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Penguins down Bruins in 6-5 OT thriller
by Tony on 11/14/09 at 12:06 AM ET
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Now that was one helluva hockey game.
And quite frankly, I would have said that even if Bill Guerin hadn’t scored on a slap shot past Bruins’ goalie Tim Thomas with only .4 seconds left on the clock to force overtime. Or even if Pascal Dupuis wouldn’t have scored on a virtual empty-netter 1:24 into overtime, giving the Penguins a wild 6-5 win over the Bruins.
Evgeni Malkin had three assists in his return from a bum shoulder, while Sidney Crosby had a goal and two assists for the Penguins.
It was clear for the eye to see how much more energized the Penguins were with Malkin back in the lineup. It was best effort for the Pens since, well, Malkin left the lineup.
The Bruins came into the game riding an extremely hot goalie in Tim Thomas. But he was cooled down, and his shutout streak ended at 174:16, not even two minutes into the game, as Malkin fed a pinching defenseman Jay McKee, who surprisingly went backhand top shelf to beat Thomas to give the Pens a 1-0 lead at 1:42.
In a common theme all game long, the Bruins tied the game about eight minutes into the game when David Krejci fed Blake Wheeler from behind the net to easily beat Pens’ backup goalie Brent Johnson, who had been looking the other way.
Back came the Pens late in the first, as Ben Lovejoy was able to keep the puck in the Bruins’ zone and fired a slapper from the right point where Thoams made the stop. The puck rebounded to the stick of Pascal Dupuis, who fired the puck high over Thomas to make it 2-1 Pens.
Boston re-tied the game three minutes into the second when Michael Ryder stole the puck at the Pens’ blue line and then fired a hard wrister from the right slot to beat Johnson to the top shelf, making it 2-2.
The Penguins retook the lead midway through the period when Crosby deflected an Alex Goligoski slapper from the right point past Thomas to give the Pens a 3-2 lead.
That lead lasted until there were five minutes left in the second, when Derek Morris fired a wrister from the left point that got through a lot of traffic and past Johnson tying the game at 3-3.
It remained that way until the 9:00 mark of the third period, when Crosby made a nice saucer pass feed to a pinching Mark Eaton, who one-timed it past Thomas to regive the Penguins the lead at 4-3.
Things went downhill for awhile for the Penguins after that. With about six minutes left in the game, with the Bruins on a 5-on-3 advantage, Krejci scored on a rebound of a Zdeno Chara slapper to tie the game at 4-4.
That was followed a few minutes later when Marco Sturm deflected a Chara slapper from the left point at the 17:31 mark, giving the Bruins a 5-4 lead.
But as the Penguins pulled Johnson in the final minutes, they didn’t mount a serious scoring threat, but the Bruins couldn’t score in the empty net either. The Pens had one last chance, as with six seconds remaining in regulation Malkin stole the puck and brought it into the Bruins zone. Malkin then made a cross-ice pass to Guerin, who fired a hard wrister to the top shelf that beat Thomas with only .4 left on the clock to make it 5-5 and forced overtime.
In the extra session, Martin Skoula’s dump-in was stopped by Thomas, who left it for Dennis Wideman. However, Wideman wasn’t as close to the puck as Thomas believed. Jordan Staal then quickly took the puck and centered it for Dupuis, who had a wide open net to easily score the game-winner.
Notes:
- Lovejoy not only made a nice save in the Bruins’ zone, but also made a nice save on a rebound attempt by Mark Recchi.
- Malkin’s return didn’t help, at least for one night, their powerplay, going 0-for-3.
- Top line of Malkin, Crosby and Ruslan Fedotenko led the Pens with +3.
- Six blocked shots for McKee led the Pens.
- Goligoski led the Pens in icetime with 28:08.
Next up for the Penguins will be a visit from the Anaheim Ducks on Monday night at the Igloo.
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Tags: Boston+Bruins, NHL-Hockey, Pittsburgh+Penguins,
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Danny boy has to keep Sid & Geno together for the foreseeable future. I don’t care if he puts Fedotanko, Guerin or Dana Heinze out there with them, but he has to keep those two together. It’s such a huge advantage with both of them in the line-up. You could see the difference in game with Chara. He couldn’t concentrate on just one player (Crosby) like he did on Tuesday night.
Considering they gave up 5 I would say all in all good win. But that power-play….. ahh, worry about that at another time.
Looks like Gonchar’s getting closer. He’s cleared for contact in practice.
Posted by Lindas1st from New England on 11/15/09 at 12:23 PM ET