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Penguins calm masses down, defeat Thrashers 3-1

by Tony on 01/06/09 at 10:40 PM ET
Comments (4)

For one game at least, the Penguins didn’t have a game filled with shots clanging off the posts, the powerplay throwing goose egg after goose egg, and a poor goaltending performance.

All of that adds up to a desperately needed 3-1 win over the just as desperate Atlanta Thrashers tonight at the Igloo.

Petr Sykora had two goals and Evgeni Malkin had three assists for the Penguins, who broke a five game losing streak with the win.

However, for as much of a relief as the victory was, it may have been a costly one as well.  Both Ruslan Fedotenko and Pascal Dupuis left the game early and did not return.  Fedotenko sustained a hand injury on a very impressive KO victory in a fight over former Penguin Colby Armstrong.  Fedotenko threw a straight right hand directly to the face of Armstrong that sent him right to the ice.  On his way to the penalty box, and eventually to the locker room, Fedotenko was flexing his hand quite a bit.  Let’s just hope it’s not anything major.  With reference to Dupuis, it’s unknown what occurred with him, but he left in the first period as well.

Marc Andre Fleury was excellent in goal tonight.  He gave up just the one goal on a third period powerplay on a hard wrister from the center point from Ilya Kovalchuk, but he made three point blank saves, two from Kovalchuk, that could have easily turned the tides in this game.

The Pens’ powerplay ran their scoreless streak to 33 powerplays in the first period, but they finally hit paydirt the second time.  Ryan Whitney threw a nice pass-shot from the right point to Sykora, who deflected it to the top shelf past Thrashers’ goalie Kari Lehtonen to make it 1-0 Penguins late in the first period.

They doubled their lead midway through the second period off the faceoff when Evgeni Malkin went forward and was able to backhand a pass to the net, where Sykora was there for the backhanded shot that Lehtonen got a glove on but couldn’t stop to make it 2-0 Penguins.

That lead grew to 3-0 a few minutes later back on the powerplay as Evgeni Malkin’s slapper from the right point was deflected in front of Lehtonen by Sidney Crosby and into the net.

The third period saw the Thrashers expectedly turn up the pressure, but for the most part the Penguins defense played solid, as well as Fleury making key stops.  Kovalchuk’s goal with 5:40 left spoiled the shutout, but I’m sure Fleury and the Penguins will surely give that up for that win.

Other notes:
- Armstrong was all over the place tonight.  He got in scrums with at least five Penguins.  He obviously still gets pumped to play his old team.
- In addition to the two goals, Sykora had 7 shots on net.  Crosby led the Pens with 8 shots.
- Brooks Orpik had 10 hits for the Pens tonight.
- Rob Scuderi had 7 blocked shots.

The Penguins now head west for games in Nashville Thursday and Colorado Saturday.

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

Comments

Any win is good for a struggling team, but it was Atlanta. I always say that no team is out of a slump until they string together at least a half-dozen solid performances, win or lose. If you give it full effort and the work ethic is clearly there, but you still lose those games, so be it, you probably just don’t have the talent.

Posted by Nathan on 01/07/09 at 10:08 AM ET

At this point Nathan I wouldn’t have cared if it was Mercyhurst that they beat....

But I hear ya… :D

Posted by Tony F from Virginia Beach, VA on 01/07/09 at 10:34 AM ET

Great win, but I’m afraid of the two injuries, Pascal Dupuis and Ruslan Fedotenko.  I’m afraid that injuries could plunge the Pens right back down into the slump. One step forward, two steps back.

Posted by Kevin from Pittsburgh on 01/07/09 at 12:06 PM ET

The goal in the second period was absolutely amazing.  Definitely one of my favorite moments of the season.

Posted by Lawyer from Pittsburgh from Pittsburgh on 01/07/09 at 02:52 PM ET

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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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