Penguins beat Chicago 3-2

Tonight was a big win for the Penguins considering that they were playing the number one team in the league, winners of 5 straight games and 7-0-1 in the month of December.  Won't even get into the continued watered down line up of the Pens.  It was a physical game from the outset, with both teams hitting everything they could.  Deryk Engelland took on 6'8" 258 pound John Scott, and got the worse of that tilt.   In the end, this game was won by the stout goaltending of Marc Andre Fleury, who is now 17-2-2 on the season, and the continued brilliance of Evgeni Malkin who is now in a 4 way tie for the league lead in scoring with 39 points.   Geno has 8 points in the past two games, and he has 6 goals and 9 assists in his past 6 games, a torrid pace!  He was even 67% in the faceoff circle tonight.   I love watching this Geno, reminds me of 2009.   On that note, Geno is averaging 1.44 points per game, which is higher than his 1.38 points per game that won him the scoring title in 2008-09.  As far as the game, the Penguins got on the board first, with Chris Kunitz scoring his 12th goal of the season off of a beautiful stretch pass from Malkin (22) and Niskanen (11) at 10:02.   Kunitz now has 2 more goals than Ovagkin, just sayin'!  Pens lead 1-0 and the period would end that way.  Then at 2:45 of the second period, James Neal scored his 19th of the season on a beautiful snap shot.  The goal has him tied for second in the league.  He was assisted by Malkin (23), and Niskanen (12), giving the Penguins a 2-0 lead.   Niskanen's assist was  his 100th point in the NHL!   Then, at 16:34 Tyler Kennedy broke a long drought, potting his 4th of the year from Ben Lovejoy (2), and Geno (24).   The Penguins took a 3-0 lead into the third period, lights out right?  Not quite yet!  Just 49 seconds into period three, Jonathan Toews scored his 19th to give the Hawks some life.  At 6:12, Stalberg made it 3-2, with a lot of hockey left play.  This is where Fleury stole the game.  While the Hawks outshot the Pens 19-4 in the third, Fleury made several stellar saves to win this one for the good guys.  Going into Saturday's game, the buzz as how the Pens injuries might be finally taking its toll, and Penguins could not beat good teams, and finally how they were dropping like a stone in the standings.  Two games later, the Penguins beat two good teams, including the top team in the league, and are now 2 points away from the division lead, and 3 from the conference lead.  That is how tight the East is this season.  Jordan Staal had a couple of good scoring chances, and was 70% in the faceoff circle, so not a bad return for 11, but he did not look quite healthy tonight.  Also, Simon Despres continues to impress, with 16 plus minutes TOI in this game, and looking solid all night long.  Special teams were a missed bag, as the PP was 1 for 7, and missed some chances to blow this game open, but they did get a goal with the man advantage.  The Pens were perfect on the PK, including a 6 on 4 late in the game as Neal got whistled for his third penalty with about one and a half minutes left.  All in all, two good wins for your flightless birds, let's make it three Friday night in Winnipeg.