Penguins End Slump In Style With 9-2 Woodshed Beating of Islanders

You know it's a good night when your home fans are chanting, "WE WANT 10!".

And so it goes for the Penguins, who abused the New York Islanders to the tune of 9-2 last night at Mellon Arena.

The Penguins were led by not one, but TWO hat tricks -- one by Pascal Dupuis, and the other by Petr Sykora.

Both were their first HT's in the National Hockey League. Sykora, as everyone around here seems to know, had 38 2-goal games to his credit in his career, but never a hat trick -- the most 2-goal games ever by an NHL player without posting a hat trick.

He couldn't have been happier on the ice when he scored his 3rd, and in the locker room after the game.

Dupuis's HT just piled on the misery for the New York Islanders, who probably thought they might go on the road against the Penguins and give them some trouble. After all, the Penguins had lost 3 straight, it was their 3rd game in 4 nights, they were starting their 3rd string goaltender in John Curry, and always have trouble with the Islanders at home.

So much for those theories.

The Penguins debunked them all on their way to a 4-1 first period lead. Dupuis opened the scoring by blazing a slapshot by Islanders starting goaltender Joey McDonald from the left wing circle. We've seen Dupuis rip it from there a few times and score. He has an underrated shot.

Miroslav Satan, who has been mostly miserable the last month with 2 goals in his last 14 games, got on the board next, taking a cross-crease pass on a 5-on-3 power play and tucking it in on the backhand. Satan added 2 assists in the onslaught that followed.

Sykora and Phillipe Boucher -- returning after missing 6 games with concussion symptoms -- also scored that period. It was Boucher's first goal as a Penguin.

The Boys of Winter were sitting pretty at that point, but instead of sitting back in the 2nd period, they poured it on.

Malkin made it 5-1, then Sykora scored the next 2 -- both power play goals -- for his hat trick. Dupuis added his second before the period was out, to make it 8-1 at the end of 2.

At this point, I couldn't help but wonder what the Penguins might do to blow this lead.

Not so. Dupuis closed out the scoring with about 5 minutes left for the Penguins first 9 goal game since 2001.

The Penguins had 38 shots and finished 3-for-11 on the power play. Malkin, Cooke, Staal, Goligoski and Scuderi all added 2 points to their totals, while Crosby had 3 helpers. Curry wasn't ever really tested.

I wondered if Penguins' coach Michel Therrein was going to keep sending #87 and #71 over the boards in the 3rd period. He did.

I wondered if Islanders coach Scott Gordon was going to get pissed about that. He didn't.

The truth of the matter is that Therrein couldn't be faulted for piling it on anyway. The Penguins had lost 3 in a row. He's trying to jump-start his team offensively. If a 9-2 rout gives his players a chance to gain some confidence, he'd be foolish to try and suppress that. Sure, you have to watch out for shenanigans out there with a game out of hand, but to their credit, the Islanders didn't sink to that level. Good thing, too, since the Penguins scratched Eric Godard again.

The 2 HT's last night was the first game the Penguins had 2 players register a hat trick since Mario Lemieux and Joe Mullen did it in 1993 against the New York Rangers in the midst of the Pens' 17 game, league-record winning streak to close the season.

With the win, the Penguins raised their record to 16-9-4 for 36 points, and are now 4 behind the Division leading Rangers. Philadelphia -- who the Penguins play Saturday afternoon in the City of Brotherly Hate -- also won over Carolina, 6-5, in a shootout, after being down 5-1 going into the 3rd period. With that win, they matched the Penguins' 36 points. The Flyers should have a lot of confidence for their weekend showdown with our flightless birds.

More after that matchup.