Monday Igloo Update

Yinzers,

We have a lot to discuss since Thursday. The Pens are balls-deep into a 5 game road trip and trying to stay atop the Atlantic Division down the stretch. The games began on Thursday night and that is where we will return to action.

Thursday Night: Pens v. Canes

Game one of the 5 game road trip started south of the Mason-Dickson line in Raleigh, North Carolina. The Pens traveled to face the elder Staal and the red hot Carolina Hurricanes. If none of you have heard, there is a pretty phenomenal drinking game out there. If you are interested, search "Staal Brothers Drinking Game" on your favorite search engine. Two young Canadian ladies came up with the game and it is growing in popularity among hockey fans and Staal enthusiasts, or "Staalcoholics." At any rate, let's talk about the game. The game was a game of

bounces..."puck luck," if you will. In the grand scheme of things, the Pens out-played the Canes in most every aspect of the game. Jordan Staal opened up the scoring with a goal for your Pens at 1:04, followed by a Billy Guerin goal at 5:29 and the Pens controlled the game. The Hurricanes answered with two goals of their own at 7:45 and 9:11 from Penguin killer Ray Whitney and Zach Boychuk, respectively. At the first intermission, the game was all knotted up at 2. The second period was a solid "grind-it-out" period, real post-season feel. Not to be out-done, the elder Staal got a goal of his own at 2:09. Matt Cooke answered for the Pens 4

minutes later. After 2 in the books, the game was tied at 3 goals apiece. There was no scoring in the third due to stingy defense and solid goaltending by Brent Johnson and Justin Peters. The game would go to overtime, where the Hurricanes made quick work, getting a goal from Brian Pothier at 0:25.

Friday Night: Pens v. Devils

What is it about the Devils? How can they be playing bad hockey for weeks and then put together a near perfect game against the Pittsburgh Penguins? The Devils are just one of those teams that always seem to be a thorn in the Penguins' side. Scoring opened up almost immediately with a goal coming from each team in the first 3:00 of the hockey game. Patrik Elias put one home for the Devils and and Sidney Crosby answered for the Pens. Once again, the second period resembled much of a post-season game with stingy defense and overall great goaltending. In classic Devils fashion, the team took the lead and stuck to their neutral zone

trap and pesky poke checks. The big story of the second period were the penalties. With Bill McCreary involved, you know it won't end well for the Penguins' special teams. Craig Adams got dealt a 5 minute major penalty for charging Martin Skoula and a 10 minute misconduct on top of that. Tempers flared between Kris Letang and Dainius Zubrus, Evgeni Malkin and Rob Niedermayer, Ruslan Fedotenko and Colin White and Ilya Kovalchuk was awarded a penalty shot from a trip by Kris Letang. Marc-Andre Fleury stood tall and deniedKovalchuk, keeping the game tied at 1. The thrid period was all Devils. New Jersey would add two more goals in the third period from Andy Greene and Ilya Kovalchuk.

Sunday Night: Pens v. Lightning

The Pens traveled to Tampa last night to take on another team who has been playing good hockey in the Tampa Bay Lightning. The St. Pete Times Forum was filled over capacity for this one with 20,230 showing up. There's a ton of yinzers dahn 'er, probably because Tampa is a wild tahn. At any rate, the entire game also had a real post-season feel to it. Both teams came out grinding with a majority of the play taking place either in the neutral zone or in the corners, below the goal line. Just 40 seconds into the game, however, Steve Downie proved why he is second in the league in penalty minutes when he took down Sidney Crosby along the left wing

boards by essentially putting Sid into a figure-4 leg lock, bending Sid's leg beneath his body. Sid got up with a little bit of a limp, but he's a hockey player. He shook it off and played with a purpose for the rest of the game. The scoring did not open up until 8:09 of the second period when Vincent Lecavalier put one home on a one-timer off a pass from below the goal line, leaving Fleury helplessly too far back in his net. The Penguins seemed to come alive in the third period. ust 2:20 into the third, Pascal Dupuis tied the game with his 17th of the season. Dupuis is simply standing on his head as of late, extending his point streak to 5 games. Sergei Gonchar gave the Pens the lead at 5:17 with an absolute BOMB that rung off Antero Nittymakki's right post and into the twine. The Pens then did their own buckling down and kept the Lightning from scoring for the remainder of the game. They were actually so stingy on defense, that the Lightning went without even a shot on goal for almost 20 minutes. Tempers flared in this game after the second Penguins goal when Ruslan Fedotenko and Viktor Hedman wrestled, with Fedotenko landing about a dozen jabs to the temporal-mandibular joint (jaw) of Hedman.

Hedman would head down the ramp to not return. You may notice that I have not said Evgeni Malkin's name at all, that is because in the waning seconds of the second period, Malkin took a shot off the foot and did not return to the ice for the third period. Steve Downie was not done in the penalty box as he took a cross-checking penalty on Brooks Orpik, who in turn took a coincidental slashing penalty. The end result was a confidence-fortifying win for the Pens.

The Pens next game is Wednesday at 7:00 pm when they travel back to New Jersey to, once again, take on those Devils. Hopefully vengance will be sweet.

Let's go Pens,

B Brog