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.
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