Penguins Hold On to Defeat Edmonton, 5-4

The Penguins almost sent me to the hospital last night.

After taking a 5-0 lead at home against the Edmonton Oilers, the flightless birds almost did the impossible. After previously blowing 2-0 and 3-0 leads in losses already this season, they nearly suffered another come from ahead loss by allowing Edmonton to score 4 unanswered goals and make the game interesting even until the game's final seconds before holding on for the 2 points.

I would have had a heart attack had they blown a 5 goal lead. On home ice. Against a team that looked as awful as the Oilers did in the first 2 periods.

Thank heavens that didn't happen.

The Penguins built their lead on the strength of 2 goals each from sniper wingers Miroslav Satan and Petr Sykora, and a shorthanded goal by Max Talbot.

Satan's first goal in particular was a thing of beauty. He took the rebound of a Evgeni Malkin point shot off the back boards near the right post, slid the puck between his legs, tucked his stick in the same place, and flipped a shot behing his own leg to the net that squirted under Oiler sieve Mathieu Garon.

Malkin, by the way, added 3 assists to pad his NHL-leading 21 points.

He and Sykora also made the highlight reel last night, a la Mario Lemieux and Kevin Stevens.

Malkin lined up for an offensive zone faceoff against Oilers center Sam Gagner. Malkin, the worst faceoff guy on the Penguins and one of the worst in the league, beat Gagner cleanly by pushing the puck through his legs and quickly squirting around Gagner.

Sykora, lined up on the right part of the circle, went right to the net as Malkin won the draw and beat his man. Malkin picked up the puck on the other side of Gagner and sent a quick pass to Sykora who buried it before Garon knew what happened.

Oustanding.

The turning point for the Oilers probably was their 3rd goal. They got one late in the 2nd period and one early in the 3rd and were starting to get a little momentum, but were still down by 3 goals. About 30 seconds later, the Penguins had a game.

Edmonton winger Alex Hemsky picked up the puck on the far boards and went into the Penguins zone toward the net. He was being cut off by a Penguins defenseman (I can't recall who), but was fast enough to be in a position to put a bad angle shot, at best, on Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.

He drove to the goal and Fleury put his right leg down to try and cover the far side of the net, but he did a terrible job, as Hemsky quickly moved the puck to his backhand and slid one on the ice off the far post and in to stun the crowd.

A poor goal, for sure.

That gave Edmonton momentum which we didn't squash despite being awarded a 5 minute power play a few minutes later, 2 minutes of which was a 2-man advantage thanks to a stupid penalty Oiler defenseman Sheldon Souray took.

Did the Penguins make Souray pay?

No. It was more like the other way around.

As Souray's penalty was ending, the puck slid up the ice just as he was coming out of the box. He took it in on a breakaway and Fleury couldn't shut the door there either, as Souray roofed a backhander to make it a one-goal game.

The Penguins held on after that, but not without their moments. They really started to coast in the 3rd period and were fortunate to hold on. Although it's natural to ease off the pedal when you're up 5 goals, you think the Penguins would have learned their lesson after their other blown leads this year. You can't led any team crawl back into a game after being down 5 goals. The Penguins didn't do a good job of putting the nail in the coffin and they're going to have to learn how to do that or else it's going to haunt them later.

That aside, the Penguins got the 2 points. That's the most important thing. They'll now move on to play the Islanders on the road on Saturday night.

Other notes:

- Eric Godard scored another decisive victory last night in a fight with Oilers beheamoth Steve MacIntyre, dropping him to his knees with a couple strong rights.

- Here's a link to a great piece by Pittsburgh Tribune Review columnist Joe Starkey talking about the Malkin/Ovechkin rivalry:

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/penguins/s_597246.html