The Confluence
Penguins dispose of Senators, 4-1
by Tony on 10/12/09 at 10:49 PM ET
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The Penguins and the Ottawa Senators renewed acquaintances from playoffs past tonight. While sniper Dany Heatley has departed (finallly, many said) to San Jose, they signed former Penguin Alex Kovalev, along with trade returnees Jonathan Cheechoo and Milan Michalek.
After a ‘07 playoff defeat in five games, the ‘08 Penguins swept the Sens in the first round.
And after 60 minutes of play, it was more of the same tonight, as the Penguins used their depth to their advantage in a 4-1 win over the Senators at Scotiabank Place. The win gives the Penguins a league-leading 5-1 record, and gives Marc-Andre Fleury a 5-0 record.
Tyler Kennedy scored twice for the Penguins, while Jordan Staal and Bill Guerin also scored. Michalek scored for the Sens.
It was an entertaining and wide open game to be sure, with not much of any sort of trapping defense slowing anyone down. The Sens outshot the Pens 31-28, and if they would have been more accurate on some of their 15 missed shots, it may very well have been a different game.
In fact, it was the Senators who got on the board first with about four minutes remaining in the opening period. Evgeni Malkin supplied the ammunition via a terrible turnover inside the Pens’ blue line, where Jason Spezza gathered it and passed to Cheechoo, who made a nice feed to Michalek, who was able to skate around Marc-Andre Fleury and wrap the puck into the net to give the Sens a 1-0 lead.
But as they’ve already done four times in this early season, the Penguins struck right back quickly. Guerin skated the puck into the Sens’ zone and fired a hard wrister that rebounded high off Sens’ goalie Pascal Leclaire. Guerin was then able to locate the puck and get his stick around the Sens’ defenseman, where he then lofted the puck past Leclaire to tie the game only 39 seconds after the Sens’ goal.
The Pens had Lady Luck on their side for the eventual game winning goal about six minutes into the second period. Jay Mckee fired a loose puck towards the Sens’ goal, where Kennedy then barely got enough on the puck to have it deflect it off the Sens’ defenseman and into the net to make it 2-1 at the 6:16 mark.
It remained that way until late in the period, when Kennedy brought the puck into the Sens’ zone and blasted a slapper from the right point that eluded Leclaire to give the Pens a 3-1 lead.
The final score of the night came after a bad Sens’ turnover in their own zone which was stolen by new Penguin Mike Rupp. Rupp fired a wrister that Leclaire stopped but left a big rebound, where Staal banged it home to give the Penguins their 4-1 lead.
Notes:
- After three powerplay goals against the porous Toronto penalty kill, the Penguins powerplay came back down to earth against a better Senators’ PK, going 0-for-4.
- Nice game for Craig Adams, who along with Mark Eaton was a +3. Adams led the Penguins in hits with four.
- Three blocked shots for both McKee and Adams.
- Both teams went 50% on faceoffs, going 24/24.
The Penguins finish their early road trip in Raleigh against the Hurricanes on Wednesday night.
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Tags: NHL-Hockey, Ottawa+Senators, Pittsburgh+Penguins,
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