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Malkin’s 5 points lead Penguins over Thrashers, 6-2
by Tony on 03/17/09 at 10:50 PM ET
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The one aspect of the Penguins’ play since the coaching change to Dan Bylsma that had not improved continued to be their terribly disappointing powerplay.
Over the last couple of games, they finally started to make a tweak or two, and tonight at the Igloo they broke out for three powerplay goals in a 6-2 thrashing of the Atlanta Thrashers. Evgeni Malkin had five points, including two goals, for the Pens, while Sergei Gonchar added four.
The Penguins win, combined with the Flyers’ 3-2 loss to Detroit tonight, gives them 84 points and a tie with Philly for 4th place in the Eastern Conference, although the Flyers still have three games in hand.
The Pens improved to 11-1-3 under IHCDB.
The Pens’ powerplay went 3-for-7. Malkin moved back to the right boards from the left, where he was way out of position, even for a player of his stature. Right-handed defenseman Kris Letang was moved to the 1st unit on the left point for his one-timer capability. But the biggest improvement has been the placement of Chris Kunitz in the middle, where he can not only bang in rebounds but provide a decent screen in front of the goaltender.
That said, the previously red-hot Thrashers, winners of six in a row coming into tonight, jumped on the Pens on the 1st shift and got a good bounce of the puck to take a quick lead. Hal Gill made a poor outlet pass that was intercepted by Todd White. White made a centering pass to Bryan Little, who fired a wrister that Marc-Andre Fleury stopped. Little battled for the rebound and was able to get a stick on the puck and into the net to give the Thrashers a 1-0 lead.
It remained that way until midway through the quarter when on a Pens’ powerplay Gonchar fired a slapper from the center point that Thrashers’ goalie (and former Pen) Johan “Moose” Hedberg didn’t see until it was too late, because of a perfect screen by Kunitz, to the tie game at one.
Back on the powerplay late in the quarter, Sidney Crosby fired a wrister from the right slot that Hedberg stopped, but Kunitz was there to bang the rebound home to give the Pens a 2-1 lead.
Early in the second period, the third line chipped in as Tyler Kennedy made a nice centering pass to Jordan Staal in the slot for a one-timer past Hedberg to make it 3-1 Penguins.
Malkin contributed next after a faceoff. Gonchar gathered the puck and fired a slapper from the left point that Hedberg stopped, but Malkin kicked the puck with his skate to his backhand and banged it into the net to make it 4-1 at the 12:25 mark.
Only 43 seconds later, back on the powerplay, Malkin fired a one-timer from the right boards that deflected off the stick of Garnet Exelby and past Hedberg to give the Pens a 5-1 lead.
The Thrashers chipped a little into the lead 45 seconds later when an errant pass deflected off the helmet of Pens’ defenseman Mark Eaton and into the Pens’ net to cut the Pens’ lead to 5-2.
The scoring was closed out at 7:47 lead of the third quarter when Malkin made a great pass to Gonchar for a 2-on-1 break along with Eaton. Gonchar fed Eaton for the tap-in goal for the 6-2 final.
Other notes:
- In addition to the three powerplay goals, the Pens’ penalty kill went 7-for-7.
- OK, who besides me was sick of Steigy constantly calling Victor Kozlov “Kozzy” ??
- The official scorer must’ve loved the Thrashers, giving them 40 hits to the Penguins’ 16.
- 7 for 10 on faceoffs for Max Talbot.
The Penguins are now off until Friday, when the Los Angeles Kings visit the Igloo.
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Tags: Atlanta+Thrashers, NHL-Hockey, Pittsburgh+Penguins,
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Welcome to The Confluence, a Pittsburgh Penguins blog since 2006. Originally at Blogspot, then at MVN, The Confluence has over 1000 articles reporting Penguins news as well as jumping on my soapbox to opine constructive Penguins criticism. My posts are regularly linked by hockey websites such as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Empty Netters and Yahoo!’s Puck Daddy, and I’ve done guest blogger spots on such websites as the New York Times. I invite you to spend a little time and peruse the archives at all of the sites for some of my better work. I am a retired U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer, but don’t confuse me with my fellow Chief at A2Y.
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Do you mean Slava Kozlov...viktor kozlov is with the caps if I recall correctly.
Posted by thestoneman from Vegas on 03/18/09 at 03:09 AM ET