Yes, the game winning goal came on a play that should have been blown dead. No doubt about it, but it wasn't.........and frankly, justice was served. The referees were a JOKE tonight, and part of the reason this great sport ranks behind NASCAR in the US. There were phantom calls and missed calls all night. How about the biggest POS in the league PK Scissorskates KICKING James Neal, with no call? Or the elbow to the head on Letang, that somehow warranted no call. Or two more goals taken off the board both by Kunitz who has had 3 of those this year. So how about a collective FUCK YOU to the whiny Habs fans and Penguins haters! What a bizarre, but entertaining game tonight. The Penguins got on the board just 21 seconds in when the red hot Geno Malkin his 8th goal of the year, assisted by the Sonic HedgeHog Kunitz (5), and Sidney Crosby (6). Unfortunately, the Habs rattled off the next 3 goals, the first of which came only 1:27 seconds later by Travis Moen. The next two were scored by Max Pacioretty (10) at 7:57 of the first period. Then Erik Cole notched his 7th goal of the year at 11:09 of the second period. Then, at 16:40, Pascal Dupuis drilled a wicked shot past Carey Price for his 6th goal of the season, assisted by Paul Martin (7) and Matt Cooke (6). The second period ended with the Penguins down 3-2, with two goals disallowed. But at 15:30 of the third period, the third head of the three headed monster, one Jordan Staal whipped a shot past Price for his 12th goal of the game, assisted by Evgeni Malkin (14). Then the elbow to the face of Letang sends Letang to the locker room with a broken nose. He passed the concussion test, and after having a pin put in his nose, Tanger is ready for OT. Then Old Lady Karma rears her head! After James Neal drives the net and Price makes the save and has the puck frozen under his glove, the referee does not blow the whistle, and Kris Letang fishes the puck out from under Price and puts his 3rd goal of the season past Price, with assists from Neal (10), and Deryk Engelland (6). They teach you from the beginning to play to the whistle and Tanger did. After the way the game was called, I will gladly take the even up dose of NHL stupidity and take the 2 points. The Penguins outshot the Habs tonight 42-27, but the Canadiens took 63% of the faceoffs. Kunitz was a beast tonight, though he only had one assist to show for it, as was James Neal who also had only one assist. Jordan Staal continues to notch big goals, and tonight's was a sniper's goal for sure. Staal has an amazing 24.5% shooting percentage, first among the league's leading goal scorers. A couple of solid defensemen are worthy of mention tonight, Deryk Engelland whose helper on the game winning goal gave him 7 points on the year, and he is a plus 4. Also, Matt Niskanen, who has been solid all year long has five points and is a plus 9 on the year. He fits the Penguins system to a tee, and has found his game here. The Penguins top 5 scorers are James Neal (13), (10), for 23 points, Evgeni Malkin (8), (14) for 22 points, Pascal Dupuis (6), (13) for 19 points, Kris Letang (3), (16) for 19 points, and Jordan Staal (12), (6) for 18 points. Evgnei Malkin is averaging 1.29 points per game, second only to league points leader Phil Kessel's 1.30, and Geno only trails Kessel by 8 points despite playing 6 fewer games. The Penguins have a ton of Eastern Conference games ahead of them in the next month, so it is a big stretch for them. With 32 points, the Penguins lead the conference, but only 7 points separates them from 9th place New Jersey. One had to be encouraged by the way they hung in there in a hostile building, fighting some phantom calls, and took this game when it was there to take. The Pens are now 3-4-1 when trailing after two periods, those 3 wins are tops in the NHL in that scenario. GO PENS!
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