Tonight's game was an important one for your Penguins. Yeah, they have a playoff spot clinched, and would be unlikely to fare any worse than the 5th seed barring a meltdown of epic proportions. They are most likely to face the Flyers either with or without home ice advantage regardless. Yet, it was interesting to see how the Penguins would respond against a good team, when coming off of an ugly performance on the second night of a back to back. And, the Penguins answered the bell. I would not call it a pretty win, as the defense still had several lapses that were covered by stellar play in the net by Fleury. An ugly turnover in front of the net by Crosby was buried by Parise, and the Penguins lost another defenseman early in the game(Lovejoy) and played most of the night with only 5 D. They overcame all of that to beat NJ by a convincing 5-2 score. The game was marred by the garage league bullshit officiating we have come to expect. It was like watching 1990's hockey, and apparently the assfucks that try to ruin the best game on earth with their stupidity are going to let the game be played like this despite all of the rule changes in place to FUCKING PREVENT IT! Anyway, there were a couple of trends coming into the game that I wanted to see play out, including the fact that Jordan Staal, despite consistently getting an assist most nights had not been putting the puck in the net. He, in fact had scored 0 goals in his past 8 games and only one in his past 13. Also, Pascal Dupuis had a nine game scoring streak (7G-4A) coming into tonight's action. It is the longest streak of his career, and the longest active streak in the NHL. As you will see in the game summary, both men answered the bell tonight!
Period One
A consistent theme was carried out again tonight, with the Penguins scoring early in the tilt when Chris Kunitz scored his 23rd of the season assisted by Evgeni Malkin (51). The goal came when Martin Broduer mishandled a puck behind the net, was pickpocketed by Malkin, who set up Kunitz for an easy 1-0 Penguins lead. The goal came at 1:04 of the first. In the spirit of stars giving away points tonight, Sidney Crosby made a horrible decision passing the puck in front of the Penguins net, in an effort to find an unsuspecting Deryk Engelland. Instead, Zach Parise picked it off and put it into an empty Penguins net at 5:50 to tie the game at 1-1. Then, late in the period at the 19:04 mark, Jordan Staal scored his 23rd goal of the night, off a beautiful feed from Cooke (18), who found a loose puck created by a Craig Adams hit to give the Penguins a 2-1 lead late in the period. The play highlighted the little plays guys like Craig Adams make that might not hit the scoresheet, but help teams to win. Scoring early and late in periods does not hurt either. The goal also highlighted the goal scoring abilities of Staal. It was good to see him back on the board. The period ended with Pittsburgh winning 2-1.
Period Two
At the 15:34 mark of the period, Super Duper pounced on a Craig Adams rebound to score his 23rd goal of the season, extending his scoring streak to 10 games in the process. Sidney Crosby (21) and Craig Adams (11) assisted on the play. The Penguins took a 3-1 lead on the play. The period ended that way.
Period Three
At the 3:37 mark Ilya Kovalchuk outworked the Penguins defense and hammered a puck past Fleury to make it a game at 3-2 with most of the period left to play. However, that did not last long, as Sidney Crosby took a pass from Zybnek Michalek, poked it past Marek Zidlicky, then beat Brodeur on a breakaway to score his 4th goal of the year, and restore a 2 goal Penguins lead at the 4:55 mark. Michalek got his 8th assist of the year on the play, and Dupuis got his 27th assist of the year, and second point of the night on the play. The Penguins led 4-2. After some sloppy play in their zone, and some great saves by Fleury, and missed opportunities by the Devils, Evgeni Malkin sealed the deal with an empty netter as he got his 46th goal of the season, assisted by Staal (21) and Kunitz (30). The game would end in a 5-2 Penguins victory.
Don't let the score fool you, this was not an easy win for Pittsburgh. Fleury made some key saves or this might have had a different outcome for the Pens. And the Penguins took advantage of their chances and took a big 2 points tonight. The victory ran the Penguins record to 47-22-6, giving them 100 points for the third consecutive season, a franchise first. The Penguins have 7 games remaining, 2 with the Islanders this week, one with Buffalo, one with Boston, one with the Rangers, and two with the Flyers. Those final 3 divisional games the last week of April will likely determine playoff seeding. The victory tonight was Fleury's 41st win of the year, a career high for him, and also leaves him only one shy of the Penguins franchise record of 226 wins held by Tom Barasshole. It was a signature Fleury win, where he was overshadowed by some of the great plays made by his peers who play the center position, but trust me, Fleury has been as critical as Geno to the team's success during this run. The win was the Penguins' 10th straight at home, and left them only one point behind the Ranger for first in the conference, and 4 ahead of the Flyers for fourth place and home ice advantage. The Penguins had five players with a goal and an assist tonight with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal, Pascal Dupuis and Chris Kunitz each notching one of each. Dupuis got the game winner tonight, his 8th GWG of the year, and extend is point streak to 10 games, and now has a career high 50 points on the season with 7 game left. Geno's two points left him with 97 on the year, and he now has a 10 point lead on Steven Stamkos for the Art Ross Trophy with 7 games left He also needs two goals in those 7 games to reach a career high of 48, and 4 goals to hit the 50 goal mark. The Penguins have scored 5 or more goals in 7 of their 12 games in March. Finally, the Penguins have scored 39 goals in their past 8 games, a remarkable offensive outburst. Tuesday night marks the first of two in a row against the Islanders. LETS GO PENS!
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