The Confluence
Penguins sweep road trip, down Canes 3-2 in shootout
by Tony on 10/14/09 at 10:22 PM ET
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The effects of a four-game road trip certainly showed tonight for the Penguins in Raleigh, as the Hurricanes came back from a third-period two-goal deficit. But the Penguins persevered through the remainder of regulation and overtime, and finally outlasted the Canes on Chris Kunitz’ shootout goal, the sixth shooter for the Pens, for a 3-2 win.
It marked a four-game sweep of their early-season road trip through Philly, Toronto, Ottawa and Carolina. The Penguins now stand with a 6-1 record, tied with the Rangers for the best record in the NHL.
Mike Rupp scored his first goal as a Penguin, while Evgeni Malkin scored his third of the season.
Like most of the Pens’ opponents so far this season, and surely not the last, the Hurricanes came out strong. They took advantage of a road-weary Penguins squad and got some quality scoring chances on Marc-Andre Fleury, but weren’t able to get any pucks past him.
With about six minutes left in the first period, the Penguins took advantage of a loose puck to get a 2-on-1 break with Rupp and Ruslan Fedotenko. Canes’ defenseman Joe Corvo allowed Rupp, a fourth-line regular, to skate in on Canes’ goalie Cam Ward unopposed. Rupp then surprised Ward with a nifty backhand shot to the top shelf past Ward to give the Pens a 1-0 lead at the 14:24 mark.
Early in the second period, Malkin skated into the Canes’ zone and left the puck for Pascal Dupuis. Dupuis fed the puck right back to Malkin, who launched a hard wrister to the top shelf of Ward’s short side and into the net to make it 2-0 Pens at 4:27.
The Canes got onboard early in the third when Tuomo Ruutu passed the puck in the slot to Ray Whitney, who very quickly redirected the puck towards the net, where it barely squirted through the five-hole of Fleury to cut the Pens’ lead to 2-1.
The Penguins got absolutely robbed a few minutes later after an excellent tic-tac-toe passing play was done between Sidney Crosby, Kunitz and Bill Guerin. Guerin received the quick pass from Kunitz right on the doorstep and directed it into a seemingly open net, but Ward somehow was able to glove the puck and keep it from not completely going over the goal line to prevent a third Penguins goal.
Carolina got the tying goal midway through the third period when Tim Gleason simply threw a puck on net from the left point that Whitney redirected past Fleury to make it 2-2 at the 10:04 mark.
Overtime solved nothing, although the Penguins had several golden opportunities to win the game then, only to be stopped by Ward.
Both goaltenders were stellar in the shootout, forcing it to go six rounds. Jussi Jokinen and Crosby were the only players to score throughout the first five rounds, until Kunitz beat Ward through his five-hole to give the Penguins the win.
Notes:
- Another goose egg on the powerplay tonight, going 0-for-4. Maybe it was the weariness, but there were an awful lot of fancy pass attempts. I did like, however, that Crosby was taking more shots on the PP.
- Crosby led the Pens with 7 shots.
- Perhaps a little generous by the hometown scorer, but the Canes were awarded with 48 hits, compared to the Pens’ 32. I concur with the Pens total, not much hitting tonight.
- Perennial faceoff king Rod Brind’Amour was 9 for 11 in the circle. Crosby went 9 for 17.
- 5 blocked shots for Brooks Orpik.
- Fedotenko, Alex Goligoski and Jay McKee were all +2. Goligoski and McKee lead the Penguins in plus/minus so far this season with +7 and +6, respectively.
The Penguins finally head home and get a couple of days off before they face Tampa Bay on Saturday night.
Filed in: | The Confluence | Permalink
Tags: Carolina+Hurricanes, NHL-Hockey, Pittsburgh+Penguins,
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