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Penguins comeback for 3-2 OT win over Panthers

by Tony on 11/23/09 at 11:11 PM ET
Comments (3)

As the clock wound down in the third period, it appeared that this game just wouldn’t be in the cards for the Penguins.

As it turned out, a nice dirty goal off the shoulder of Panthers’ goalie Tomas Vokoun, combined with a Mike Rupp goal after an 88 second extended shift in the Panthers’ zone late in regulation forced the game into overtime.  From there, a double minor high-sticking penalty gave the Penguins a 4-on-3 powerplay, where Sidney Crosby banged the rebound of an Evgeni Malkin shot past Vokoun for a 3-2 Penguins win.

Vokoun stopped 42 of the 45 Penguin shots, while Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 19 of 21.

The Panthers drew first blood off a miscommunication between the Penguins’ first defensive pairing of Sergei Gonchar and Brooks Orpik.  Stephen Weiss brought the puck into the Pens’ zone along with Nathan Horton.  Gonchar defended Weiss as he continued to possess the puck, but as Weiss and Horton criss-crossed, Brooks Orpik didn’t switch to defend Horton.  That resulted in Horton being wide-open, where Weiss passed to him for a relatively easy one-timer past Fleury to make it 1-0 Panthers at 17:33 of the first period.

They made it 2-0 midway through the second as Horton and Michael Frolik started a 2-on-1 break.  Horton passed to Frolik, but Deryk Engelland was able to stop any pass or shot.  However Frolik was able to pass to defenseman Keith Bollard joining the rush.  Bollard’s wrister to the top shelf beat Fleury and into the net.

The Penguins cut the lead early in the third on a scrum in front of the Panthers’ net.  Pascal Dupuis’ wrister bounced off the shoulder of Vokoun and into the net, just as the net was hit off its moorings.  Officials reviewed the play and confirmed it was a good goal to make it 2-1 Panthers.

It remained that way until the final minutes of the game, where the Penguins brought continuous pressure to the Panthers’ defense.  The Penguins possessed the puck in the Panthers’ zone from the 4:00 mark all the way to the 2:32 mark, where Evgeni Malkin’s centering attempt came right to the stick of Rupp, who was directly in front of the net.  Rupp promptly banged the puck past Vokoun to tie the game at two goals apiece.

Horton high-sticked Jordan Staal 1:25 into overtime and was given a double minor, giving the Penguins a powerplay for the remainder of overtime.  That lasted until the 3:07 mark, when Malkin’s slapper was stopped by Vokoun, but Crosby was there to poke the rebound into the net for the game-winner.

Notes:
- The Crosby OT powerplay goal gave them a 1-for-5 showing tonight.
- 12-for-19 for Crosby on faceoffs.
- Orpik was awarded six hits, a few of which were of the thunderous variety.

The Penguins now return home on Wednesday night at the Igloo hosting Montreal.

Filed in: | The Confluence | Permalink
 Tags: Florida+Panthers, NHL-Hockey, Pittsburgh+Penguins,

Comments

Horton high-sticked Jordan Staal 1:25 into overtime

The box score says Staal, but I think on the FSN Pitt broadcast they said it was Orpik. Hmmm??? Tony, what’s up?

I still think Rupp needs more shifts with Crosby and /or Malkin.

After watching Talbot for a couple of games it’s very obvious that he can’t keep up with Sid right now . Maybe he belongs on the fourth line with just a couple of shifts on the scoring lines (e.g. offensive zone draws) until he rounds into shape.

Posted by Lindas1st from New England on 11/24/09 at 02:35 PM ET

I thought it was Staal, dunno, not expending any more energy on it…

Posted by Tony from Virginia Beach, VA on 11/24/09 at 02:44 PM ET

I know it’s not important. I just thought you might have more info today on it.
Thanx anyway.

Posted by Lindas1st from New England on 11/24/09 at 03:19 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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