The Confluence
Penguins win 7th straight in SO over Panthers, 4-3
by Tony on 03/10/09 at 11:07 PM ET
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They shook off that dreaded “1st game home after a road trip” that they were battling for the first two periods, turned up the heat in the third period, and won the game in the shootout.
Evgeni Malkin’s sick juke of Tomas Vokoun as the 3rd shooter for the Penguins grabbed the huge extra point as the Pens won their 7th straight with a 4-3 win over the Panthers.
The Penguins are now all alone in 6th place in the Eastern Conference with 78 points, one point behind 5th place Montreal, who won tonight as well, and remain four points behind 4th place Philadelphia, who also won.
IHCDB is now 9-1-1 since taking over from FHCMT.
The Pens had a season-high 50 shots on goal on Vokoun tonight, besting the previous high of 47 shots, which they just happened to do last week in Florida.
That said, it appeared the Pens were a tad bit sluggish for the first couple of periods, and they got away from some of the things that made them so successful in recent games. They turned away several decent scoring opportunities to make the extra pass.
In addition, the powerplay was pretty poor, going 0-for-6. The personnel made have changed, but the system, Mike Yeo’s system, hasn’t.
But the Penguins did get on the scoreboard first, after Kris Letang fed the puck along the left boards to Sidney Crosby. Crosby then made a sharp backhanded centering pass to Malkin, who lofted a backhander to the top shelf past Vokoun to make it 1-0 Pens at the 18:31 mark of the first period.
The Panthers ramped up their intensity and took advantage of the Pens’ sluggishness in the second period. Nick Boynton started the scoring off for the Panthers at 4:37 when he fired a wrister from the right point that went to the top shelf past Marc-Andre Fleury to tie the game at one.
Boynton started the Panthers’ next goal as well. Boynton fired a wrister from the right point that Fleury stopped, but Kamil Kreps was there to bang the rebound past him to give the Panthers a 2-1 lead at 11:12.
The Panthers scored what seemed to be a huge goal late in the second period when Ville Peltonen fired a wrister that Fleury again stopped, but the rebound came straight to Keith Ballard. The puck deflected off the leg of Ballard and into the net. The officials ruled that Ballard did not intentionally kick the puck, and that made it 3-1 Panthers.
The Pens finally woke up in the third period, as Tyler Kennedy fed the puck to Matt Cooke, who fired a wrister on goal. Vokoun stopped Cooke’s shot, but the puck deflected in the air. Jordan Staal was there to bat the puck out of midair and past Vokoun to cut the Panthers’ lead to 3-2 at the 2:20 mark.
It only took a few minutes for the Pens to tie the game. Crosby brought the puck out of their zone on a 4-on-2 break. After feeding the puck to Bill Guerin to enter the Panthers’ zone, Guerin fed Crosby busting towards the goal. Crosby barely got his stick on the puck to deflect it to the left post, then off of Vokoun into the goal to make it 3-3 at the 5:29 mark.
No one scored for the remainder of the period and overtime. Kris Letang started the shootout for the Pens with a sweet backhand/forehand wrister past Vokoun. After Richard Zednik, Crosby and Stephen Weiss were all stopped, respectively, Malkin was the last shooter for the Pens. Malkin used a sick fake to get Vokoun out of position, then easily brought the puck around to his forehand for the simple tap-in and the win.
Other notes;
- 98th straight sellout tonight.
- Good night for both Crosby (20 for 28) and Staal (10 for 17) on faceoffs.
- 8 shots for Staal, 7 shots for Gonchar tonight.
- +2 for both Guerin and Crosby.
- Gonchar led icetime again with 30:12.
The Pens now head on an abbreviated road trip to Columbus on Thursday before heading back home to begin an 8-game homestand.
Filed in: | The Confluence | Permalink
Tags: Florida+Panthers, NHL-Hockey, Pittsburgh+Penguins,
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