KK Sponsors - Fathead | IceJerseys.com

LOGIN | REGISTER | RSS FEEDS

The Confluence

Next entry: Penguins comeback for 3-2 OT win over Panthers

Previous entry: Penguins re-assign defenseman Nate Guenin

Penguins bounce back with 3-2 win over Thrashers

by Tony on 11/21/09 at 10:31 PM ET
Comments (3)

Two days after a 6-2 lackluster effort in Ottawa, the Penguins got another healthy body back in the lineup and started to regain some of their form tonight with a 3-2 win over the Thrashers at Philips Arena.

That ultra-sniper Martin Skoula scored twice for the Penguins (sarcasm), while Evgeni Malkin had the other tally.  Chris Thorburn and Maxim Afinogenov scored for Atlanta.

The Pens welcomed back defenseman Brooks Oprik back to the ice, while Pens’ announcer Paul Steigerwald mentioned that Tyler Kennedy practiced with the team with contact and might be back in the lineup Monday night at Florida.

The Penguins’ winning margin could have been much more if it wasn’t for the play of former Pen Johan “Moose” Hedberg.  Hedberg stopped 31 of the 34 shots on goal, and several of them were of the outstanding variety.  Speaking of outstanding saves, Marc-Andre Fleury made a tremendous glove save on Afinogenov as well.

The Pens started the scoring in the first period, and for the third straight game, on the powerplay.  Skoula fired a wrister from center point that deflected off the leg of Thrashers’ defenseman Ron Hainsey and past Hedberg to make it 1-0 Pens at 7:38.

They doubled their lead in the second period when Skoula was left wide open in the left slot, where he fired a slapper past Hedberg for a 2-0 Penguins’ lead at 7:34.

The lead increased to 3-0 a few minutes later when Malkin’s wrister from the slot deflected off the butt-ocks of Pavel Kubina, bounced off the ice and past Hedberg into the net.

Max Talbot had a chance to make it 4-0 late in the second period when he was awarded a penalty shot after he was brought down on a breakaway.  Talbot began skating wide, but his wrister went wide of the net.

Any Thrashers’ comeback was dealt a big blow early in the third period, as Ilya Kovalchuk didn’t take kindly to a bump away from the puck from Matt Cooke near the benches.  Kovalchuk charged Cooke and dropped the gloves for a mostly-uneventful bout.  However, when the officials were done dishing out the penalties, while Cooke was given the five minute fighting, Kovalchuk was given 2 for instigating, 2 more for instigating with a visor, 5 for fighting, and a game misconduct.  Bottom line:  Cooke goaded him into it, much like he’s done his entire career.

As the Penguins played their usual third period prevent defense, Malkin appeared to have a great chance to extend their lead but his stick was broken after a two-hand chop from former Penguin’ Chris Thorburn.  That eventually resulted in a 2-on-1 break, where Zach Bogosian fed Thorburn for a tip-in past Fleury cutting the Pens’ lead to 3-1 at 9:40.

It remained that way until the final minutes, when the Thrashers played with the net empty.  Afinogenov was able to deflect a pass from Nik Antropov past Fleury to make it 3-2, but they weren’t able to get the tying goal.

Notes:
- I’m usually not one to critique the broadcasts, but FSN Pittsburgh had a particularly bad night.  They missed several plays while they were talking and missed at least the first 10 seconds of the Cooke/Kovalchuk fight.
- In reference to Skoula’s pinball-ish powerplay goal, or Malkin’s PP goal vs. Ottawa please spare me any talk about the PP being “back”.  What I’m happy about with Skoula’s goal is that he just put the puck on net and something good happened.  By the way, after Kovalchuk’s departure, the Pens had a four-minute powerplay, and didn’t score.
- Not a good night overall in the faceoff circle for the Pens.  Malkin was only 2-for-10.
- Pretty physical game, but not if you look at the stat sheet.  The official scorer only awarded 17 hits to the Pens, 19 to the Thrashers.

As previously mentioned, the Pens now head further south to face the Florida Panthers on Monday night.

Filed in: | The Confluence | Permalink
 Tags: Atlanta+Thrashers, NHL-Hockey, Pittsburgh+Penguins,

Comments

...the Pens had a four-minute powerplay, and didn’t score.

That’s where the Pens have to score and put the game away. They need to get back that killer instinct. It would have served them well at this point in the game.

FSN Pittsburgh had a particularly bad night

It did look like Atlanta wanted to play shinny though.

They should of had an empty netted also, it looked like they just took it a bit to easy when they had the puck in deep. After they didn’t score in the empty net you just knew it would come back and bite them, and it did. Good thing for them they had a 2 goal lead.

Posted by Lindas1st from New England on 11/22/09 at 12:08 AM ET

I believe the penguins were focused on two things for that power play: get skoula a hat trick or get bourque his first goal (despite what people say about him being horrible, anyone can see that he can create scoring chances on the ice).  Up 3 goals any coach would greenlight that proposition.  The truth is that Malkin was being a bonehead and yelling at the referee instead of swooping back to get a stick and get back into the play in the defensive end on the Thorburn goal.  Plus, you can’t make haphazard passes with peverley on the ice.

Posted by stoneman from vegas on 11/22/09 at 03:14 AM ET

The truth is that Malkin was being a bonehead and yelling at the referee instead of swooping back to get a stick and get back into the play in the defensive end on the Thorburn goal. 

Correct, I was thinkin’ shut up and get back before they score a shortie. And BINGO guess what happens?

Posted by Lindas1st from New England on 11/22/09 at 01:23 PM ET

Add a Comment

Please limit embedded image or media size to 575 pixels wide.

Add your own avatar by joining Kukla's Korner, or logging in and uploading one in your member control panel.

Captchas bug you? Join KK or log in and you won't have to bother.

Most Recent Blog Posts

About The Confluence

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.

Please feel free to send any comments to me at .  If you’d like to befriend me on Facebook, click here.  If you’d like to join The Confluence page on Facebook, click here.  If you’d like to follow me on Twitter, click here.

The Confluence Links

Archives