The Penguins went into Madison Square Garden and knocked off the Broadway Blueshirts 5-2 for their second straight convincing victory against the Rags in their building. The win helped the Penguins close the gap to 4 points for the Division and Conference lead. The Atlantic Division is good enough that the Penguins 10 game win streak still has not allowed them to shake a very hot Philadelphia team, who trails Pittsburgh by only 2 points, and the Devils are only 4 points behind. The fourth place team in the Atlantic Divsion would be in first place in either of the other two divisions in the Eastern Conference. The red hot Penguins are 22-4-1 since the beginning of the year, a remarkable record, and they had their full complement of players for the first time in a long while. In fact, in the past 157 games, playoffs included, Crosby, Malkin, Staal, Letang, and Fleury have only been on the ice 6 times together. The Penguins lead the NHL with 322 man games lost this season, yet they are within 4 points of the Conference lead! This 10 game winning streak is only the fourth 10 game win streak in the history of the Penguins franchise. Marc Andre Fleury won his 8th straight start, and ran his record this season to 38-14-3. On to the game. The game got off to a pretty fast start, Crosby took the ice for his first shift of the night to a chorus of boos from the MSG faithful, and just like that at 17:06 the Penguins get on the board when Tyler Kennedy got a puck from the left wing corner, and found Matt Cooke in the slot. Cooke put a wrister on Biron, and after a fortuitous bounce, it went behind Biron and the Penguins took a 1-0 lead. The goal was Cooke's 13th of the season. But at 6:24 of the period, Hagelin ties it for the Rangers. The period ended with the game tied 1-1. The Penguins started the second period quickly when James Neal forced a Ryan McDonagh turnover, and found Malkin wide open in front of the net. Geno went from forehand to backhand, beating Biron, and giving the Penguins a 2-1 lead. Shortly thereafter Matt Cooke scored his 14th goal of the season at 17:15 from Staal and Kennedy, giving Pittsburgh a 3-1 lead. Staal's assist extended his career high point scoring streak to nine games, and the assist was Kennedy's second of the evening. At 5:28 Marian Gaborik took advantage of poor gap control between the Penguins defense and forwards to score his 35th goal of the year to get the Rangers back to within one goal at 3-2. The period ended with that score. Early in third period Crosby made his presence felt on the scoreboard when he controlled the puck behind the net, and found Chris Kunitz in the left circle. Kunitz buried his 21st goal of the season off of that pass to put the Penguins in front by a score of 4-2 at 16:59. Then Pascal Dupuis ended any doubt when netted his 19th goal of the season by putting home a rebound off a Kris Letang shot to ice the win at 5-2 for Pittsburgh. Letang and Martin each earned assists on the goal. In Letang's first game back from a 5 game layoff, he winds u +5, with one assist and 22:30 TOI. Sidney Crosby played 16 minutes and chipped an assist and a 52% night in the faceoff circle. Tyler Kennedy had two assists tonight, and Geno Malkin's 39th goal of the year gives him 85 points, and restored his 1 point lead over Steven Stamkos in the scoring race. This weekend will be big for the East Conference playoff seedings, as Pittsburgh plays New Jersey on Saturday, and Philadelphia on Sunday. Let's Go Pens!
No comments:
Post a Comment