Off-Day News/Notes: Prospects, Alyonka and More

A day before the Penguins welcome the New Jersey Devils into town -- a team winless in now 5 straight games after being whitewashed 3-0 by the New York Rangers last night -- I thought it would be a good time to catch up on various Penguin tidbits, prospect related news and, of course, the person connected to the Penguins who is getting all the attention these days: Pens' TV's own Alyonka Larionov.

First of all, there were reports yesterday indicating that the Penguins were one of about a dozen or so teams trying to make a serious play at signing University of Denver free-agent Tyler Bozak.

Bozak, who went undrafted 3 years ago, has developed into a quality player for the Denver Pioneers of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. The sophmore has missed some time this year because of a knee injury, but has 23 points in the 19 games he has played. The year prior, he led the team in scoring with 34 points in 41 games as a freshman.

For all his offensive skills, Bozak is no slouch defensively either. He's 6'1" and about 185 pounds, and has good hockey sense.

Only time will tell if the Penguins are able to sign Bozak, although one has to think the Penguins' are playing with a double edge sword when compared to other teams looking to sign a guy like Bozak.

On one hand, who wouldn't want to play with the stable of young talent the Penguins have? On the other, Bozak, a center, has to look at the triumverate that would be in front of him in Pittsburgh and wonder where he might fit in. With Crosby, Malkin and Staal patrolling the middle, the Penguins won't have an easy time finding a place for their other good prospects at center in their system -- guys like Dustin Jeffrey and Kevin Veilleux -- as it is. Bozak would almost certainly have to change positions and play wing if he wanted to sign with Pittsburgh, and that may be a factor in his decision on whether he wants to come to Pittsburgh.

While we're discussing college players, there's also been word recently that the Penguins have talked with representatives of Boston University Defenseman Matt Gilroy. Gilroy is in the same boat as Bozak -- a college-playing free agent who has been among the better players in the Eastern Collegiate Hockey Association. Again, Gilroy is talking to a lot of teams right now trying to decide where to sign and turn pro after this season.

Penguins' GM Ray Shero is doing right by exploring these avenues to add players. Of course, there's a reason why these players went undrafted, but with the salary cap, it is incumbent on GM's to explore every option to try and add skilled players at low cost. It's not unlike what Shero did in signing Janne Pesonen last summer.

Shero seems to be more progressive than most GM's in these areas and should be praised for that. Most of these guys won't pan out, of course, but if you get one who does, you can really add to your team on the cheap.

Meanwhile, the Penguins may be ready to sign another player already in their system -- Gilroy's blueline partner at Boston University, Brian Strait. Strait, at 6'1" and 200+ is a defensive defensman who brings a steady, gritty game to BU's blueline. BU is currently playing in the Frozen Four, but it's very likely that Strait will sign his first pro contract for 3-years and join the Baby Penguins for their post-season run.

Even if Strait doesn't sign, at least the Penguins don't have to worry about losing his rights yet. That is not the case with 2007 draft pick, Casey Pierro-Zabotel, who led the Western Hockey League in scoring with the Vancouver Giants this year, tallying 115 points on 36 goals and 79 assists.

Pierro-Zabotel, a center, has the same roadblocks in front of him that Jeffrey and Vellieux do -- and that Bozak would -- but there's no indication right now the Penguins aren't interested in signing him this summer before he would go back into this year's draft pool. Time will tell what happens here, and since Pierro-Zabotel is probably one of the Penguins' top 5-6 prospects, what the Penguins do here will bear watching.

Back with the big club, the Penguins still currently sit in 6th place in the Eastern Conference, 1 point ahead of the New York Rangers after New York's win last night. The Penguins also remain 1 point behind the Carolina Hurricanes and 2 behind the Philadelphia Flyers. While the Penguins have 1 game in hand on Carolina, the Flyers have one game in hand on them. None of that will change tonight because neither of those teams play. The games of interest the Penguins will be watching are the Montreal Canadiens hosting the Chicago Blackhawks, and the Florida Panthers hosting the Ottawa Senators.

Despite the Penguins' 5-1-1 homestand so far, they haven't been able to gain much ground. When they came off their 5-0 roadtrip, they rose from 10th to 7th in the standings. 7 games later, they are only 1 spot higher, and only hold that place by 1 point.

Good thing they've been winning as often as they have. If not, they'd probably be on the outside looking in.

The Penguins still have an long, OUTSIDE shot at capturing the Atlantic Division, but if the Devils continue to stumble, who knows. If the Penguins beat New Jersey in regulation tomorrow night, they will be only 6 points back with 5 to play. The Flyers, of course, also could catch New Jersey.

Still, I think all of that is unlikely. The bigger question for Pittsburgh in the next 10 days or so will be whether they settle into 5th, 6th or 7th place, which is most likely, or maybe even rise up high enough to capture 4th and home ice in the first round. Otherwise, the interesting race will be how New Jersey or the Washington Capitals finish, because those teams are still likely to finish 2 or 3. It's just a matter of which order, and that has implications for who the Penguins' may be most likely to match up against in round 1 of the postseason.

In roster news, it looks as if defenseman Mark Eaton will be able to play tomorrow against New Jersey after being rammed face first into the dasher by Rangers' RW Colton Orr in Saturday afternoon's game.

Eaton has some stitches and an ugly (uglier) nose, but he's otherwise ready. And it's a good thing because it seems as if interim coach Dan Bylmsa isn't ready to insert defenseman Philipe Boucher into the lineup in his place. It seems that Boucher is still struggling with his timing.

I'm not sure what Bylmsa is going to do about that. He needs to get Boucher in there and some of those timing issues probably won't resolve until he gets game action.

Even though Bylmsa said he was going to try and play Boucher before the end of the regular season, he may just have to take his chances and call on him in the postseason if needed.

I'll end today by putting Evgeni Malkin's favorite chef back in the spotlight.

Now, I haven't discussed this topic in this forum yet, but by now, most Penguin partisans have seen the video where Geno and Penguins' TV star Alyonka Larionov do a cooking segment.

Here's the link for those that may have missed it:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Video-Evgeni-Malkin-and-Alyonka-Larionov-heat-u%3Furn%3Dnhl,150459

I think the funniest part of the video is defenseman Kris Letang coming in at the end and c*ckblocking Geno. If I were Malkin, I would have been PISSED. It's no wonder Malkin just leaves the room at the end.

Without a doubt, though, my favorite line is Alyonka saying, "Now, I'm all dirty, so thank you"

As if we all can't imagine what Geno was thinking.

ANYWAY ...

Joe Starkey of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review did a nice piece on Alyonka the other day.

(Did I say "nice piece" and Alyonka in the same sentence?? Really, that wasn't intentional).

Here's a link to that article:

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/penguins/s_618286.html

Looks like we might be seeing her around Mellon Arena more often.

Certainly, that won't disappoint Geno.

Now only if Letang can mind his own business.

Penguins Earn 2 Huge Points In 4-3 Win Over Rangers

Much was at stake this afternoon at Mellon Arena in the Penguins 1 PM tilt against their arch rival New York Rangers.

The Penguins were 1 point up on the Rangers and looking to stay ahead of New York, as well as keep up with the Carolina Hurricanes and Philadelphia Flyers, immediately ahead of them in the Eastern Conference standings.

The season series with the Rangers was also on the line, which is important because it could be a factor in the 2nd playoff seeding tiebreaker. Going into the game, the Penguins were 2-1-2 against New York this year.

The Penguins started off well enough, jumping out to an early 2-0 lead in the first half of the opening frame on the strength of a goal by Max Talbot and then a 2nd tally by Matt Cooke.

Talbot's goal was made possible by Ruslan Fedotenko, who fed Talbot screaming through the neutral zone with enough speed that he was able to get a little clear in the Rangers zone and lead a 2-on-1. Talbot decided not to pass the puck and instead surprised New York goaltender Henrik Lundqvist with a quick wrister that beat him between the legs.

Cooke's goal was a 2nd chance opportunity around the net when the Rangers failed to clear the puck.

Unfortunately, for Pittsburgh, their lead was short lived, as Ryan Callahan scored for the Rangers just seconds after a faceoff by wristing a shot far side past Penguins' goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, and Brandon Dubinsky scored on a wraparound that I'm sure Fleury would like to have back.

Ruslan Fedotenko scored his first goal in 16 games to give the Penguins the lead again at 3-2 in the second period when he beat Lundqvist far side after shooting the puck on a three-on-one rush.

Nik Antropov didn't waste much time evening things up again, as he scored a few minutes later, corraling a loose puck in the slot, turning around and whipping it by Fleury before he could react in time.

Sidney Crosby, who had a 10 game point streak coming into the game -- and who hadn't figured in on either of the Penguins' 3 goals up to that point -- broke through in the 3rd and gave the Penguins the goal that ended up as the winner.

Crosby took a pass from Fedotenko, sped around one man in the neutral zone, then got a step on Dan Girardi inside the Rangers blueline and broke in partially alone on Lundqvist before snapping off a quick shot that went between his glove hand and body.

The goal was signature Crosby. How many times have Penguin fans seen him break through a defense like that and score off the rush?? Just outstanding.

As I mentioned, the lead held up, and the Penguins separated themselves from the Rangers with 2 big regulation points.

As it turns out, the Penguins needed those points. The Hurricanes came back to beat the New Jersey Devils tonight, 2-1, after the Devils took a 1-0 lead into the 3rd period in that contest, while the Flyers came back from a 2-0 third period deficit to beat the New York Islanders, 4-3 in a shootout.

The Florida Panthers also won tonight, 6-3, over the Dallas Stars. They remain 5 points back of the Penguins and in 9th place.

The Buffalo Sabres continue to hold onto their playoff chances by a thread, winning their 3rd in a row by beating the Montreal Canadiens, 4-3, in a shootout.

Montreal is 4 points back of Pittsburgh in 8th place.

The Penguins, in some ways, were fortunate to win against the Rangers. They went ZERO for nine on the power play in a mostly miserable display of how to run the man-advantage. That easily could have cost them the game.

On the other hand, they deserved a lot of those penalties they drew, which means they were skating well and working hard out there on the ice. They basically had the better of the play in the game, on average.

The Penguins are 5-1-1 on their current franchise record 8-game homestand, with the final game on the string Wednesday against New Jersey.

While the Penguins have the next 3 days off, they'll surely be doing a lot of scoreboard watching, as I will be.

The Penguins remain in fairly solid playoff position, but they want to keep their momentum going with 6 games left. If they're able to win 5 of them, they'll finish with at least 100 points for the 3rd straight season.

Great to see the team keep things going. They have now moved to 14-2-3 under interim head coach Dan Bylmsa, and are doing some great work under him.

More early this week.

Penguins' Penalty Killers, Defense, and Fleury Snuff Out Flames, 2-0

When the Calgary Flames learned that the Penguins were going to start Marc-Andre Fleury in goal last night, they should have just packed their bags and moved on to the next stop on their road trip without even taking the ice.

Why, you say?

In one of the most interesting statistics I've heard in a while, Fleury has pitched shutouts on March 25 in each of the last 2 years, one against the New Jersey Devils and one against the Boston Bruins.

True to form, Fleury made it 3 years running with a 2-0 whitewashing of Calgary last night.

It was Fleury's 4th shutout of the season.

While Fleury stopped 31 shots, the Penguins as a whole played an extremely strong game. Much like Sunday afternoon's game against the Flyers, this one had a playoff feel, and Pittsburgh came ready to play.

Calgary is a team who plays physically and the Penguins matched, if not exceeded, the Flames in that category last night. The Penguins had over 40 hits, and defenseman Brooks' Orpik had 10 of them.

While the Penguins continue to take way too many penalties (they took 5 last night and now have taken 45 in their last 7 games), their penalty killers did an outstanding job again, shutting down every man-advantage the Flames had, including a 4-minute penalty to Penguins' center Evgeni Malkin late in the 2nd period when the game was still in the balance.

Kris Letang scored what ended up being the game winner about 8 minutes into the game on the Penguins' first power play of their own. After Sidney Crosby picked a rebound up off his skates to the right of sprawling Flames' netminder Mikko Kiprusoff, he tossed the puck across the crease -- and between Kiprusoff's legs -- to the other side where Letang was staring at an empty net and made no mistake.

That lead held up even though the Flames had some decent chances later in that period and in the 2nd frame. Flames' RW David Moss hit the crossbar on a turnaround wrister from 15 feet later in the first, while Curtis Glencross was robbed by Fleury in the 2nd as he extended across the crease to just get a piece of a one-timer from Glencross that went off his body and wide back to the far side.

In the 3rd, the Penguins' capitalized on a counterattack to give themselves some breathing room.

Defenseman Rob Scuderi broke up a Flames' rush with a pokecheck while Calgary was changing its defensmen. Scuderi's partner, Hal Gill, swooped in to pick up the puck and fed it to a quick-charging Malkin.

Gill decided to join Malkin as a trailer while Malkin swept down the right boards. The play looked inoccuous at the time because the Flames were able to get their 2 defensemen on; however, because of the line change, they weren't able to step up or otherwise challenge Malkin at their blue line. Instead, they tried to push him wide positionally.

Malkin dropped the puck to Gill, the non-scoring machine who, surprisingly, whipped a quick wrister through the defenseman's screen and past Kiprusoff high on the far side from the top of the right circle for his 31st career goal to give the Penguins a 2-0 lead.

It's funny --- a lot was made after the game about the blue full-body "snuggy" with a Penguins' logo that Gill was wearing in the locker room after the morning skate.

For those that haven't seen these contraptions advertised on TV, it's a full body blanket with holes for your arms.

Surely, his teammates will now make certain Gill tosses that thing on again Saturday morning before the Pens' next tilt against the New York Rangers that afetrnoon.

Of course, anyone who's expecting Gill to score again shouldn't get too far ahead of themselves, but his play last night was huge.

In the end, Fleury made the lead hold up and ensured the Penguins got 2 big points.

With the victory, the Penguins moved back into 6th place in the East, with 88 points, one behind the Carolina Hurricanes, who won their 5th straight last night, 2-1, over the red-hot Ottawa Senators. The Penguins do have one game in hand on Carolina, and that figure is likely to go up as the Penguins only have 2 games in the next 9 days. The Penguins and Hurricanes also still have a head-to-head matchup on the slate.

The 10th place Buffalo Sabres beating the 9th place Florida Panthers, 5-3, last night also was big, because it keeps the Panthers 7 points back from the Penguins.

I can't say enough about how well the Penguins' played last night. It was important for them to come out strong after Sunday's loss to Philadelphia and get back on the winning track. They had to do it against a good team who just came off a win over the Western Conference-leading Detroit Red Wings. They met the challenge, and look well positioned to both secure a playoff berth and, as I said yesterday, be a team nobody at the top of the East is eager to face.

Lets Go Pens.

Penguins/Flames Preview

The Penguins welcome the Calgary Flames to the Mellon Arena ice tonight in a big contest for the local club against one of the better teams in the Western Conference.

For Pittsburgh, the matchup is big because other teams clustered around them in the Eastern Conference playoff race keep winning. Both Montreal and the New York Rangers scored regulation wins last night. New York's victory pulled them into a tie with the Penguins with 86 points, and technically put them above Pittsburgh in the standings since, even though the teams have the exact same record, the Rangers would have the tiebreaker after getting the better of the season series -- a series which, by the way, wraps up with a big game Saturday afternoon at Mellon.

The Montreal Canadiens also broke a 5 game losing streak by whipping the Atlanta Thrashers last night. They sit 3 points behind the Penguins in 8th place.

The Florida Panthers still sit in 9th, 5 points back of Pittsburgh.

Calgary is a team that poses problems for anyone. They have top end scorers and solid offensive depth, a stud on the backline, and a goaltender who just wins games.

Of course, the Flames are led by their captain, RW Jarome Iginla, who leads the team in points with 83 on 31 goals and 52 assists. He is joined on the first line by new trade deadline acquisition Olli Jokinen, who has played very well since joining Calgary. Jokinen is accustomed to having good games against Pittsburgh, so the Penguins will have to watch out for him tonight.

The guy who leads Calgary in goal-scoring -- and who is the 3rd part of the Flames' top line -- may be a bit of a surprise. LW Mike Cammalleri, a player who I hoped the Penguins might try to snag last season, has 36 goals to lead the Flames. Add his 39 helpers into the picture and you have a top end offensive option. Cammalleri is a quick, shifty forward with decent speed and good hands. He showed flashes of all of those talents for the LA Kings before coming to the Flames.

The Penguins would be wise to match up defenseman Sergei Gonchar and Brooks Orpik against that trio. It's one of the best lines the Penguins have seen -- and will see -- all season, and they need their best pairing to play well against them if they are going to have a chance to win.

As I mentioned, the Flames have some offensive depth, as well. Guys like Daymond Langkow and Todd Bertuzzi have contributed. Then they have guys you may not have heard of like Rene Bourque and David Moss. Bourque has 21 goals and Moss 19.

Dion Phaneuf is their stud on the backline. He has 11 goals and 43 points for them this year. Somewhat surprisingly, he is a minus 11, though.

Mikka Kiprusoff, Calgary's netminder, already has 42 wins, putting him within striking distance of the NHL record for most wins in a single season, 48, held by Martin Brodeur. Kiprusoff plays a lot, so he'll probably get every game for the Flames down the stretch. If they go on a run, he could possibly get that record.

The Flames are coached by hard-nosed bench boss Mike Keenan. Keenan still has somewhat of an abrasive style that might not fit well on every club, but he's positioned the Flames solidly in 3rd place in the Western Conference, and there's no doubt he'll have them ready for the Penguins tonight.

There is a possibility that Pens' interim head coach Dan Bylmsa may insert defenseman Phillipe Boucher back into the lineup tonight. Boucher is ready to go and will need to play sometime soon, but Bylmsa was non-committal yesterday as to when. If he plays, expect Hal Gill to be scratched.

The Penguins also gave Max Talbot a little time on LW on the 2nd line with Evgeni Malkin and Petr Sykora in practice yesterday. There's no word on whether we'll see that group together tonight or, if so, how much, but it's clear that Bylmsa is trying to jump-start LW Ruslan Fedotenko a little bit, who has been in a terrible slump the last 5-6 weeks. Sykora also hasn't gotten on the board often recently, and it would be nice to get those guys going.

Marc-Andre Fleury is expected to be in goal for the Penguins tonight.

Recap tomorrow.

Are The Penguins Better Than Last Year?

With the Penguins losing their first game in reglation since February 22 on Sunday to Philadelphia, and now sitting in 6th in the Eastern Conference after the Carolina Hurricanes 2-1 OT win over the Florida Panthers last night pushed them one point above Pittsburgh, I thought it was a good time to kick the can on a topic which Pittsburgh Tribune Review columnist Joe Starkey raised in his column yesterday.

Are the Penguins better than last year?

First of all, here's a link to Joe's piece:

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/penguins/s_617326.html

I agree with a lot of what Joe said, starting with the premise that the idea isn't so far-fetched as one might think at first.

Sure, this year's Penguins have a lot of ground to cover before they are in the same discussion as last year's squad that came within 2 wins of capturing the silver chalice.

However, on paper, the comparison is fair.

As I mentiond in this space recently, the Penguins have an outside shot at a 3rd straight 100 point season, which puts them only a few points off the pace from last season, and the year before.

Marc-Andre Fleury is likely to finish with 35 or more wins, and is starting to show the form he displayed last season after returning from his ankle injury.

The defense as a whole consists largely of the same group, with only Ryan Whitney having since moved on to Anaheim in the trade that netted LW Chris Kunitz. Whitney underperformed last year, however, and on the whole, I haven't noticed the Penguins missing him on the ice a great deal. Just in the time since he has been gone, they've ridiculously averaged near 4 goals per game, so it's hard to argue that they miss his offensive ability and transition skills. And certainly nobody is going to contend that they miss him on the defensive end.

Although Sergei Gonchar missed most of this season with a shoulder injury, he has returned with a vengence in the last 15 games, looking like he didn't miss 5 days, let alone 5 months. His presence on the ice for the Penguins is immeasurable.

Last season, I thought it was inevitable that the Penguins would have to move Gonchar while they could before his contract ended because there was no way they could afford him under the salary cap when his current deal expires. My thought at the time was they'd have to take a chance in giving Whitney the offensive reins from the backline.

We all see how that turned out. Gonchar has proven indispensible back there, and a priority for the Penguins to bring back, even at 35.

Overall, I think the Penguins' "D" isn't playing quite as well defensively as last season, but I believe they remain capable of playing well enough to win. Although their new system isn't quite as tight as the one former coach Michel Therrein had them playing, the real test will be how well they can lock down in the playoffs and win close games when they need to.

Up front, there's no denying that the Penguins sustained some meaningful losses in the offseason. Marion Hossa is one of the top 10 offensive players in the game, and Ryan Malone was an outstanding 2nd line do-it-all player for them last year. But Kunitz has shown to be a player similar to Malone, in that he gets his nose dirty, goes to the net to score, and has the hands to finish. The only difference is that he's playing with Crosby and not Malkin.

Meanwhile, Bill Guerin is certainly no Hossa, but he's still a credible scoring threat, even at 38. He knows where to go in the offensive zone and can still shoot the puck.

One can fairly argue that, with both of those guys playing on Crosby's wing this season, his line is better overall than it was with just Hossa and a miscast 3rd line forward like Pascal Dupuis on his other side.

I completely agree with Starkey that Matt Cooke is a better player, and nearly as good an agitator as Jarkko Ruutu was. That's why I didn't understand all the talk I had been hearing leading up to this season's trade deadline about our interest in re-acquiring Ruutu.

RW Petr Sykora has slumped lately, but continues to be a viable scoring threat aside 2nd line center Evegni Malkin. What has hurt Sykora recently is that he's not getting 1st unit power play time anymore, and I think that's hurt his confidence a little.

Speaking of Malkin -- and we haven't even talked about him yet -- he's having a better season than he did last year. Malkin is scoring more and developing into a more complete player. He still can be careless with the puck at times, and that's something he has to pay particular attention to in the playoffs when even a single giveaway can send you home for the season, but it should be clear to everyone by now that he's simply come into his own this season.

2 other wingers, Ruslan Fedotenko and Miroslav Satan, have, in the aggregate, disappointed this year. Even though Satan has 17 goals, his trademark inconsistency landed him with the Penguins' minor league affiliate in Wilkes-Barre, where Satan hasn't played since 1995.

After a stretch of about 6 or 7 games in the middle of the season when he was one of the Penguins' best forwards, Fedotenko has gone scoreless in this last 14 games and has only 2 goals in his last 20. The only reason he's still playing on Malkin's left side is because the Penguins don't have a better option there.

On the other hand, if we're talking about comparing this year's squad with last year's, that's the only reason Dupuis was playing with Crosby on the first line.

The last guy I want to size up for comparison sake is Jordan Staal.

Really, there is no comparison here. Staal had a poor sophmore season last year. This year, he has again approached the form he displayed in his rookie season. He has topped the 20 goal plateau again, and has continued to develop as an outstanding 2 way hockey player. He has especially thrived under new interim head coach Dan Bylmsa. He's skating like the wind, controlling the puck, and just dominating on the ice with his size and skill at times. He presents a tough matchup for opposing teams on the 3rd line.

It wouldn't be difficult to argue that, with the way he's played this season, the Penguins have a legitimate 2nd line guy leading their 3rd group.

The other Penguin forwards -- Dupuis, Max Talbot, Craig Adams -- all provide the necessary 4th line energy and grit needed, as most of them did in those roles last year.

Overall, the Penguins have 5 20-goal scorers, with Guerin only 1 goal away from making the Penguins just the 2nd time in the league to have 6, behind Philadelphia. They are quickly rising up the ranks offensively in the NHL.

Considering everything, it's not a stretch to favorably compare the Penguins team this year with the one from last year. If not for the terrible 2 month period of sleepwalking they had in the middle of this year when they were notably underachieving, they'd be right in the mix at the top of the Conference. As it is, they are still looking to ensure a postseason birth. But that doesn't mean that, when the smoke clears, this team can't be talked about in the same breath as last season's group.

As I mentioned, the true measuring stick for comparison will be the postseason, assuming the Penguins get there.

I know if I were one of the top teams in the East, I'd prefer to avoid the Penguins ...

Flyers Down Penguins 3-1

I should have known better than to start talking about the Penguins might be able to actually catch the Washington Capitals in the standings. Or to praise the Penguins' special teams.

The latter thing is what's what yesterday's 3-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers at Mellon Arena largely came down to. The Penguins again took an inordinate number of penalties -- 7 to be exact -- and allowed power play goals from Simon Gagne and Scott Hartnell to put them in a 2-0 hole they weren't ever able to get out of.

Kris Letang scored the Pens' only marker, also on a power play, about 1/2 way through the 3rd period to make things interesting and give the Flyers pause to think whether they would be the victim in the Penguins' 12th win when trailing after 2 periods this season.

But the Penguins got no closer. The Flyers sealed it with an empty net goal with about 30 seconds left. I'd tell you who scored it, but I literally don't know who the hell he is, which is saying something considering how much I follow the game.

I hate to give the Flyers credit. So I won't. I will say, however, that Martin Biron played better than we've seen him play in the past. In all fairness, though, the Penguins had plenty of chances they should have buried. Sidney Crosby, Jordan Staal and Tyler Kennedy -- at least -- all had glorious scoring chances. Overall, the Penguins played the better game yesterday. They had the better of the play and only allowed 20 shots to the Flyers.

At least the Penguins finished the season series with Philadlphia on top, winning 4 of the 6 games. The Flyers will have a lot to think about if they match up with Pittsburgh in the first round -- a matchup that, although certainly not guaranteed at this stage, looks more likely with each passing day.

Officially now, the Flyers have the jump on the Penguins for 4th place in the East with yesterday's victory. They have 88 points, while the Penguins have 86. Philadelphia also has 3 games in hand on Pittsburgh, one of which they will use Monday when they battle New Jersey. In fact, the Penguins will be doing a lot of scoreboard watching in the near future. They only have 2 games in the next 8 days, one on Wednesday night against the Calgary Flames and another Saturday afternoon against the New York Rangers.

The Penguins are 3-1-1 on their current franchise-record 8-game home stand. They are now 12-3-3 under interim coach Dan Bylmsa.

Speaking of the Rangers, the Ottawa Senators did the Penguins a favor last night, beating New York in regulation, keeping them behind Pittsburgh in 7th place in the East. The Carolina Hurricanes remain right on the Penguins tail in 6th, however.

Meanwhile, the Montreal Canadiens are doing everything they can to fall flat on their faces and out of the playoffs in their franchise's 100th season, while the Florida Panthers still linger in 9th place, one point behind Montreal and 6 behind the Penguins. They have 2 games in hand on Pittsburgh.

More later this week.

Game Of The Week: Penguins/Flyers Pre-Game News/Notes

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Penguins Crown Kings, 4-1

After a thrilling come-from-behind 3-2 road victory the night before over the Eastern Conference leading Boston Bruins, and desperate to stay in the playoff chase in the Western Conference, the LA Kings rolled into Mellon Arena last night with some swagger.

They left the building crowned anything but Kings.

The Penguins handled Los Angeles easily last night at the Igloo, 4-1. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 24 of the 25 shots he faced for his 30th win, allowing only a power play goal by Kings' center Michael Handzus.

Meanwhile, Pittsburgh rolled from the earliest stages of the game, beginning with Sidney Crosby's outstanding, top-shelf backhand goal after picking the pocket of a Kings' player deep in their own zone.

Crosby helped up the Penguins lead to 2-0 later in the first period on the power play when he found Evgeni Malkin to the right of LA goaltender Jonathan Quick, and fed him a pass from the near boards for an easy tap-in goal.

Tyler Kennedy made it 3-0 in the 2nd period after some sustained pressure in the Kings' zone, and his goal was followed by one by Bill Guerin just a minute or two later. Guerin ripped a shot high past Quick on the far side after Geno made a beautiful play to corral the puck off the side boards on an attempted clear and, in one motion, curl towards the slot before dishing a short no-look feed to #13.

The Penguins penalty killing was good last night again, shutting down 7 of 8 Kings power plays. They've risen to 14th overall in the NHL in that category.

With the win, the Penguins raised their record to 39-26-8, with 86 points, and remained tied with the Philadelphia Flyers (who beat the Buffalo Sabres, 6-4, last night) for 4th place in the East, setting up a big showdown with their cross-state rivals in a nationally televised game on Sunday afternoon at 12:30 PM. Someone will have the clear edge for 4th after that one.

In some ways, Philadelphia's win over Buffalo helped the Penguins, because it helped keep Buffalo on the outside looking in. The Carolina Hurricanes also won last night, coming back to beat the New York Islanders, 5-4. They sit in 6th place, 3 behind the Penguins and Flyers.

It's still not certain that the Penguins will make the dance, but if they keep playing the way they are, they should cruised to the playoffs easily.

NOTES:

Penguins' prospect Chad Johnson, a goaltender with the Alaska Fairbanks Nanooks of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) won their player of the year award, and is a finalist for the Hobey Baker Trophy, given to college hockey's top Division I player. Johnson, 22, has a 12-10-4 record with a 1.70 GAA and .937 SV%. The Penguins drafted him in the 5th round in 2006.

Another interesting note -- I read yesterday that Penguins' center Evgeni Malkin leads the league in takeaways, with 86. He's 3 ahead of the league's reigning Selke Trophy winner for best defensive forward, Pavel Datsyuk. It's only too bad Malkin won't get any Selke consideration this year. And believe me -- he won't.

Let's go Pens!

Malkin's 5 Points Lead Penguins Past Thrashers

Welcome to my first installment -- ever -- of "You Know It's Going To Be A Good Night At Mellon Arena When".

You know it's going to be a good night at Mellon Arena when:

1) Your previously stagnant power play goes 3-for-7 with the man advantage

2) You destroy a non-playoff team like you should, even though you usually play down to your opposition and even though that team came into your building having won every one of their games for the last 2 weeks

3) The only disappointment in the Arena is when the league's leading scorer fails to rack up his 6th point of the night -- and a hat trick -- after missing a penalty shot late in the 3rd period

4) You score a goal off a 2-on-1 rush that was led by 2 defenseman and finished by Mark Eaton.

I said it before and I'll say it again --- PUT THAT MAN ON THE POWER PLAY!!

Yes, I'm still joking.

The Penguins definitely had the MoJo going last night at the Igloo, where they thrashed Atlanta, 6-2, to move into a 4th place tie with the Philadelphia Flyers (who lost, 3-2 to the Detroit Red Wings) in the Eastern Conference.

Although Atlanta opened the scoring about a minute into the game on a goal by Bryan Little, his 30th -- yes, his 30th -- that was about the high point for them.

Sergei Gonchar got the Penguins off and rolling with a power play goal at the 9 minute mark, ripping a shot top corner from about 45 feet just as a two-man advantage was ending.

LW Chris Kunitz scored another power play goal before the end of the period capitalizing on a rebound right in front of Thrashers' goaltender and former Penguin Johan Hedberg to give the Penguins a 2-1 lead going to the intermission.

The Penguins poured it on in the 2nd. Jordan Staal notched his 20th, beating Hedberg far side from about 20 feet, then Malkin scored 2 goals in 40 seconds, first capitalizing on a rebound in front of Hedberg during a 4-on-4, then scoring on a slapper on the power play from the right boards that went over Hedberg's shoulder off an Atlanta defenseman to up Pittsburgh's advantage to 5-1.

Eaton scored the capper, as described above, on a 2-on-1 rush with Gonchar, who made a nice backhand dish to Eaton. #7 made no mistake depositing the pass into an empty cage behind Hedberg.

Malkin missed a chance to get the HT and add his 103rd point of the season when he failed to capitalize on a penalty shot with about 3 minutes to go. The fans were in a frenzy over Geno's performance to that point. If he scored there to set a career high for points in a game with 6, the roof might have come off. Alas, he tried to make to many dekes on Hedberg, who stayed with the play well, and forced Malkin to push the shot wide.

Penguins' goaltender Marc Andre Fleury stopped 18 of the whopping 20 shots Atlanta threw at him for his 29th win.

The Penguins are now 9-0-2 in their last 11 and 13-1-5 in their last 19.

Let's face it ... the Penguins deserve credit. They could have taken Atlanta lightly. Clearly, they didn't. They put forth a good effort, which was nice to see since they can play down to the competition sometimes. Sure, Atlanta was missing Ilya Kovalchuk. But he missed the prior 2 games, too, and they didn't have a problem winning those, including the spanking they gave the Southeast Division leading Washington Capitals the night before. Atlanta was playing well and the Penguins deserve some credit for whipping them.

The Penguins host the Los Angeles Kings on Friday in their next game. Hopefully they'll keep things rolling. If they hadn't slumped for so long and the season was a little longer, they might be able to make a run up to the 3rd place Capitals and 2nd place New Jersey Devils, who now are only about 10 points above them in the standings. As it is, that's probably too much to ask of them to overcome in the last 11 games. But right now, things are looking good. They are beginning to separate themselves from the teams out of playoff position -- namely the Florida Panthers, who are now 6 points back of them in 9th place.

The Devils, by the way, played in a pretty big game last night. Their goaltender, Martin Brodeur, set the all-time NHL record for most victories in a career by a netminder, with 552, breaking the record set by Patrick Roy 6 years ago.

Let's Go Pens.

Pittsburgh/Atlanta Pregame News & Notes: Crosby Challenges Savard?

The Penguins welcome the Atlanta Thrashers to town tonight at 7:30 PM at Mellon Arena.

Even though the Penguins are 3-0 against Atlanta so far this season, they shouldn't expect an easy game. The Thrashers are playing their best hockey of the season right now. They whipped the Washington Capitals last night, 5-1, for their 6th straight victory. Goaltender Kari Lehtonen, in particular, has been spectacular for the Thrashers lately.

On the bright side, the Penguins remain one of the hottest teams in the game, with only 1 regulation lost in their last 18 contests. They'll also have the benefit of catching Atlanta on the 2nd of back-to-back games, with the Thrashers having to fly in last night following their victory over the Capitals in their own barn.

The back-t0-back situation may also allow the Penguins to see the Moose, former Pen Johan Hedberg, in goal rather than Lehtonen.

Penguins' center Evgeni Malkin missed Monday's practice due to illness, but is expected to play tonight.

Marc-Andre Fleury will start in goal for the Penguins.

NEWS AND NOTES:

One of the best stories I've heard all year has been making the rounds in the aftermath of Pittsburgh's 6-4 victory over Boston on Sunday.

Those who watched or listened to the game are probably aware that Penguins' center Sidney Crosby and Bruins' center Marc Savard were doing an awful lot of jawing early in the game.

Not long after, Crosby appeared on the ice without the half-visor he usually wears.

Connnection?

Absolutely.

Word is that Savard called Crosby a sissy and told Crosby that he'd drop the gloves with him if he weren't wearing the visor.

Crosby told him, essentially, to "hold on".

#87 went to the bench and had Penguins' equipment manager Dana Heinze remove the half-visor.

On his next shift, Crosby came out without the visor.

Savard did nada.

That's a Captain, folks.

Who's the beeeeeatch now?

----

Miroslav Satan wasted no time showing he doesn't belong in the American Hockey League, scoring 4 points in his first game in the AHL since 1995, leading the Baby Penguins to a 7-2 win over the Albany River Rats.

Janne Pesonen also set a Baby Penguins record in that game for most points in a season with 68.

---

Recap of the Penguins/Thrashers game tomorrow. The Flyers have the Red Wings tonight, so if the Penguins take care of business, they could move into a tie with Philadelphia for 4th place in the standings.

Weekend Recap: Penguins Take 3 of 4 Points From Ottawa and Boston

About 5 and 1/2 weeks ago, early in February, the Penguins sat in 10th place in the Eastern Conference.

In their 18 contests since, they are 12-1-5.

Put another way, they've earned at least a point in 17 of their last 18 games, 12 of which have been 2-point victories.

Today, they sit in 5th place in the East, 2 points back of the 4th place Philadelphia Flyers.

It's still somewhat of a tenuous grip, mind you, since the 9th place Florida Panthers are only 4 points back, but it's a far cry from where they were.

The latest points the Penguins earned came from a shootout loss Saturday afternoon against the always-troubling Ottawa Senators and a come-from-behind victory against the conference-leading Boston Bruins yesterday afternoon.

The loss to the Senators had to be tough for the Penguins. They had a 3-1 lead in the 3rd period and were cruising. Unfortunately, that probably ended up being Pittsburgh's downfall. They were doing TOO MUCH cruising.

The Penguins built their lead in the game thanks to goals from Eric Godard, Sidney Crosby and Tyler Kennedy.

Crosby's goal came on a beautiful no-look feed from defenseman Mark Eaton across the crease that left Ottawa goaltender Brian Elliott out to dry.

Get Eaton on the power play!

Okay, I'm joking.

Kennedy's goal also was a nice one, as he finished a 2-on-1 that LW Matt Cooke worked hard to create -- blocking a shot, steamrolling up the ice and managing to somehow dish it to TK for the goal.

In the 3rd, with the Penguins in a position to close things out on a 4-minute power play, they were lackadaisical. After the man-advantage, they might as well have been pylons during the next 4 minute stretch, during which Nick Foligno and Chris Phillips scored to tie the game.

Phillips' goal was particularly eggregious, since it started from what basically was a 2-on-3 Ottawa rush. Phillips was a late trailer and the Penguins' chose to stand around waiting for the bus instead of picking him up. Phillips was able to knock in a loose rebound on the doorstep.

Then, after the game finished tied and went to overtime, the Penguins then proceeded to stand aside and see if netminder Marc-Andre Fleury was able to state his case for the 2010 Canadian Olympic squad by seeing how many shots he could stop in a singluar 5-minute timeframe.

Fortunately for them, Fleury stood on his head and rejected all 11 shots -- that's right ELEVEN shots -- the Senators threw at him in the overtime. None of those stops were better than the one he made on Ottawa center Mike Fisher with his left pad.

The shootout went to 5 rounds, until Senators' center Mike Comrie managed to slide one by Fleury after doing a spinorama stop right in front of him to give Ottawa the comeback win and leave the Penguins stunned.

Maybe it was a good thing the Penguins had a game scheduled the very next afternoon, because it gave them an opportunity to quickly forget their meltdown the day prior, and they started off like they were intent on burying those memories when Penguins' RW Bill Guerin took a pass in the slot from Crosby from behind the net and snapped it quickly by Bruins' goaltender Tim Thomas to give the Penguins a 1-0 lead less than one minute into the game.

Boy it's great to see the Penguins score goals like that. They haven't had a right-handed triggerman who can drill them home from the slot in years.

Unfortunately, the Penguins' good start was short lived when they allowed former Penguin and new Bruin Mark Recchi to tie the score when he deflected in a shot from the point past Pittsburgh goaltender Mathieu Garon about 15 seconds later.

Garon was making his first start in 19 games yesterday and his rust was evident from that first Boston shot of the contest.

Later in the first, Bruins' RW Phil Kessel scored his 31st on a nice backhand after a scramble around the Penguins goal. The Bruins made a fair play on the goal, but it was easy for me to see Kessel wide open to the left of the goal before the pass came across. For some reason, though, the play still seemed to leave Garon scrambling.

The Penguins tied the score on a power play goal by LW Chris Kunitz that Crosby had his fingerprints all over. Crosby took a pass at the right of the goal after the Penguins' quick passing created a mini 3-on-2 around the goal and quickly cut back to the middle, leaving Thomas scrambling on the ice. He slid the puck towards the empty cage and it probably was going to go in, except Kunitz was in Thomas' kitchen and the puck went off his stick and in.

In the 2nd period, the Penguins were on another power play and had a chance to take the lead when disaster struck. Defenseman Sergei Gonchar and Evgeni Malkin failed to control the puck in the left corner of their own zone and allowed Bruins' center David Krejci to steal it and quickly pass to RW Blake Wheeler, who slipped a shot past Garon on the far side as he dropped to his knees to give Boston the lead.

That play was a terrible giveaway, and then a worse effort by Garon. Wheeler had been approaching to give Krejci forechecking support when Krejci stole the puck. Once Krejci did his thing, Wheeler quickly reversed direction to go towards the net. But he was in tight already, so by the time Krejci passed to him, Wheeler didn't have a good shooting angle on Garon.

Garon has to have that one at that point in the game. He was just awful on that play.

Boston's 3-2 lead stood until the end of the period when the Penguins were facing the real prospect of losing their 3rd straight.

Fortunately, they came out blazing in the final frame.

Gonchar tied the score on the power play less than a minute in on a shot that deflected off something and went past Thomas. Kunitz was originally credited with the goal, but that call was reversed after the game.

About 20 seconds later, Guerin made a nice play to spring Kunitz, who got enough speed to get around Boston giant Zdeno Chara and break in alone on Thomas, before tucking a backhand through the 5-hole to give the Penguins a 4-3 lead.

At that point, hats rained down from the Mellon Arena stands since everyone thought Kunitz had his 2nd career HT.

True to form, Garon came through again a few minutes later, allowing Bruins' RW Michael Ryder to drill one past him glove side to tie the score once more.

Good shot by Ryder, for sure. I think Garon was a little slow to react to the play, however. Had he been quicker, he might have been able to cut down the angle on Ryder.

RW Petr Sykora restored the Penguins' lead with his 24th goal on a another shot from the slot which beat Thomas far side. Center Jordan Staal picked up a helper on that play, finishing off a nice shift after controlling the puck in the Boston zone.

That score stood until Staal added an empty netter to seal it for Pittsburgh.

Yesterday's win was big for Pittsburgh since, as I mentioned, it kept them from losing a 3 straight, and got them back on the right side of the ledger with 2 more points. Most of the teams on the playoff bubble with the Penguins have one or two games in hand, too, so it's important the Penguins continue to win and stay up on those clubs in the standings.

The Penguins continue to have a lot of work to do on the power play. They were somewhat better yesterday in finishing 2-for-8, but still had a lot of chances to do a lot more damage. Bylmsa has to stop insisting that Malkin play the left point. He's just not nearly as effective there. He has to be on the right boards or down low, swapping positions with Crosby at least sometime.

As I indicated, Garon was not good yesterday. The Penguins won in spite of him. I remain surprised that he played against Boston and not Ottawa on Saturday, if Bylmsa was insistent on getting him a game this weekend, which he seemed to be (and understandably so). Bylmsa's decision to split up the weekend workload the way he did almost cost the Penguins.

The Penguins have 2 winnable games coming up at home against the Atlanta Thrashers on Tuesday and the Los Angeles Kings on Friday, but the Penguins have to be careful. They tend to play down to their opponents and the Trashers, in particular, have been dangerous lately in their games against the other teams in the East on the playoff bubble.

More later this week.

Blue Jackets Survive; End Penguins' Win Streak At 7 Games

And I thought Steeler fans were the only Pittsburgh sports fans that traveled well.

I was in Columbus, Ohio last night for the Penguins/Blue Jackets contest and the excitement in the city was palpable.

The best part was that it was in large part due to the presence of thousands -- yes, I mean THOUSANDS -- of Penguin fans who descended on the city to watch our flightless waterfowl, the hottest team in the National Hockey League, try to knock off a team in the middle of the Western Conference playoff race. And a team who recently beat both the top teams in each conference at home, the San Jose Sharks and Boston Bruins (and not to mention thrashed the Detroit Red Wings, 8-2, on the road).

Things didn't start out all that well for the Penguins last night, as their relatively lackluster play put them in a 3-0 hole by the time 45 minutes of the game had elapsed.

Kristian Huselius scored in the first on a shot that fooled Fleury after it appeared to be deflected off defenseman Kris Letang's stick.

Jason Williams scored in the 2nd after taking a pass from behind the net on a giveaway behind the net by Fleury and tossing a backhand by #29 from about 25 feet.

New Blue Jacket Antoinne Vermette made a difficult deficit seemingly insurmountable just a few minutes in the 3rd after taking a pass from a teammate who pickpocketed Sergei Gonchar and unleashing a slapper from about 40 feet that beat Fleury far side.

Fleury had to stop that one if the Penguins were to stay in the game against Columbus star rookie goaltender Steve Mason.

Or so I thought.

The Penguins finally started getting penalty calls in the 3rd period, after being victimized by several "homer" calls and being down in that department 4-1 or 5-1 in the first several periods.

And I don't throw out the "homer" label on the officials easily, either. But they zebras simply did not call a good game last night.

Anyway, Gonchar got the Penguins started after hammering a shot from the point past Mason that was deflected on the way. I thought it hit Chris Kunitz, but Gonchar got credit for the goal.

Within a minute, Malkin and Dupuis created a turnover after some hard forechecking behind the Blue Jackets goal. Malkin was ultimatlely able to feed the puck to Dupuis right in front of Mason who was able to bury it to make the game 3-2 before he got buried from behind.

With the Blue Jackets stunned, the Penguins completed the near-improbable comeback just about 2 minutes later when Malkin fed Max Talbot for a shot from the left circle that just squeezed in on the far side to tie the score. Malkin, Talbot and Crosby, who was also on the ice at the time) collapsed behind the Columbus goal in exhiliration after tying the game.

Which means they felt just like me. I was losing my mind -- and all of the goals happened right in front of me in the 3rd.

The Penguins continued to bring the heat for the remainder of the period and had the Blue Jackets on their heels the rest of the game. They ousthot Columbus 19-4 in the 3rd period, but couldn't get the winner.

In overtime, it was more of the same. Kunitz hit the post and Fedotenko set up Letang on a beautiful dipsy-do play but Letang just couldn't finish. In the end, the Penguins lined up for a shootout for 3rd straight game.

Unfortunately, they just ran out of shootout MoJo. Letang, Crosby and Malkin were all stopped by Mason on relatively weak shootout attempts.

Williams and Rick Nash were similarly stopped by Fleury on Columbus' first 2 shots, but Huselius' was able to score between Fleury's wickets for the winner on their 3rd attempt.

The Penguins, in all truthfulness, didn't play all that well. They were strong in the 3rd, but sleepwalked through most of the first 2 periods. And even though Fleury made a few sensational stops, including one on Plum native R.J. Umberger and one at the end of regulation, he wasn't at his best in this one. A fair argument could be made he should have stopped Columbus' first goal, and the 3rd one was a near-killer.

That's why the Penguins should be happy with the point, even though their losing streak came to an end. With losses by Carolina and Florida, the point the Penguins' earned enabled them to stay in 6th place, ahead of those teams, the New York Rangers (who also won) and the Buffalo Sabres, who are doing their best to stay in it (and who beat Carolina). The Montreal Canadiens also lost last night (although their defeat was in OT, so they got a point out of it) and the Philadelphia Flyers fell as well.

The Penguins are one point behind Montreal and 3 behind Philadelphia.

The game was thrilling, even if the end result wasn't everything I and all the other Penguins' faithful who dutifully travelled out there to cheer loudly (and cheer loudly we all did) for the Boys of Winter.

Even Blue Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock said after the game their were way too many Penguin fans in the building.

All I know is that there's no other team in the league that can send that many people into Mellon Arena. Not a single other following. I know I'd puke if I saw that many visiting fans in my favorite team's building.

Last night, the Penguin fans simply represented!

The Penguins now return home for an 8 game home stand starting Saturday against the Ottawa Senators.

Mathieu Garon is expected to start his first game in goal for the Penguins in 18 contests.

RW Petr Sykora also should be back in the lineup.

More over the weekend.

Penguins Win 7th Straight Over Panthers In Shootout, 4-3

A month ago, the question most hockey fans were asking about the Pittsburgh Penguins was how far could they fall.

How quickly things can change.

With their 4-3 shootout victory over the Florida Panthers last night, the Penguins won their 7th straight game -- a season high -- and moved into 6th place in the Eastern Conference, 1 point above the Panthers, 2 ahead of the 8th place Carolina Hurricanes, and 3 ahead of the 9th place New York Rangers.

The Penguins also sit only one point behind the 5th place Montreal Canadiens, who won in overtime last night, and 4 points behind the 4th place Philadelphia Flyers, who also won last evening.

For the first time in a while, things didn't look good for the Penguins last night -- at least on the scoreboard. They opened the scoring on a goal by Evgeni Malkin late in the first period, but watched that lead evaporate over the course of the 2nd period when the Panthers scored 3 goals on 7 shots.

One of those goals -- the 3rd one by defenseman Keith Ballard --- was somewhat controversial as the NHL office in Toronto had to review the play to determine if Ballard kicked the puck in.

Personally, I thought it was a close call. Ballard certainly turned his leg to direct the puck in at the very least. The reverse angle also seemed him to show a slight kicking motion with the leg. However, it's hard to say that what Ballard did was a "distinct kicking motion", which is what the rule requires for the play not to count.

On the other hand, I've seen the boys in Toronto waive off goals with less of a motion than what Ballard did last night. Several times.

In any case, the Penguins faced a 3-1 deficit going into the 3rd period. But they were playing well, and outshooting Florida by a large margin, so they had no reason to lack confidence.

And they came out in the final frame showing it.

Jordan Staal brought the Penguins within 1 when he scored about 2 and 1/2 minutes into the period, banging a rebound of a Matt Cooke shot past Florida netminder Tomas Vokoun. About 4 minutes later, Sidney Crosby capitalized on a rush when he redirected a Bill Guerin pass just enough to get it past Vokoun, off the post, and off Vokoun's body across the goal line to tie the score.

The Penguins continued to bring pressure for much of the 3rd period, but the game remained tied --- as it was at the conclusion of a scoreless overtime. Florida should have considered itself fortunate since it blew the lead and was outshot 50-21.

And Vokoun probably thought he was tired after the Penguins put up 47 shots on him last week.

Kris Letang staked the Penguins to an early advantage in the shootout after deking Vokoun and scoring on the forehand.

Fleury then stopped 2 Panther shots, one by Radek Dvorak and the other by Stephen Weiss, to set the stage for Malkin on the Penguins 3rd attempt.

Malkin approached Vokoun, made a deke, and deftly slid around Vokoun's attempted poke check before depositing the puck into an empty cage to seal the comeback victory for Pittsburgh.

The Penguins just keep rolling at this point, heading into their next game Thursday on the road at Columbus. I'll have an up close and personal recap to post on that game, since I'll be there in person.

The only negative to come from last night's game was the Penguin power play, which came up empty on 6 chances. Personally, I think they need to make some adjustments. They are running everything through Crosby on the near boards. That's fine, except that they are looking for him to be the triggerman in that position all too often. Malkin is much better in that spot because his shot is more dangerous.

More later in the week after my trip west ...

Pacify This: Crosby, Penguins Finish Off Ovechkin, Capitals To Finish Road Trip 5-0

One of the more notable storylines for the Penguins going into yesterday's game against the Southeast Division-leading Washington Capitals was the fact that about 500 Capitals' fans bought pacifiers to bring to the game to taunt Penguins' captain Sidney Crosby and otherwise just generally paint him as a whiner following the last game between these two clubs when #87 and Capitals star Alexander Ovechkin exchanged verbal barbs on the ice and after the game, with Ovechkin claiming Crosby talks too much.

Reminds me a lot of the way the juvenile (and jealous) Philadelphia Flyer fans treat Crosby when the Penguins visit there. Who can forget the way they treated Crosby in the game when then Flyer defenseman Derian Hatcher took a stick to Crosby's face and did some fine dental work on 2 of his teeth? More importantly, who can forget what a motivated Crosby did in that game -- scoring 2 goals, including a breakaway winner to finish off Philadelphia.

And so it was for the Crosby in Washington yesterday.

Crosby left the Washington fans crying when he scored the game's opening goal, finishing off a 2-on-1 with RW and linemate Bill Guerin, and then scored the game's final tally when he abused Capitals' netminder Jose Theodore in the shootout before Penguins' goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury slammed the door on Ovechkin to give the Penguins a 4-3 victory and a franchise record 5-0 dossier on their road trip.

Despite all the pre-game talk, there didn't appear to be a whole lot of yapping on the ice between Crosby and Ovechkin. The game was physical, however, and the Penguins led the way in that department, outhitting Washington by a significant margin.

After Crosby's opening goal, the Capitals' tied the score after a brutal giveaway by Penguins' defenseman Kris Letang, who tried a home-run pass to Malkin from behind his own net, only to hit Capitals' center Nicklas Backstrom, who had been stalking him in front of Fleury, in the chest with the puck. Backstrom quickly corraled it and tossed in front to a streaking Alexander Semin who made one deke and buried the puck behind Fleury to tie the score before Letang's defense partner, Mark Eaton, could get to Semin.

The Penguins didn't rest on their laurels, however, and were rewarded when Sergei Gonchar ripped one in from the point on the power play about 8 minutes into the 2nd period, and then Bill Guerin upped the lead to 3-1 when he drilled a wrister behind Theodore in the 2nd period after skating in on a Capitals' defenseman and doing a little toe drag just to change his shooting angle slightly before going top corner.

The Penguins looked to have the game in control going into the 3rd period. But they failed miserably at the first thing they needed to do to open that frame.

Washington opened the period continuing on a power play that started before the 2nd period ended. Unable to kill the penalty, the Penguins let their lead get cut in half when Ovechkin scored on a slapper to the far side from about 45/50 feet.

Then, 45 seconds later, the Penguins' got caught on a terrible line change and left Capitals' forward Brooks Laich alone for a breakaway which he managed to score on by lifting a backhand behind Fleury despite momentarily losing control of the puck about 15 feet out.

To the Penguins' credit, they withstood the momentum surge those 2 quick goals generated for Washington and played strong the remainder of the game and in the overtime. All in all, the Penguins had more good scoring chances throughout the contest. Crosby missed on a mini-breakaway earlier in the game, and Theodore made a few really good saves otherwise, including one on Malkin when he got a pass from Tyler Kennedy and walked down the slot before burying one in Theodore's pads. Guerin also hit the post in the 3rd period.

I must admit ... I was a bit nervous going into the shootout. Washington has skilled stickhandlers and, sure enough, they trotted out all 3 -- Semin, Kozlov and Ovie -- for their shots. Fleury made all of them look like amateurs on this afternoon, however, perhaps in no small part due to the little chat he had at the bench with former Capital Matt Cooke before the shootout began. No doubt that Cooke was spilling some insider secrets there.

After stopping Letang -- who had 2 assists earlier in the game to help make up for his awful giveaway to Backstrom -- on the Penguins' first attempt, Theodore had his showdown with Crosby and, as I already mentioned, Crosby didn't disappoint.

Most Penguin fans will remember Crosby's shootout goal constantly replayed on the highlight clips from a game against Montreal in Pittsburgh 2 years ago when Crosby bore in on then Canadiens' netminder Theodore, gave a little leg kick, deked and roofed a backhander.

Crosby obviously hasn't forgotten, because he used that to set up Thedore yesterday, again giving the leg kick but faking the deke to the backhand before instead going to the forehand and roofing the winner.

The satisfying win for Crosby and the Penguins lifted the Penguins back into playoff position with 74 points, tied with the Florida Panthers and New York Rangers. The Rangers beat Boston, 4-3, yesterday to stay in the hunt.

Most people have the Penguins in 8th. I have them in 6th. The difference is that the people who have them in 8th put them there because they have played one more game than both Florida and New York. But, as far as I know, that has never been enough to be a negative tiebreaker for a team. In fact, the first tiebreaker is victories, and since the Penguins have one more win than both the Panthers and Rangers, I put them ahead. The game in hand both of those clubs have on Pittsburgh means nothing unless they play it and win it, so until they do, the standings should read in order of who owns the tiebreakers, which the Penguins have.

So there.

Either way, it's still a tight Eastern Conference race. The Penguins have gone 11-3-1 in their last 14 and gosh knows where they would be without that stretch or their 5-0 road trip. Probably about 4 points out of the playoff picture. Meanwhile, they are only 4 points behind the 4th place Flyers (although Philadelphia has 3 games in hand).

The Penguins get right back into the mix tomorrow night at home against the Panthers in another big contest. Pittsburgh will need to be careful of the letdown which often follows a long road trip. That's what happened to the Panthers last Thursday when the Penguins beat them. Florida was coming off a 5-game road swing going into that one and their sluggishness showed. Playing the Penguins in such a big game obviously wasn't enough to give them the boost they needed. Let's hope the Penguins don't come out the same way on Tuesday because they need those 2 points and the Panthers have often been a dangerous opponent for them, particularly at home.

Petr Sykora, who missed yesterday's game, should be back for that one.

Let's Go Pens

Penguins/Capitals Preview: The Hatred Continues

The Penguins go for a sweep on their 5-game road trip this afternoon at the Verizon Center against one of their arch-rivals, the Washington Capitals.

The Penguins have never gone undefeated on a road trip longer than 4 games in the history of their franchise, and are looking to beat Washington for the first time this season.

Sergei Gonchar will be back in the lineup today for Pittsburgh, after missing the last game against Florida to be with his wife while she was in childbirth. Coincidentally, maybe one of the reasons why the Penguins have not been able to beat the Capitals this season is because #55 has been missing from their lineup each game?

Meanwhile, there apparently remains some discontent between Penguins' center Sidney Crosby and Capitals' RW Alexander Ovechkin. Both were quoted yesterday leading up to the game as continuing to express differences of opinion about the way each feels the other acts on the ice, with Crosby feeling that Ovechkin taunts too much and goes over the line with his behavior and some of his hits, and Ovechkin feeling that Crosby yaps and whines too much.

Ovechkin, by the way, is expected to return to the Washington lineup after missing the Capitals' last game with a bruised heel, which was the result of a shot he took there in practice on Wednesday from a Capitals' assistant coach.

If it's not one thing between these two teams, it's another. First, Ovechkin and Penguins' center Evgeni Malkin have their feud while Crosby and Capitals' center Alexander Semin exchange barbs through the media. Now, it's Crosby and Ovechkin kicking that can.

Today's game surely should be interesting. I know a lot of the Penguin players are looking at it as a statement game for them because of how they have fared against the Capitals so far this year and because of the fact that they feel like they are playing much more like themselves in recent weeks. Personally, I think Crosby is going to be incredibly motivated to make an impact, and I'm anxious to see him go about reminding everyone that, when it comes time to talk about the best player in the game, the conversation shouldn't only include discussion about his teammate and Ovechkin, but him too.

More importantly, the Penguins need a win. The Carolina Hurricanes won last night to leapfrog them in the Eastern Conference standings. Carolina has won 7 of their last 9 games and the Penguins need to continue to keep pace with them, as well as with the New York Rangers, Montreal Canadiens and Florida Panthers. Florida also won last night.

Penguins' RW Petr Sykora is supposedly ailing with an upper-body injury and is said to be a game-time decision.

Recap tomorrow.

Penguins Power Over Panthers, 4-1, For Fifth Straight Win

The Florida Panthers have given the Penguins fits in recent years.

Beat them in games Pittsburgh should have won on their home ice.

Embarassed them as an underdog.

Tonight, the Penguins finally got some payback in a key matchup in the Eastern Conference playoff race.

Breaking a 1-1 tie going into the 3rd period with the final 3 tallies, including 2 goals by RW Tyler Kennedy, the Penguins won their 5th straight game, beating Florida 4-1.

With the victory, the Penguins continued to go without a loss 4 games into their 5 game road trip, and moved to 10-3-1 in their last 14.

The Penguins also moved into 6th place in the East. They are tied in points with both the Panthers and the Rangers, but have more wins than both of those teams.

Pittsburgh also sits only 1 point behind the 5th place Montreal Canadiens and 4 points behind the 4th place Philadelphia Flyers.

Not to lose sight of where they have been, they also are only 3 points ahead of the 9th place Buffalo Sabres and 10th place Carolina Hurricanes, so things remain tight.

On the ice tonight, the Penguins played the better game. They carried the play, especially in the last two periods, and threw 44 shots at Florida netminder Thomas Vokoun.

Radek Davorak staked the Panthers to a 1-o lead about 15 minutes into the 2nd period on a cheapie, flipping a shot from in close that squeaked by Fleury off his body.

That was the last puck Fleury would let behind him into the 4 X 6.

Penguins' center Sidney Crosby, returning to the lineup after missing the last 4 games with a groin injury, showed no ill effects from that when he took a puck off the wall from new acquisition and linemate Bill Guerin, blew through the Florida defense, then cut to the left before ripping one far side past Vokoun to tie the game no more than a minute later.

Kennedy broke that logjam about 5 minutes into the final frame, beating Vokoun to the far side with a shot from 20 feet out in the right circle, and defenseman Kris Letang upped the Penguins' lead to 3-1 from about the same spot as he skated in from the point and beat Vokoun.

Kennedy finished the scoring with his second goal, wrapping up a 2-on-1 with Malkin by burying his pass with a one-timer by Vokoun.

The Penguins are playing with as much confidence as they've had all season and look to sweep their road trip against the Washington Capitals on Sunday afternoon. The Capitals are struggling a little bit, having lost their last 3 at home (including tonight to the Toronto Maple Leafs) and playing this evening without Alexander Ovechkin, who sat out with a heel problem following a shot he took there from one of his assistant coaches in practice. Ovechkin said he would "probably" play on Sunday.

NOTES:

Crosby played with both Guerin and Kunitz most of the game, and both were on the first power play unit.

Defenseman Sergei Gonchar missed the game after returning to Pittsburgh to be with his wife while she delivered their next child.

Guerin took #13 and Craig Adams took #27. Alex Goligoski, called up for the game becuase of Gonchar's absence, took #3 after releasing his number for Guerin to wear.

2009 Trade Deadline: ANALYSIS

Heading into yesterday's trade deadline, the Penguins and general manager Ray Shero were the center of a lot of talk.

Would Shero acquire a permanent winger to man-up with center Sidney Crosby?

Was he going to change the composition of his defense by adding more physicality and toughness?

Was he going to add grit or more supplemental scoring, or both, to his forward lines?

More importantly, would the Penguins be a better team after 3 PM on March 4 than they were before the deadline?

On this latter question, there's no doubt that Shero gets a passing grade.

There were no true blockbusters made by the Penguins or, for that matter, any other NHL team. In fact, many of the big names -- including some rumored to be coming to Pittsburgh -- stayed put.

However, the parts Shero did add should do nothing but help the Penguins continue to try and nail down a playoff position -- and make their stay in the postseason meaningful once there.

In adding the New York Islanders' captain, 38-year old RW Billy Guerin, the Penguins added some supplemental offensive support, physicality, a power play presence, and veteran leadership.

One could fairly argue the Penguins were missing all of those elements.

Certainly, Guerin -- who willingly waived his no-trade clause to come to the Penguins -- is a complementary player. He has 16 goals and 20 assists in 61 games so far this year, and is not going to score 30-40 goals like he was capable of in prior seasons with some of his previous 8 clubs. But, and this is surely why Ray Shero acquired him -- he is still skilled and savvy enough to make an impact.

That's the key to this deal for the Penguins and their followers. You can't expect too much from Guerin. Put his role in perspective and it's clear to see that adding him to the roster down the stretch was a pretty low risk move for Shero.

That's part of the reason why the cost was so minimal -- a 5th round conditional draft pick, rising to a 4th rounder if the Penguins make the postseason and to a 3rd rounder (and no higher) if the Penguins advace to the 2nd round of the playoffs.

Guerin, a previous Stanley Cup Winner in 2005 with New Jersey, will be an unrestricted free agent after this season and it's purely speculative to judge whether he will leave or return after this year.

Shero also acquired another player yesterday, C/RW Craig Adams from the Chicago Blackhawks. Adams, 31, was picked up on waiver and also has a Stanley Cup to his resume (winning with Carolina in 2006) and is primarily a checking line center who is willing to do a lot of the dirty work in the corners. He will center the 4th line here, after having fallen out of favor in Chicago because of their emphasis on youth.

Adams isn't a notable addition, but he brings additional grit to the club.

Penguins head coach Dan Bylmsa was not enamored with Bill Thomas for some reason, so Adams will fill that checking role for the Penguins. Not surprisingly, Thomas was sent to Wilkes-Barre yesterday, along with Tim Wallace who had been recalled several days ago and played against the Tampa Bay Lighting.

(I apologize for not posting a recap of the Penguins/Lightning game by the way. I was out of town and focused all my free time solely on the trade deadline. Needless to say, the Penguins again looked solid in winning their fourth in a row to go to 9-3-1 in their last 13).

Speaking of the Baby Penguins, Pittsburgh had to take the notable step of sending veteran RW Miroslav Satan there yesterday to clear his salary off the books to make room for Guerin's. The Penguins will still have to pay Satan his full salary in Wilkes Barre, but it will not count against their cap.

Shero was noncommittal yesterday on what may happen with Satan -- or whether Satan might even report. He said he would talk with Miro and his agent and sort it out in the next few days.

Clearly, however, Satan seems to have played his last game in a Penguin uniform.

I understand the fault the organization has with Satan. He doesn't have enough mustard in his game and doesn't score consistently enough to overlook that. All that said, he has scored 17 times this year -- and not always in a top line role. Casting a veteran scorer like him aside, especially since it seems like he was coming on recently, wasn't an easy decision. But I think it was clear going forward he was not going to be back with the club next year, and the salary cap forced Shero's hand now.

What I found most curious about yesterday was Shero not moving anybody else. I really thought Hal Gill would be traded. I also heard that others may go, including Max Talbot, Ruslan Fedotenko or Pascal Dupuis. Of course, there also was a lot of talk the Penguins might bring in a big scorer, like Martin St. Louis, or a younger, accomplished player with potential for even more growth playing with Crosby, like Alexander Frolov or Alex Ponikarovsky.

Shero made one other deal yesterday, sending minor league defenseman Dany Richmond to St. Louis for minor league defenseman Andy Wozniewski. Wozniewski is a big (6'3") physical defenseman who will go right to the Baby Penguins.

Curiously, Richmond was recently disciplined by the Baby Penguins -- along with top prospect Luca Caputi, Chris Minard, forward Aaron Boogard and defenseman Jon D'Aversa -- for unspecified violations of team rules. Neither Baby Penguins GM Chuck Fletcher, coach Todd Rierden or Shero would release details of what happened with these players, but from what I know, it doesn't seem to be a police matter. Caputi and D'Aversa were sent to the Wheeling Nailers of the East Coast Hockey League, while Minard was Aaron Boogard were suspended by the team.

Tonight the Penguins continue their road trip looking to go 4-0 on the swing with a key game against the Florida Panthers. Guerin and Adams are expected to be in the lineup. It is unknown at this point whether Sidney Crosby's groin will be well enough for him to play.

Recap tomorrow.

Penguins Acquire Bill Guerin From New York Islanders

The Penguins have acquired veteran power forward Bill Guerin from the New York Islanders for a conditional draft pick -- starting as a 5th rounder, and going to a 4th rounder if the Penguins make the playoffs, then to (and no higher than) a 3rd rounder if the Penguins make the second round.

Guerin has 16 goals and 20 assists in 61 games this year.

Pretty low risk move by the Penguins' GM. Reaction/Analysis to follow, but for now -- with 45 minutes to the deadline -- I'm fairly sure Shero isn't finished.

More to come ....

Trade Deadline Wednesday Morning Update

On the road this morning so this will be fast.

Lots of talk about whether Shero may make a move before the deadline
today.

Word is he had to go to team management for approval to go after
someone big.

A big names being tossed around right now is Alexander Frolov. The
Penguins and Kings have supposedly exchanged offers -- including one
that would send Jordan Staal to LA.

Martin St. Louis' keeps coming up, too.

Penguins still searching for grit. They were looking at Chris Neil
from Ottawa but the Senators supposedly upped the asking price, which
might push the Pens' more towards Laperierre in Colorado. Both of
those guys are getting a lot of interest throughout the league.

A lot of rumor going around about the Penguins inquiring about a lot of
their former players, including Ryan Malone, Jarkko Ruutu and even Gary
Roberts. Don't buy it. Ain't going to happen.

Watch Alex Ponikarovsky in Toronto. He is flying under the radar right
now, but could end up in Pittsburgh.

More this afternoon once my plane lands.

Powerful Penguins Now In Playoff Position After Outshining the Stars, 4-1

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winning streak.

After the Penguins 3rd straight victory yesterday, the Penguins are now (finally) back in playoff position in the Eastern Conference, after leapfrogging the Carolina Hurricanes and Buffalo Sabres to move into 8th place, 1 point behind the 7th place New York Rangers and 2 points behind the 6th place Florida Panthers.

The Pens' are also only 5 points behind the 5th place Montreal Canadiens and 6 points behind the 4th place Philadelphia Flyers.

Pittsburgh, now on an 8-3-1 run in their last 12 games, won it's 2nd straight game on its current five game roadtrip by just manhandling the Dallas Stars in almost every phase yesterday.

Evgeni Malkin led the way for the Penguins with one goal and two assists and, much like the game against the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday night, the Penguins got rolling early thanks to a goal by Jordan Staal. This time, he finished off a 2-on-1 when he buried a rebound of a Malkin shot that went off Stars' netminder Tobias Stephan, who was making his first start since December.

Kris Letang then stoked the Penguins to a 2-0 lead later in the first period when he took a pass from Malkin down the right wing and was moving so fast, he was able to cut around the Stars' defenseman right in front of the goal where he made a nice move to the backhand and roofed the puck to give the Pens' a 2 goal advantage.

Unlike the game against Chicago -- where the Penguins also had a two goal lead but gave it up -- the Penguins poured it on in the second period.

Miroslav Satan scored his second goal in two games by taking advantage of a Stars' turnover deep in their own zone, picking off a flubbed D-to-D cross-ice pass and walking in alone on Stephan before deking him and tossing the puck behind him into an empty cage.

Malkin got the final goal for the Penguins, also in the 2nd, after he took a fortunate bounce of one of the glass partitions behind the Stars' net and whipped a puck past Stephan on the far side.

At that point, the Penguins had 4 goals on 13 shots.

Pittsburgh cruised through the final frame, when the only scoring was Loui Errikson scoring his team leading 29th goal for Dallas after the Penguins got caught chasing a little bit in their own zone and left Errikson alone in front.

Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 22 of 23 shots for his 100th NHL win.

To think that Martin Brodeur, who recently returned after missing 50 games due to elbow surgery, recorded on the same day his 100th (and 2nd straight in his 2nd game back) NHL SHUTOUT. Brodeur, by the way, is 5 wins away from breaking Patrick Roy's all time NHL record.

But back to the Penguins.

The Penguins are showing a lot more confidence out there on the ice. There's no doubt that Dallas has been struggling. The Penguins dealt them their 5th straight loss yesterday -- the first time that has happened in over 5 seasons -- and they have a host of injuries to key players like Sergei Zubov, Brendan Morrow, and Mike Richards, among others, but that shouldn't take away from the complete game the Penguins put out. They are starting to find their rhythm. As long as Fleury can continue to hold the fort, the Penguins might be able to keep up their good run and position themselves in the middle of the playoff pack.

The Penguins continue their road trip on Tuesday night in Tampa Bay against the Lightning (7:30 PM Versus).

Between now and then, there's going to be a lot of focus on Wednesday's trade deadline. The Penguins are said to be in talks with several teams. According to sources, they continue to be looking for another scoring forward, as well as grit up front and on defense.

Only time will tell what Penguins' GM Ray Shero does, but he has long been known to be interested in Ottawa Senators' RW Chris Neil. More recently, there seems to be some sentiment out there that the Penguins also have interest in Colorado Avalanche forward Ian Laperriere.

On the scoring end, they may still be kicking the can with Martin St. Louis of the Lightning (although I think that's less likely now than it was a month ago). They also may be looking at RW Alexei Ponikarovsky in Toronto and maybe even winger Alexander Frolov in Los Angeles.

Shero is said to be fielding calls primarily for Hal Gill, Ruslan Fedotenko and Jordan Staal. Staal is his biggest chip, without question, and whether Shero pulls the trigger on a deal which would move his first ever Penguins' draft choice is the biggest unknown going into Wednesday.

Of course, I'll be monitoring everything closely over the next few days and will do my best to post as soon as I know anything. The only time I don't expect to be able to do that is when I'm on an airplane until about noon EST on trade deadline day.

Let's Go Pens.

5-4 Dujour: Penguins Beat Blackhawks in OT

The Penguins continue to live dangerously.

But continue to win. With 5-4 being their favorite choice of late.

Friday night in Chicago against a young and talented Blackhawks team, the Penguins blew two, 2-goal leads, only to win 5-4 in overtime on an Evgeni Malkin power play goal and send the team to 7-3-1 in its last 11 games.

Jordan Staal opened the scoring for the Penguins in this fast-paced affair, and new acquisition Chris Kunitz, in his first game as a Penguin, gave them a 2-goal lead minutes later.

Kunitz, wearing #14 as he did in Anaheim, also assisted on Staal's goal.

Then, Chicago captain Jonathan Toews took over, scoring the next two goals for the Blackhawks, one late in the first period and one in the first part of the second period.

Both were on power-plays.

About 15 minutes into the second, it was thought that Toews notched his first ever hat trick after deflecting a shot in from the point. That resulted in hundreds of hard-hats thrown on the ice, which the Blackhawks gave away to fans coming into the building.

Unfortunately for them, they couldn't get those hats back after NHL officials in Toronto took a look at the goal and ruled that Toews' stick was above the crossbar when he deflected it in.

Perhaps getting momentum from that, the Penguins notched the next 2 goals quickly, one by Miroslav Satan, who scored in an unusual way for him -- in front of the net getting knocked on his can -- and one by Max Talbot to take a 4-2 lead into the final frame.

The Blackhawks roared back again however, with Towes getting the HT for real on another power play in the first part of the 3rd period. Chicago tied the score with about 5 minutes left. They were strong throughout the entire final frame, outshooting Pittsburgh, 20-4 in those 20 minutes.

Malkin's winner followed in OT to give the Penguins 2 huge points.

Overall, Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 41 of 45 shots. Although I think he would have liked to have back one or two Blackhawks' goals, he played better for most of the game than he has. This game wasn't easy for either goaltender, however, because it was fast-paced, up-and-down action a lot of the game. Chicago netminder Christobal Huet was benched going into the 3rd period, for that matter.

The Penguins moved to 68 points with the victory, 1 point behind the 9th place Carolina Hurricanes, and 2 points behind the 7th and 8th place Florida Panthers and Buffalo Sabres respectively.

After all 3 of those clubs lost yesterday, the Penguins can move into playoff position today with a win against the Dallas Stars (3 PM EST).

Recap tomorrow.