Pens win thriller in shootout 4-3

It was a great game and a great win tonight in Dallas for the Penguins.  Hopefully, not at the price of their playoff run given the injury to Letang.  If he suffered his second concussion in two months, we have some serious issues here.  Let's hope that is not the case.  The heroes for Pittsburgh were many tonight, as they took on a team who had won 4 straight, and played them all game with 5 defensemen, and half the game with 11 forwards.  Add to that, the importance of Letang to all facets of the Penguins' game, especially the power play, and Sullivan's PP contributions, and coming away from this game with a win was going to be a tall order.  To make matters worse, we had to watch the game while listening to the worst coach in Penguins history call the game.  Edzo, we hardly missed ya!  Anyway, to the game.

Jamie Benn opened the scoring at 15:25 of the first period to give Dallas a 1-0 lead.  A little more than 3 minutes later, Steve Sullivan tied the game with his 12th goal of the season, assisted by Duper (22) and Orpik (10).  Score tied at 1-1.  The second period, though entertaining, was scoreless until Sheldon Souray scored at 19:47 of the period to give the Stars a 2-1 lead with 13 seconds left in the period. Giving up a go ahead goal that late in a period is usually an ominous enough sign, but add to that the fact that the Stars had not lost a game where they were leading after two periods since 10/31/09, and the Pens had a tall order in front of them. It did not take them long to get to work in the third.  Craig Adams scored his 4th of the year deflecting a shot from Jordan Staal (11) after he took the puck from the wall and wristed a shot towards Lehtonen to tie the game at 2-2.   Just 47 seconds later, Chris Kunitz deflected a Paul Martin shot behind Lehtonen for his 18th goal of the season to give Pittsburgh its first lead of the night. He was assisted by Martin (18) and Malkin (42).   3-2 Penguins.  At 7:23 Michael Ryder tied it for the Stars.  The game went into OT with the Stars having nearly 2 minutes of 4 on 3 PP time and a chance to win it.  The Penguins held on to force a shootout.  In the shootout, Neal put the Penguins in front with a wicked wrist shot, but Ericsson countered to tie.  Malkin and Ribeiro were denied.  Kunitz buries a wicked wrister, but Benn counters to again tie the shootout, and force it to a fourth round.  Pascal Dupuis beats Lehtonen, and Michael Ryder cannot counter, so the Penguins win 4-3.  Fleury is now 6-0-0 v Dallas in his career.  The Penguins now have 79 points and sole possession of 4th place in the Eastern Conference.   The shootout winner was the 3rd this year for Duper.  Kunitz came up big with a goal and a shootout goal.   Steve Ott is a pussy.  After running around and banging on Malkina and Michalek, he turned down a clear invite from Asham to answer the bell. Ott the Twat.  JR, Tocchet and Kelly Chase think Letang was not hit in the head.  Hmmmmmm.......due to respect for Tocchet, I will not comment on ridiculous that is.  You might debate the intent, but not the point of contract here.  JR is a world class tool. Penguins show their grit and heart in a great game that had everything from hitting, to goal scoring, to GREAT goaltending, to a 4 round shootout that included 5 goals between the two teams.  Next up is Colorado on Friday.  Go Pens!