Pens fall to Habs 3-2 in shootout

The Penguins fell to the Canadiens tonight 3-2 in an 8 round shootout.  The loss left the Penguins tied in points with the Devils for 5th in the conference, but the Devils by virtue of having 31 wins to 30 for the Pens push the Penguins back to 6th in the conference and 4th in the Atlantic Division at 30-19-5.  The loss was just the third shootout loss in 10 efforts this season.  Some other notes from tonight include the fact that James Neal scored his career high 28th goal tonight, 13 of which have come in the third period.  Can you say clutch?  The loss left the Penguins 3-0-1 on the season series with Montreal, missing a chance to sweep them for the first time in their history.  Malkin is now 7 for 9 in shootouts this year after scoring on a sick spinorama, and 6 for his past six.  The loss ended a 4 game road trip for the Penguins in which they collected 3 of a possible 6 points on the trip, going 1-2-1.  The bad news is that the Penguins scored a total of 6 goals in those 4 games.  The game was a fast skating game with both teams getting chances, and both goaltenders playing strong games.  The first period ended 0-0.  At 11:21 of the second period, Louis LeBlanc scored to give Montreal a 1-0 lead.  The period ended that way.  The third started well for Pittsburgh with Pascal Dupuis ending a LONG goal scoring drought when he netted his 12th goal of the season when a Joe Vitale shot went off his skate past Vanilla Price tying the game at 1-1 at 1:30 of the period.  Vitale collected his 8th assist on the play.  But under two minutes later, at the 3:00 mark, Lars Eller restored the lead as he caught Fleury leaving the net for what he thought was going to be a dump in, and ripped it past him.  Montreal was up 2-1.  Then at 7:32, James Neal scored his career high 28th goal of the year as he snapped a wrister past Carey Price to tie the game at 2-2.  He was assisted on the play by Malkin (33) and Martin (17).  Chris Kunitz who did not get an assist set up the whole play by beating Yannic Weber to a loose puck behind the net, feeding it to Malkin, who found Neal in the slot.  Regulation ended in a 2-2 tie, as did OT.  So the Penguins again went to the shootout.  Malkin and Kunitz scored for the Penguins on the shootout, before Tomas Plekanec ended it for the Habs in the 8th round of the shootout.  Listen, this is a valuable point for the Penguins,  but they have some issues to work on.  In their last 20 games, the Penguins have been the definition of mediocrity at 10-9-1.  They are lacking secondary scoring big time, needing more from guys like Dupuis, Jeffrey, Cooke, and the defense on a nightly basis.  Their defense has been spotty, and of late seems to have real trouble picking up players joining the rush late.  They have three days to rest before playing back to back home games Saturday and Sunday against Winnipeg and Tampa respectively.  It is possible we could see Jordan Staal by Sunday's game, if not, soon after.  It is time to start a new streak so the Penguins are closer to the 1st seed than the 9th seed.  By the way, nothing much in sports more annoying than the Habs fans.  Go Pens!