Fuse Box Monday

Yinzers,

Three games to cover so we'll jump right into it.

Wednesday October 27: Penguins v. Lightning
Martin St. Louis had two goals to move the Tampa Bay Lightning past the Penguins in a very sloppy 5-3 loss. The Pens were simply running around and leaving the Lightning players to do whatever they wanted with the puck after taking a 3-1 lead. Marc-Andre Fleury got hit with another loss, even though he turned away 26 of 30 shots. Fleury's goals against average is right about 3.5, which makes it very difficult to win hockey games. It is alarming that he is still not out of his funk, but this game was not all on him. The Penguins got goals from Craig Adams (SH), Matt Cooke (SH) and Pascal Dupuis. Tampa Bay got tallies from Dana Tyrell, Teddy Purcell, Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis (2). The Pens fall to 5-4-1 on the season.

Friday October 29: Flyers v. Penguins
The Pens dropped a close one to the Philthadelphia Flyers on Friday, taking a 3-2 loss. It is not so bad that it was a 3-2 loss, but it is bad that it was to the Flyers. The Penguins led after one period after Kris Letang got his 3rd goal of the season, but that would be the last time the Penguins held the lead. Claude Giroux (SH) and Daniel Carcillo added goals for the Flyers in the 2nd. Claude Giroux added a power play goal and Tyler Kennedy scored for the Penguins late in the 3rd, but the score would remain 3-2. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 21 of 24, dropping his record to 1-6 on the season and the Penguins to 5-5-1, looking up at the Flyers in the Atlantic Division.

Saturday October 30: Penguins v. Hurricanes
In this first game of a 4 game road trip, the Penguins rallied behind another great game from Brent Johnson as he out-dueled Cam Ward, pushing the Penguins past the Canes 3-0. Johnson turned away all 33 shots he faced, earning his 5th win (5-0-1) this season. Johnson also boasts the league's third best goals against average at 1.16. The Penguins scored a goal in each period from Pascal Dupuis, Max Talbot and Pascal Dupuis again. The Penguins are now tied with the Philthadelphia Flyers with 13 points, atop the Atlantic Division.

At least in the poor play of Marc-Andre Fleury, Brent Johnson is having a career year. The Penguins are not playing bad hockey either, just getting some things smoothed out. The next game for the Pens on this road trip is on Wednesday night in Dallas when they take on the Modano-less Stars. Game time is 8:30 pm.

Let's go Pens,
B Brog