period: Alex Goligoski (PIT). In overtime, the Rangers’ Wade Redden took a hooking penalty at 1:45 when he hooked Jordan Staal. Staal got the last laugh when he put home the game winner, and his second of the game at 3:42 of the extra frame.

Saturday marked the first of a back-to-back weekend for the Pens. Thank God, both games were at home in the Igloo. Saturday’s opponent was the great American Mike Modano and his Dallas Stars. The Stars came out with their new goaltender, Kari Lehtonen, between the pipes. Marc-Andre Fleury would get a chance to redeem himself after a poor outing against the Rangers. The Pens opened up the scoring at 2:11 in the first with another goal from Jordan Staal…the kid has caught the goal fever, ladies and gentlemen. Staal is playing out of his mind right now; it seems he can do no wrong. Mike Ribiero, former future of Montreal, answered at 12:05 and the game was tied after 1 period of play. The first half of the second period was dominated by the Dallas Stars. They were beating the Pens to open pucks, controlling the tempo of the game, and scoring goals at 1:29 and 2:28 from Brandon Segal and Loui Eriksson. The Stars now had a 3-1 lead and the momentum…remember that. Momentum is a funny thing in hockey. Some say it doesn’t exist, but I firmly believe that there is a certain mojo to the sport and the mojo favored the Penguins for the rest of the game. Remember how the Pens were down 3-1 at this point? Well, the rest of the second period was all Penguins. Chris Kunitz, Pascal Dupuis and Sidney Crosby all beat Lehtonen like a rented mule before the buzzer sounded at the end of the second. Add to that a Craig Adams v. Steve Ott fight and the Pens now had the momentum, the mojo and the lead 4-3 going into the locker room at the second intermission. In the third period, Sidney Crosby added a second on the night with a short-handed goal on a pretty pass from Jordan Staal and Alexei Ponikarovsky got his first in a Penguin uniform with a power play goal to round out the scoring. The Pens take this one 5-3 after being down 3-1, and also take over the division lead and second place in the conference.

Sunday afternoon was day two of the back-to-backs. This time, the opponent was the Boston Bruins. The Bruins have been red-hot as of late, going 6-1 in their last 7 games. With both teams playing really good hockey as of late, this game was a tight, defensive battle. There was no scoring at all in the first period, even though the Penguins dominated the play, pummeling Boston goaltender Tim Thomas with 10 shots compared to Boston’s 3. The story of the first period would be the Penguin’s penalty kill, killing off 3/3 and allowing just one shot. When you get special teams play like that, you can stay in any game. Scoring finally opened up at 3:12 in the second period when Blake Wheeler scored for the Bruins on their 4^th power play opportunity. However, Pascal Dupuis continued to make an argument against being a healthy scratch upon the return of Billy G. when he answered with a goal at 8:57. After two complete, the game was knotted up at 1 goal apiece. Evgeni Malkin added a goal at 1:27 in the third period to give the Pens a 2-1 lead. Things got scary for Boston in the third period. At 14:23 of the third, star centerman Marc Savard released a shot from the top of the circles. On his follow through, he was blind-sided by Matt Cooke. Savard was in an awkward position due to his follow through and collided with Cooke with his head taking all of the impact. Savard lay still on the ice for over 5 minutes and eventually was taken off on a stretcher, thankfully with only a concussion. The Bruins and their fans were outraged, believing this to be a dirty hit. Looking at the replay, I would have sided with Cooke on this, but he threw an elbow out there at the last minute. Believe me, I love the Cookie Monster, but this was a poor decision on his part. The hit was unnecessary to begin with, which unnecessary hits are a part of hockey, but you don’t throw an elbow to the blind side of an opponent’s head…not even Alexander Ovechkin deserves that. Cooke will most likely be either fined or suspended or both for the hit. Cooke, man, you gotta keep your cool. At any rate, the Pens win 2-1 and widen their gap on New Jersey for the division lead.

The Pens play their next 5 games on the road, beginning in Carolina on Thursday night at 7:00. Hopefully, we can get a big time road trip and keep this train a-rollin’. In other news, the seats were put in at Consol Energy Arena this week.

Let’s go Pens,
B Brog