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.