Fuse Box Monday

Yinzers,

Wednesday November 10: A Day to Forget
Last Wednesday, the Pens took on the Bruins in Consol Energy Center. The Penguins and Bruins played a tough, even first period and came out tied into the first intermission. The Penguins scored the book-end goals of the period off the sticks of Arron Asham and the ever so dangerous Brooks Orpik. The tweeners for the Bruins were scored by the Recchinball, Mark Recchi and Brad Marchand. There were also two more fights, which seems to be a common theme for this year's Penguins team. The first was a heavyweight bout between Shawn Thornton and Eric Goddard; the second between Gregory Campbell and Mad Max Talbot. These fights are most like due to residual bad blood from the Matt Cooke hit on Marc Savard a year ago. The Penguins owned the second period, scoring two goals and winning another fight. Chris Kunitz and Sidney Crosby had the goals and Arron Asham beat up on Adam McQuaid...more importantly, the Penguins led 4-2 after two. Then everything fell apart. The Penguins defense, Brent Johnson's confidence and the Pittsburgh offense. The Bruins scored 5 unanswered goals in the third period. They came from Nathan Horton, Zdeno Chara, Shawn Thornton, Blake Wheeler and Milan Lucic. This was just the second loss for Brent Johnson this year, the only in regulation and Tim Thomas moved to 9-0 on the season for the B's.

Friday November 11: Revenge?
The Penguins looked to bounce back two days after their huge, embarrassing failure when the Tampa Bay Lightning came to town. Marc-Andre Fleury came out of his coma and stood on his head in this one. He turned away 15 of 16 shots, but many of those saves were of the outstanding variety. After an idle first period for both teams, the Penguins took control for the final two periods. Pascal Dupuis and Alex Goligoski scored in the second period to give the Pens a 2-0 lead after two complete. Steven Stamkos scored a power play goal early in the third, but it would be the only goal the Lightning could muster up. Max Talbot, Sidney Crosby and Deryk Engelland finished off with goals and the Penguins took the 5-1 victory.

Saturday November 12: Back on Track
The next day, the Penguins traveled to Atlanta to take on the Thrashers. Marc-Andre Fleury played out of his mind again. Atlanta opened up with the first and only goal in the first period, but that would be the last time that Atlanta held the lead. Brent Sopel got said goal, but then the Penguins took over, starting with a fight between Chris Thorburn and Mike Rupp. Evgeni Malkin got the equalizer in the second period, the only goal scored in the second. So after two complete, the Penguins and Thrashers were knotted at 1. The third period was all Penguins with goals coming from Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin (2), giving Geno his first hat-trick this season. There was one intermittent goal for the Thrashers scored by Niclas Bergfors, but it would not help the Thrashers. The Pens win 4-2 with Marc-Andre Fleury showing signs of strength stopping 31 of 33 shots.

The Penguins have a week-long home stretch this week, competing against the other Staal brothers. It starts tonight against Marc Staal and the New York Rangers. They then play Wednesday night when the Vancouver Canucks come to town and Friday night as they welcome Eric Staal and the Carolina Hurricanes. All games are at 7:00 pm.

Let's go Pens,
B Brog