**In recent news, apparently Geno is out in the game against the Devils tomorrow with an undisclosed injury, he did not practice today. **
Three in a row for the Pens!
So last night I touched on the Pens vs Redwings game a bit, mostly about the injuries to both teams and the effect Evgeni Malkin would have on the team still filling in for Crosby. It turns out the Geno Kunitz and Dupuis line was a good choice later on, even if Jordan Staal took the opening face off, leading on to score the first goal of the game off a bad feed by MacDonald behind the net. T.K Was able to steal a pass intended for Ericsson and dished it out to Staal in front of an open net to take the lead just 3:02 into the first period. The Pens had gotten to their game and they had gotten to it fast.
They were relentless on the attack in the first period, shortly after the Staal goal, Chris Conner came flying into the offensive zone and nearly beat MacDonald for a second goal but wasn't able to get enough elevation on the puck. This coming after two highly electric charges by Geno to the net that were turned aside by MacDonald, but the Pens were not done attacking this young netminder who was starting only his 5th game of the season. Chris Conner, on another break away ended up being hooked and awarded a penalty shot, the 6th of the year for the Penguins, going into this one 0-5 on penalty shots.
Conner would not be turned away so easily this time; "I kind of knew what I was going to do the whole time going in, you just have to execute and make it work." Conner ended a 0-12 penalty shot drought leading all the way back to 2007. "The adrenaline was going a little bit," Conner stated in an interview after the game, "It felt good, and it felt good that it went in." Even though the Penguins went on to score 2 more goals, Conner was the one who gave them the go ahead goal to continue on to a much needed victory without Crosby. This all in the first period!
The second period seemed to spell a little bit of trouble for the Penguins as they suffered 3 penalties and only took one from the Wings. Penalty Killing has been a staple for the Penguins defense this year, leading the league in the category murdering 87.9% of their penalties faced.On the opposite end of special teams however the Penguins have struggled, scoring on only 18.1% of their Power Play opportunities. If the Pens were able to achieve a 20% or more mark in the PP department it's entirely possible the Penguins would be even further up the divisional ladder, if not on the top rung. Despite killing off all 3 penalties in the period, and fantastic goaltending from Marc Andre Fleury, the Wings were able to get a point on the board.
Kris Letang had a pretty notable performance in the 2nd period but not for the reasons you would think. After looking at what could of been a 3-0 lead early on in the 2nd period, Letang had a wide up net right in front of him, but after only lightly tapping the puck, and it going off the front of the post, Letang raised his stick high to celebrate! Sadly though Le' Tanger had not actually gotten the puck in the goal, and instead had let the action continue with Detroit gaining the puck. On Detroits offensive charge, Tanger then came down and tripped their player on a break away, the Pens somehow get out of not getting a penalty shot against them, and we move on. Poor Tanger had to feel at least a bit embarrassed about his premature celebration and then handcuffing us for a penalty later.
With 2:32 left to go in the 2nd, the Wings notched up what seemed like a freebie after a lull in the game action. I remember thinking right before this goal went in that things were entirely too quiet and that something not so good was about to happen, shortly after that thought they get the freebie and make it 2-1. That only seemed to anger the Penguins and it was now time for the Malkin, Kunitz, and Duper line to do it's thing.
Not but 30 seconds later, Malkin takes the puck into the offensive zone, does a short dish to Kuni in the slot, he just eases it back to Duper and Duper lets a wrist shot go, the rebound goes to Kunitz, then Kunitz dumps it in the net behind MacDonald to answer back, bring the lead back to 3-1, and energize the crowd.
I missed the first half of the 3rd period, but from what I was able to get updates on, the Wings were peppering Fleury and trying desperately to get back into fighting contention in this 3-1 game. The Pens would have nothing of it though and continued on to win, after an Empty Netter by Cooke to seal the deal.
Sadly though things didn't go the way the Pens would of liked division wise. The Cryers were facing the Capitals and even with a 2-0 deficit in front of them in the 3rd period, the Capitals were able to tie the game and force it into OT. Unfortunately this gave the Cryers a point by default, and even more unfortunate, was when they won within 58 seconds into overtime to take the extra point away and pull out 65 to 62 in the standings against the Pens. The good news was that their defeat of Detroit keeps the Penguins 4th in the league, tied with Detroit at 62 points.
In other news around the NHL, the Canucks went on to fall to the Avalanche in Colorado picking up only one point against their division rival. The Tampa Bay lightning beat the Blue Jackets off of 2 Stamkos goals, putting Stamkos at 35 goals, ahead of Sidney Crosby by 3 and just behind the total scoring title at 63 points on the year.
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