(AP)
The Pens beat the Florida Panthers 4-1 last night to win their fifth in a row. It's been a very long time since the Pens have won like this and if you're not excited, you're nuts. The Pens are getting everything together when it matters. Last night's game was huge since they were chasing Florida in the Eastern Conference standings. Gaining two points put them in a tie with Florida in points, although Florida has one game on the Pens.
Crosby returned to the lineup after missing the team's last four wins because of a sore groin. He sure looked good on his second period goal while splitting the Florida defense, an almost exact repeat of a goal he scored against Florida in January.
Game highlights:
The Pens did have to go without someone else though. Sergei Gonchar had to fly home yesterday morning after being notified his wife was in labor with their second daughter. She was supposed to be induced today on the Pens' day off but obviously his daughter had other plans. He made it home just before a successful delivery of his new daughter, Victoria. Congratulations Sergei! He should be meeting the team in Washington for their game against the Capitals on Sunday. Alex Goligoski was recalled from WBS to take Gonchar's place.
The first period was fairly aggressive but there was no score going into the first intermission. Each team had a power play and both teams failed to score. Fleury made some huge saves in the first period when the Panthers had some good chances. The Pens' defense was also playing well and Fleury sure backed that up.
The Pens had a couple of power plays in the second but they couldn't capitalize on either. A Florida player was penalized for charging after a rough head shot on Kris Letang, but thankfully he was okay. With around 5:45 left on the clock in the second period, the Panthers had a one on one chance with a tired Geno following. No problem though because Fleury said no and made a big save. The Pens counter but just can't put it into the net.
With 2:11 left in the second, Florida scored the first goal of the game on a somewhat strange shot that bounced behind Fleury. The Panthers had that important first goal. Somewhat deflating after all of the scoreless action. But Sidney Crosby wouldn't have that. Soon after that with just over a minute left in the period, he scored a beautiful goal to put the Pens on the board and take the Panthers' lead away just like that.
Not long into the third with 17:36 left on the clock, Tyler Kennedy put one home to give the Pens the lead 2-1. Not long after, the Panthers thankfully hit a post to keep the score the same. About a minute after that, Letang didn't hit the post and scored a goal to put the Pens up 3-1.
Around the nine minute mark Fleury made a big save for the Pens and not give Florida any life. Sykora took a penalty and it was time for the Pens to kill this off and not give Florida any chance of a comeback. Then with 4:26 left, Tyler Kennedy had his second goal of the game with an assist by Malkin to put the nail in the Panthers' coffin. The Pens win their fifth straight and get two more huge points. The Pens have now taken all eight out of a possible eight points in their four road games. Hopefully they can make it five out of five and beat the Caps on Sunday.
- Alex Goligoski now wears the number 3 after new Penguin Bill Guerin wears number 13.
- What was with Florida playing a Miley Cyrus song during the game? Not exactly what we'd expect to hear at a hockey game. We also noticed an advertisement along the boards for the Jonas Brothers movie. Disney World is in Florida so is there some sort of connection there? Just not what we really associate with hockey...
- FSN has been a little disappointing lately with their "let's go to commercial in the middle of the game" tricks. Several times tonight either there was commentary going on or the actual game and it would cut to a commercial. An entire minute of a Pens power play was lost because of this. C'mon FSN!
We apologize for our lack of info and thoughts on the new Pens acquired at the trade deadline and our lack of a game preview.
2 comments:
yeah, the miley cyrus song pissed me off too.
we're not all 12 year old pop-princess obsessed fan girls, now are we?!
Absolutely not! lol.
Post a Comment