Pens Cooke Flyers 6-4

The Penguins are now 6-0 when they draw first blood in Philadelphia, as they used a three point night by Matt Cooke to beat the Flyers 6-4, evening their record to 7-7 against Atlantic Division rivals, and putting the Penguins in 5th place, but tied with Philadelphia with 71 points.  The victory marked Marc Andre Fleury's 30th win on the season, and James Neal got his 30th goal of the season.  Neal's 30th along with Malkin's 32 goals on the season give the Penguins their first pair of 30 plus goal scorers on the same line since Kovalev aand Lang did it in the 2000-2001 season.  In a season full of BAD officiating, Devorski and Auger called one of the worst games I can recall in recent memory, and given the Garage League mentality of the NHL, that is saying something.  Both teams were victims of bad non-calls, and phantom penalties.  The league should be embarrassed, but that would require  a certain level of self awareness that does not seem to exist in this league.  The game was a strange one in many ways.  In the opening period, the Penguins jumped out to a 1-0 lead at 3:17 of the period as Matt Cooke was in Jagr's mouth at center ice, before smoking JJ and snapping a shot past Bryzgalov unsassisted to give the Penguins a 1-0 lead.  The lead did not last long, as Jagr scored twice at 15:16 and 15:34, the second one a power play goal, to give the Flyers a 2-1 lead.  The period ended that way.  Then at 15:14 of the second period, Jordan Staal scored a shorthanded goal, his 18th of the season, on a snapshot assisted by Craig Adams.  The goal tied the score at 2-2.  About a minute and half later, while down 2 men, Matt Cooke took a loose puck, and smoked Kimo Timonen to score his 11th goal of the season, unassisted, chasing Bryzgalov for the afternoon.  The Penguins were up 3-2.  Then late in the period, Deryk Engelland, after making a great play to prevent a breakaway off of a Niskanen miscue, lost an edge in front of Fleury, leaving the puck on the doorstep for Wellwood to put behind Fleury at 18:41 of the period.  The period ended with the score tied 3-3.  The Penguins came out EARLY in the third period, and at :37 of the third period, Dustin Jeffrey scored his 4th goal of the season off a Matt Cooke rebound (12) to give the Penguins the lead at 4-3.  Lesst than two minutes later, Pascal Dupuis banked a shot off of Bobrovsky (13), assisted by Jordan Staal (8), and Steve Sullivan (17).  The Penguins were now up 5-3, and nobody on the first line had a point.  Then, at 9:02 James Neal joined the 30 goal club when he backhanded his own rebound past Bobrovsky, assisted by Evgeni Malkin (38) and Chris Kunitz (25).  This gave the Penguins a 6-3 lead and seemed to take the starch out of the Flyers.  Wayne Simmonds added a late goal with 19 seconds left in the game to make the final score 6-4 Pittsburgh.  Some notes from the game include the fact that with 2 goals and an assist, Matt Cooke had his first three point game in a Pittsburgh uniform.  Jordan Staal remained an offensive force, adding a goal and an assist today.  Brooks Orpik was plus 4 with 6 hits today, after a 9 hit effort against Anaheim.  Craig Adams was a force on a dynamic PK today, with an assist and playoff caliber work on the PK.  That unit gave up a goal in a 4 on 3 situation, but killed four 5 on 4's, and an extended 5 on 3, while adding two short handed tallies, including one 3 on 5!  The power play was ineffective, going 0 for 3, and not really showing much of a threat.  A big two points against a strong divisional opponent, on the road.  We will take that all day, every day.  Off to Buffalo, for a matinee tomorrow.  Go Pens!