Pens storm back to beat Colorado 6-3

Something had to give tonight. It was a matchup between the number one power play in the leauge with Colorado clicking at better than 27% and the number one penalty kill in the league with Pittsburgh killing penalties at a rate of 94%.  In addition Colorado came into the game dominating their Eastern Conference opponents with a record of 5-0, and 4-0 on the road, while Pittsburgh came into the game at 5-0-2 against the Western Conference, and 9-0-4 in the past 13 games against the West.  As I said, something had to give!  Colorado jumped out to a 2-0 lead as the Penguins looked like they were sleep walking during the first period until Jordan Staal scored his 9th goal of the season at 1:27 of the first period to get back into the game.   Well, until :15 of the period when David Jones abused -11 Paul Martin to give the Avs a 3-1 lead going into the second period.  That -11 number for Martin has him ranked 692 out of 695 skaters in that category.  Things were looking bleak as the Penguins were playing poorly as a team, and Fleury even looked shaky for the first time in quite awhile.  But never fear, the Penguins do not go away.  At 8:59 of the second period Dupuis banks a pass of the boards to Arron Asham who ripped a shot at the net while Craig Adams crashed the net.  After Adams failed to hammer home the rebound, Dupuis following up on the play poked the loose puck in the net to get Pittsburgh back to within one goal of the Avs.  In the third, the Pens broke the dam wide open.  At 18:58 Brooks Orpik got his first goal of the season, a weird bouncing puck, assisted by Malkin and Neal to tie the game at 3-3.  This assist allowed James Neal to extend his scoring streak 7 games, tying the longest such streak of his career.  During those 7 games, Neal has netted 4 goals and 7 assists.  And then 15:15 Evgenin Malkin came out of corner off of a feed from Neal to beat Varlamov, giving Pittsburgh their first lead of the game at 4-3.  What a thing of beauty!  At 12:43, James Neal got a back breaker on the power play from Sullivan and Letang to give the Pens a two goal lead.  Finally, at 9:30 of the third, Kris Letang took a coast to coast ride a la Paul Coffey to put the final nail in the coffin of the Avalanche.  The goal was gorgeous, and it was the first even strength goal scored by Kris Letang in the last 72 games he has played.  That took the last bit of fight out of the Avalanche, and the Penguins sit atop the Eastern Conference again.  The Penguins big guns came out firing tonight with 4 Penguins notching multi point nights including Neal with 1 goal and 2 assists, Jordan Staal with 1 goal and 1 assist, Evgeni Malkin with one of each, and Kris Letang also with one of each.  James Neal is scoring more that a point per game as he has 12 goals and 8 assists in 18 games.  Kris Letang is also averaging a point per game with 2 goals and 14 assists in 16 games played.  Evgeni Malkin has 5 goals and 9 assists in 11 games played, giving the Penguins 3 players with a point per game or better average, and one (Jordan Staal) at just under a point per game with 9 goals and 5 assists in 16 games!  Staal now has 6 goals and 2 assists in his past 7 games.  Also, the power play was 1 for 7, and missed a chance to score on an extended 5 on 3 for the second night in a row.  However, when the game was on the line, James Neal scored his 6th power play goal to give the Pens a two goal lead.  So the timing of the goal was huge for Pittsburgh.  Fleury after a shaky start, made big saves when necessary in the second half of the game to help secure the win.  Finally, Richard Park played in his 700th career NHL game tonight.  See you Thursday night!