Saturday, November 8, 2008

Pens get K.O. in 5th Round

The Pittsburgh Penguins won their game tonight against the New York Islanders by a score of 4 to 3. The young stars on each team made it an exciting game by streaking up and down the ice relentlessly. Both goaltenders, Sabourin for the Pens and MacDonald for the Isles, were tested early and often in the fast paced game.

The first period set the pace for the game, but only contained one of tonight's goals. Veteran Doug Weight got the first goal of the game at 16:23 of the first with helpers from Guerin and Hilbert. Both teams had 2 minutes of power play opportunity during the first, but neither resulted in anything more than a minor penalty on the score sheet.

The second period continued the pace set in the first, but contained much more action on the score sheet. Teagues Kennedy scored at 2:16 of the second to tie the game at 1 (Zigomanis and Cooke). Jackman and the Isles retook the lead in the 9th minute of play to bring the score to 2-1 NYI (Weight and Sutton). Hilbert then added a security goal, assisted by Okposo and Sutton, that would make the score 3-1 in favor of the Isles. Luckily for the Penguins, Staal kept up his strong play and netted a short breakaway goal that would bring the score to 3-2 New York. Malkin and Letang had the helpers on the goal which brought Malkin's assist total to 18 on the year and continued his point streak to 10 games. The Penguins had 6:38 worth of power play time in the period, but failed to score a goal.

The third period was led off with a continuation of the Pens power play opportunity from the second. The Islanders successfully killed off the remaining 1:22 to hold the Penguins to 0-4 on their power plays tonight. Sykora fought to get back on an Islanders scoring opportunity but took a hooking penalty during the 12th minute of the third. Luckily, Sabourin and the Pens killed off the short handed situation and stayed within 1 shot's ability of stealing points in New York.

There is nothing that can sum up the Penguins third period performance more than the word "dominant". The Penguins defense held strong and gave up a massive 1 shot during the whole third period. Sid and company turned the tides of the shots-on-goal war by amassing 18 shots during the period. It was due to this relentless effort that Tyler Kennedy managed to tie the game at 3 on a magnificent redirect from near the right wing circle. Goligoski and Zigomanis each added 1 to their assist column on the goal. Although both teams had scoring chances, the game would remain 3-3 and head into overtime.

The 4 on 4 overtime period was pretty sloppy, but largely due to the poor condition of the ice. Both teams did generate a couple of chances, but sure enough the teams headed to a shootout; the winner of this game was still clear as mud.

Sabourin entered the shootout with an .800 (4 out of 5) save percentage during shootout opportunities. He continued his 1 on 1 dominance in tonight's game by stopping all 3 of the Islander shooters. It was Petr Sykora on a beautiful backhand top-shelfer that won the game for the Pens.

Final score: 4-3 Penguins over the Islanders in a shootout. (NHL Score Sheet)

A couple of our notes pointed to the continued strong play of Jordan Staal. It was good to see Staaly net one that he had to work for and we are hoping he will continue the strong 2-way game he is known for.

One of the best things that we saw in tonight's game was the confidence that Miro Satan is currently playing with. Of all the Pens, he is certainly playing with the most apparent "swagger". One of our biggest criticisms of Miro has been his soft play against the boards and his unwillingness to fight for the puck. Satan showed steps toward being Hossa-like an all-around-contributer by getting involved at the drop of the puck and fighting hard with his body throughout the game. He didn't get a goal tonight, but we feel that this might have been his strongest game.

Gino is turning into the best player in the league. Nothing more, nothing less. 100% solid. Can he have his A back permanently? (Brooksy too)

Tyler Kennedy continues to make Penstation's love for grinders look like it is justified. We are certainly looking for more efforts like tonight from Teagues. I personally would love to see him end up with shaving cream on his face at the end of every game.

Look for our extended preview of Tuesday's Detroit game coming soon.

Let's Go Pens!

Matt@Penstation

3 of a Kind?

The Penguins look to make it three straight Saturday night when they travel to Long Island to face the division foe New York Islanders. The game starts at 7PM and will be broadcast on WXDX FM (105.9 The X) as well as FSN. As much as the Penguins would love to get a streak going, they may have to do so without Captain Kid. Sidney Crosby did not practice today and Michel Therrien was unsure whether or not he would play tomorrow (Pens).

With Rick Dipietro out, Joey MacDonald will get the nod in the game. With either Fleury or Sabourin playing, the Penguins should have the advantage in net. From what I've been reading, it looks like the Flower will get the start. Penstation is just hoping that the team in front of him isn't the 3rd period team from Thursday night.

This is a game that the Pens should win, even on the road. The kicker is going to be that it is a division game against a young and energetic hockey club that will be extremely excited to line up across Crosby and Malkin. This should be a fast paced game with a lot of scoring opportunities; look for most of them, however, to come in the Islanders zone.

The difference maker for the Penguins is going to be the defense. Although the team broke down allowing the 4 goals in the Oiler game, most of the goals were result of an odd situation on ice. Orpik and Letang should lead the Penguins to 2 points and a victory.

3-0 Penguins: Defense owns the game.

On a side note, I saw Zack and Miri and wanted to post a picture of Elizabeth Banks in her baby blue Pens jersey. Unfortunately, 30 minutes of searching led me to nothing. We'll have to get that one up when it becomes available.

Until then, LET'S GO PENS!

Matt@Penstation