The Confluence
Penguins’ powerplay fuels 5-2 win over Maple Leafs
by Tony on 10/10/09 at 10:52 PM ET
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For whatever reason, the Penguins looked downright lousy last year vs. Toronto, losing their last three meetings, including the final one that resulted in Michel Therrien’s firing.
This season, for the first meeting at least, the tables certainly turned. The Penguins took advantage of three consecutive powerplay goals en route to a relatively easy 5-2 win over the Leafs in Toronto.
Sidney Crosby had 2 goals for the Pens, while Evgeni Malkin had 3 assists.
It was a pretty dominating performance for the Pens, who outshot the Leafs 33 to 20. The Penguins came out strong right from the start of the game, outshooting the Leafs in the opening period 14 shots to 2.
The Penguins drew first blood early in the first period when Matt Cooke gathered in a loose puck in the Leafs zone and used Tomas Kaberle as a screen to launch a wrister that eluded Leafs’ goalie Vesa Toskala to the top shelf to give the Pens a 1-0 lead only 3:20 into the game.
They doubled their lead on the powerplay later in the period when Sergei Gonchar fired a wrister from the center point that Toskala couldn’t stop to make it 2-0 Penguins.
The Leafs got a fortunate bounce of the puck early in the second period when Jamal Mayers threw a puck on net from the end boards that deflected off Marc-Andre Fleury’s stick and right to the open side of the net, where Jay Rosehill was there for the easy tap-in to cut the Penguins’ lead to 2-1.
However, it didn’t take long for the Penguins to strike right back, with a little luck of their own. Back on the powerplay, Malkin fired a shot wide, but it rebounded on the other side of the net right to the stick of Crosby, who easily banged it home to make it 3-1.
The Pens widened their lead again on the powerplay when Crosby deflected a Malkin slapper from the right point into the net to give the Penguins a 4-1 lead.
Toronto was able to cut the Pens’ lead to 4-2 when Rickard Wallin fired a slapper that Fleury stopped but gave up a huge rebound, where Niclas Hagman was able to bang it past Fleury to the short side and into the net.
But only about a minute later, Malkin stole the puck deep in the Leafs’ zone and quickly fed Jordan Staal for the one-timer past Toskala for the final count of 5-2.
Notes:
- For as good as the Pens’ powerplay was tonight, I think it should be tempered a little bit, considering how bad the Leafs’ penalty kill was last season and, obviously, the start of this season.
- Alex Goligoski led the Pens in icetime tonight with 23:08.
- Another big night for Crosby in the faceoff circle, going 17 for 25 for 68 percent. Also, Craig Adams did well, going 8 for 12.
- Jay McKee showed why he was a valuable addition tonight with seven blocked shots.
- Three separate staged fights tonight. Could’ve sworn the NHL was putting a stop to that. Guess not.
The Pens continue their road trip and head further north now to face the Ottawa Senators on Monday night.
Filed in: | The Confluence | Permalink
Tags: NHL-Hockey, Pittsburgh+Penguins, Toronto+Maple+Leafs,
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