Fuse Box Monday

Yinzers,

Three games again, but once the college football season is over, we will be back to the book-end weekdays for the Fuse Box. Here's what went down.

Monday November 15: Rangers v. Penguins
What is it about "King" Henrik Lundqvist that gives the Penguins such a hard time? Is it the fact that he covers post-to-post, naturally? Whatever the reason, it seems like he always stifles the Pens, this time stopping 37 of 39. This game took overtime and the only Penguins' mistake, but it was still a win for Lundqvist. Ryan Callahan and Mike Comrie went toe-to-toe in the first, making it a traditional Atlantic division contest. Scoring opened with the only goal of the second period going to former Penguin Erik Christensen on his patented wrist shot. The third picked up pace with Chris Kunitz and Matt Cooke picking up quick goals late in the period to give the Pens a 2-1 lead in the waning moments. But the younger Staal added a short handed goal when New York pulled Lundqvist with under 2:00 to tie the game at 2 and force overtime. As I said before, the Penguins made just one mistake all game and it came at 3:38 in overtime. Zbynek Michalek stumbled and fell transitioning in the neutral zone, leaving Ryan Callahan and Brian Dubinsky with a 2-on-1. Naturally, they scored and stole the extra point from the Penguins. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 22 of 25.

Wednesday November 17: Canucks v. Penguins
The Sedin twins were in town with arguably one of the best squads in the Western Conference in the Vancouver Canucks. Once again, the game opened up with a fight, this time between Craig Adams and Kevin Bieska. Sidney Crosby scored late in the first to put the Penguins ahead 1-0, a lead that they would take into the first intermission. The rest of the scoring took place in the second period. Mad Max Talbot put a short handed goal on the board and Aaron Asham got his second of the year to give the Pens a 3-0 lead. Dan Hamhius would put one past Marc-Andre Fleury to make it 3-1, but that would be the last goal scored in the game. Fleury turned away 29 of 30 and Roberto Luongo turned away 26 of 29. The Pens moved to 10-8-2 and second place behind the Philthadelphia Flyers.

Friday November 19: Hurricanes v. Penguins
Over the summer, the Carolina Hurricanes went out to try and secure as much of the bloodline as possible when they acquired Jared Staal (the youngest of the 4) from the Phoenix Coyotes for a first round pick. He has not played with the big club yet this year, but I would look for it in the future. This game was an epic back-and-forth throughout. Scoring opened up just 42 seconds into the game when Brandon Sutter snapped a shot passed Marc-Andre Fleury. Chris "enfuego" Kunitz and Tyler Kennedy added goals in the middle of the period to give the Pens a 2-1 lead, but Patrik Dwyer sneaked one past Fleury to tie the game at 2 going into the first intermission. The teams exchanged goals in the second with Jussi Jokinen answering Sidney Crosby's tally and the game would be tied at 3 after 2. Chris Kunitz got his second-and what looked to be game winning-goal on the power play, but Jussi Jokinen got his second as well with under one minute to go, forcing overtime with the game tied at 4. A hint of controversy was added to this bag-o-chips when there were no goals scored in overtime and the Hurricanes asked the ice crew to widen the stripe of fresh ice because "Jussi Jokinen goes really wide on his shoot out attempts and he will be shooting." It wouldn't matter. Kris Letang made Justin Peters look simply silly with his trademark, double-move to the backhand. Jeff Skinner followed with a miss for Carolina. Sidney Crosby sniped the five-hole of Peters to put the Pens up 2-0 in the shoot out with the game riding on the stick of none other than Jussi Jokinen. As if on-cue, he took it nearly to the wall but MAF stood him up, getting the Pens the 5-4 shoot out victory.

The Pens play tonight at 7:30 when they travel to Miami to take on the Florida Panthers. We all know how the Pens do against Florida teams, but let's try and rectify that tonight. Then it's off to Buffalo on Wednesday at 7:00 and then back-to-back afternoon games at 1:00 on black Friday against the Ottawa Senators and Saturday against the Calgary Flames.

Let's go Pens,
B Brog