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Penguins’ losing ways resume, downed by Capitals, 6-3; Crosby, Talbot, Scuderi injured

by Tony on 01/14/09 at 10:49 PM ET
Comments (6)

Well, that didn’t last long.

One night after what was thought at the time one of their biggest wins of the year and perhaps a turning point in their 4-2 win in Philadelphia over the Flyers, the Penguins went right back to their losing ways, collapsing in the third period and losing to the Capitals, 6-3.

The loss was compounded by injuries to Rob Scuderi, Max Talbot, and Sidney Crosby.  Scuderi took a slapshot in the forehead when he blocked a shot in the first period.  Talbot left the game in the second period with an undisclosed injury.  Crosby seemed to suffer a lower-body injury when he got tangled with a Capitals defender late in the game.  While Crosby skated to the locker room gingerly, it didn’t appear that he was seriously hurt.

The Penguins’ powerplay only went 1 for 6, with that lone powerplay goal as the first of the game.  The Pens were already on a double minor powerplay, then got a full two minute 5-on-3 powerplay after Jeff Schultz cross-checking penalty.  The Penguins didn’t score on the 5-on-3, but scored during the remainder of the double minor on an Evgeni Malkin slapper from the right slot to make it 1-0 Pens about six minutes into the game.

Victor Kozlov scored the Caps’ first goal early in the second period on a wrister that can only be described as a soft goal past Fleury to tie the game at one.

The Pens retook the lead later in the period on some good cycling by the third line, when Tyler Kennedy fed the puck to Max Talbot, who fired a wrister that Jose Theodore stopped, but Miro Satan was there to bang the rebound home to the virtually open net for his 350th career goal to give the Pens a 2-1 lead.

The Caps re-tied it a few minutes later when Sergei Federov made a nice centering pass to Alex Semin, who was there to tap it past Fleury to make it 2-2.  Early in the third period, the Caps took the lead for the first time on the powerplay when Alex Ovechkin grabbed a rebound of a Brooks Laich slapper and tapped it home, making it 3-2 Caps.

However, the Pens re-tied it a couple of minutes later when on a delayed penalty Crosby fired a cross-ice pass to Ryan Whitney, who blasted a slapper from the left point that rang off the right post and into the net to tie the game at three.

The see-saw affair went back to the Caps about eight minutes into the third period, on the powerplay again, when Ovechkin simply threw a puck on net, where Tomas Fleishmann was there to poke the rebound home past Fleury to make it 4-3.  The Penguins’ run of bad luck drew it’s head again when Ovechkin’s wrister deflected off the skate of Ryan Whitney and into the net to make it 5-3.  A Jeff Schultz short-handed empty net goal in the final minutes closed out the scoring.

Other notes:
- For all the hype, Malkin had a team-high 12 shots on goal, but was also a team-low -3.
- Ovechkin had 10 shots on goal for the Caps.
- Brooks Orpik was credited with 6 hits.
- Ryan Whitney had 28:45 of ice time.
- Hal Gill had 6 blocked shots.

The Penguins will now face the Anaheim Ducks on Friday night.

Filed in: | The Confluence | Permalink
 Tags: NHL-Hockey, Pittsburgh+Penguins, Washington+Capitals,

Comments

Please fire Ray Shero, how can this guy bring in garbage like MEroslob Satan to replace Hossa. Should have traded Staal (who i think is a bust, could have had Toews, or Okposo) to the kings for Dustin Brown. Oh well, I hope the Steelers crush the overrated, overhyped Ravens this Sunday, led by Joe Flacco, who has completed only 45% of his passes for less than 300 yards, yet the NFL media thinks he’s a great QB.

Posted by Jeff from Da Burgh on 01/14/09 at 11:35 PM ET

... what?

Posted by Jay_Caufield_will_BREAK_YOU on 01/15/09 at 12:29 AM ET

Sorry, Jeff Baltimore is gonna win this sunday, and there will be no superbowl or stanley cup for pittsburgh this year!

Posted by Steve from B-more on 01/15/09 at 01:57 AM ET

Jeff wtf are you talking about. If Staal is a bust, and since you say he is, he must be, then why would the Kings trade their captain and a great player in Dustin Brown for him?
People like you make it hard to get on the Gore. You obviously know nothing about the business side of hockey. Miroslav Shitan was the best available winger left once Hossa screwed the Pens over. If there were a better choice, he would have taken it. And if you are one of those people who forgets about the Pens when they are losing and watch the Steelers instead, then go do that, leave us now, and please, never come back.

Posted by Kevin from Pittsburgh on 01/15/09 at 10:07 AM ET

Hey Tony, WDVE in Pittsburgh reported this morning that Therrien was fired and Pat Quinn was hired. They then talked to some other people who said it hasn’t been done yet, but was indeed being done. Have you heard anything about this?

Posted by Kevin from Pittsburgh on 01/15/09 at 04:18 PM ET

Kevin, that the 1st I’ve heard (at least this week).... I’ll email a couple of people to see if they’ve heard it....

Posted by Tony F from Virginia Beach, VA on 01/15/09 at 04:30 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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