As the Penguins celebrated the end of their six game losing streak Friday night, someone said that they had an easy one coming up today against a struggling Tampa team in the midst of their own six game slide, and a spot near the bottom of the Eastern conference. But I found some interesting statistics pre-game that would give one some cause for pause, such as the following:
Including the 2011 playoffs, the Penguins had dropped four straight against Tampa Bay;
In our last 5 regular season games against Tampa our power play was just one for 26;
Malkin had just one goal in his past nine games against Tampa, and no goals in his past 6 in Tampa;
Geno averaged .73 points per game against Tampa, his lowest ppg against any Eastern conference team;
A stat that proved prophetic was when these two teams play, scoring first is key with the team doing so posting a 25-4-1 record when doing so;
Finally James Neal came into the game leading the league in shots on goal with 133 and Malkin was third with 118;
The game itself started very well for Pittsburgh, as Malkin drew a penalty early, and James Neal scored his 23rd of the year on the power play, with assists from Paul Martin (11) and Evgeni Malkin (29). It was Neal's league leading 11th power play goal of the year, and came from a very bad angle almost behind the net. Time of the goal was 2:43 of the first period. 1-0 Pittsburgh. Then at 10:38 of the period, Richard Park nailed his third tally of the season unassisted to give the Penguins a 2-0 lead. The period ended that way. The Penguins dominated that period with a 17-5 advantage in shots on goal. During the second period, the Lightning evened up play, and had a goal by Ryan Malone when Ian Walsh correctly called a high stick on the puck. The period ended with Pittsburgh still in the lead at 2-0. The third period saw a 7 goal outburst in what was one of the wildest periods of hockey I have seen in awhile. It started out with a Penguins power play early, and at 3:34 of the period, James Neal buried his 24th goal and 12th power play goal of the year, assisted by Malkin (30), and Sullivan (14). What a rocket by Neal...pure goal scorer. The Penguins were now ahead 3-0, and Root Sports color man Bob Errey declared the game all but over. Somebody forgot to tell the Lightning though. In a span of a little less than four minutes, the Lightning tied the game at 3-3 with goals from Gilroy, Malone (power play), and Purcell. Things were looking a little tight for the flightless birds who needed these two points badly. Enter Hart candidate Evgeni Malkin. Less than two minutes after Teddy Purcell tied the game, Geno scored his 19th goal of the season at 7:38 to restore a lead for the Penguins at 4-3. Malkin took a puck off the boards, and backhanded a goal past Garon. And less than two minutes later AGAIN, Malkin took a turnover, in the neutral zone, and turned Garon inside out before tucking a backhand behind Garon while falling, to give the Penguins a 5-3 lead! Brooks Orpik collected his 7th assist of the season on the goal. Then at 19:06, Malkin(21) completed his natural hat trick with an empty net goal to cap the scoring at 6-3. The goal gave Malkin his hat trick, and 5 total points to pull within one point of Henrik Sedin for the NHL scoring lead with 21goals, 30 assists and 51 points, while playing in 8 LESS games than Sedin. Malkin in averaging 1.38 points per game this year to lead the NHL. He should have had his second empty net goal, and 6th point which would have tied him with Sedin, but the referees let an obvious penalty with Geno bearing down on the empty net slide, which would have been an automatic fourth goal and sixth point. Oh well. So, Geno has roared back into 2nd in the scoring race, and James Neal is second in the Rocket Richard race for goal scoring with 24 goals. Neal has 40 points with 24 goals and 16 assists. As noted earlier, Neal leads the league in power play goals with 12, and in disallowed goals! Seriously, the Penguins are now 7-0 in the last 7 games in which Neal has scored! After scoring 6 goals in 6 games, the Penguins have now tallied ten goals in 2 games with the very same lineup. Supposedly the Penguins are about 7-10 days away from Kris Letang getting back into the lineup. That will be a big boost. The most important by product of this two game winning streak on the road is that it puts the Penguins back in the top 8 spots in the conference. All in all, a big win against a team that has given us fits on the road. I did not like the 4 minute window in the third where Tampa got back in the game, but I did like the response to it. The Pens were back to playing a physical game, and their top line was dominant again. That top line has everything necessary to remain dominant. Kunitz will win puck battles in the corners and create havoc in front of the goaltender, Neal is a pure shooter who knows how to find the open spaces and Malkin can be a magician with the puck, shooting himself or distributing to either winger. All three can play a physical game as well. In the Pens' last 7 victories that line accounted for 17 goals, 23 assists and 40 points. That is almost 6 points per game. The Penguins were 2 for 5 on the power play, but they did give up a power play goal as well.
The shots on goal were 44 to 20 Pittsburgh. Finally, the win was Fleury's 21st of the year, 4th in the league. Let's keep it rolling it Tueday night at home against Carolina! Go Pens!
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