Sabres vs Penguins recap Game 53. Pens win 5th straight but lose Malkin, again.

Friday night, Terrible Towel night in Consol Energy Center to commemorate the Steelers before the Superbowl tomorrow. The energy and the good feelings were there for the Penguins, they had just gotten Malkin back into the line up after a sinus infection and soreness in the knees. Things however were not going to be all good times and smiles for the Penguins.

Within the opening 17 seconds the Sabres tallied a goal off Gaustad's stick to open up the scoring and it went down hill from there for the first 22 minutes of the game. The Pens were able to stifle the Sabres for a time but 7 minutes later a puck goes in off of Engellands skate, not his fault though he was making the right play and had his man D'd up, but the unfortunate deflection puts the Sabres up by 2. Still not getting to their game the Pens were struggling early, turnovers and poor decision making were key to giving scoring chances to the Sabres. Malkin had been charging hard in the first period but did cause a few mistakes that led to the goals. He was also getting tee'd up often by Sabres.

Open up the action in the second period and not but a minute or more in Malkin gets tagged by Myers and well, the rest is a torn ACL and MCL which many of you already know by now. It wasn't pretty and frankly won't write anymore about it. I will say this, the Penguins took offense to it and decided to come out firing.

Having one puck already go in off our players skate, off a Jeffrey charge to the net and shot off a rebound, his shot gets deflected in off the skate of a D man in the crease, 1 -0 Pens.

Just two and a half minutes later with 6:24 off the clock,  Tyler Kennedy scores off of a beautiful shot against Miller and knots it up at 2-2 for the Pens.All the extra practice pays off for T.K as he has 2 goals in 2 games.

I can't remember if it was before or after the T.K goal but Cooke had charged the net and had a really good scoring opportunity blanked. Well, after the T.K goal Cooke was not going to be denied a second time. After Staal battles hard to keep possession of the puck he dishes it off to Cooke, who dekes Miller left then goes right and dumps it up into the net. 3-2 Pens just 40 seconds after tying the game.

Now I also want to show you a reverse angle of the above pic. Because Dupuis was celebrating like he just won the cup. Look at the smile on his face. Cooke looks like he wants to cry.

The period after that came and went. I didn't catch the first half of the 3rd period but I do know that at the end of the game Fleury was making all the saves he needed to make, in spectacular fashion as always, to keep the Pens in the game. Even all the way down to the wire.

A lot of fans were upset at the 2-0 deficit that the Penguins faced early in the first but just like in Madison Square Garden against the Rangers, down 2-0, the Penguins come out and with the help of Dustin Jeffrey begin a scoring surge to win the game.

Paul Martin has come out in these past few games after the all star break and put on a skating clinic for all the other skaters on the ice. He is working those legs harder than any other D man on the ice and putting together a lot of big plays for the Penguins.

The Pens pick up a much needed 2 points, even if it is at the cost of Geno's season they most certainly will continue to surge like they have. 5 straight wins, 1 point behind Philly in the rankings, and winning 8 of their last 9 games. The road to the playoffs continues tomorrow against the Capitals in D.C at the Verizon Center.