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!