Penguins Roll Over Anaheim, 5-2

I thought Halloween was a few weeks ago.

Now I'm not so sure, because strange things happened last night at Mellon Arena in the Penguins' 2nd straight victory, a 5-2 triumph over the struggling Anaheim Ducks.

First, the Penguins actually scored a power play goal -- by RW Bill Guerin. It was their first in 8 games and 29 chances.

Okay, so they failed in their other 6 tries with the man-advantage. You have to start somewhere.

More importantly, it doesn't appear that any Penguin player suffered any additional injuries in the game -- or even in walking to their cars in the parking lot afterwards.

Deservedly so, since the Penguins pretty much dominated the Ducks from start to finish last night. Anaheim looked disorganized and uninspired most of the night. They took undisiciplined penalties and, even though the Penguins only put up 26 shots, gave out an inordinately large number of quality scoring chances that the Penguins weren't able to completely capitalize on.

Speaking of quality scoring chances not capitalized on, can someone PLEASE give Chris Bourque a set of hands for Christmas???

Bourque had at least 2 more glorious scoring opportunities last night. This guy couldn't hit the broad side of a barn right now. He's getting up and down the ice well, and has played as gritty along the wall and in the corners as advertised, but he's not getting 2nd line minutes just to do that.

As far as those who actually did score for Pittsbugh last night are concerned, Matt Cooke staked the Pens to a 1-0 lead just over a minute into the game by tossing a backhander from the slot past Ducks' netminder Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

Guerin got the power play tally about 4 minutes later to make it 2-0 when he ripped a one-timer past Giguere from the top of the right wing circle on a set up by Sidney Crosby.

Todd Marchant got Anaheim back in the game with a shorthanded breakaway goal later in the period after a giveaway by Evgeni Malkin combined with a sloppy line change freed up Marchant to walk in on Pittsbugh goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury unconstested.

Jordan Staal returned the favor for the Penguins 4 minutes into the 2nd frame with a shorthanded breakaway goal of his own, going backhand to forehand before beating Giguere top corner blocker side to re-up the Penguins lead to 2 goals, this time 3-1.

Martin Skoula scored his first as Penguin on a point shot in the 3rd period and, after Teemu Selanne tallied one for Anaheim with just a few minutes to go, Cooke finished off the Ducks with an empty netter for his second of the night to make the final 5-2.

The Pens' win, combined with the Flyers stopping the New Jersey Devils' 8 game unbeaten and 9-game road winning streaks, lifted them into a tie for first in the Atlantic Division with the Devils with 28 points. That's also good for a tie for 2nd in the NHL's overall standings at 14-7.

Interestingly, the Penguins are just one of a handful of teams that have yet to suffer an overtime defeat this season so far.

I want to give some due credit to the triumverate of AHL guys the Penguins trotted out on their blueline last night.

Nate Guenin -- called up from Wilkes Barre to make his Penguin debut in place of the latest injured backeline casualty, Alex Goligoski -- joined fellow Baby Penguin blueliners Ben Lovejoy and Derek Engelland in the lineup last night, and all 3 acquitted themselves quite nicely.

I thought Guenin was particuarly steady, which is a bit of a reversal of the way he has been playing at WBS this season.

Guenin may have been the best of the 3 of them in training camp, but because he hasn't played as well for the Baby Penguins, Engelland and Lovejoy were called up first.

In any event, while it's too early to proclaim them all NHL caliber, they have held their own so far. Hopefully they can continue to do that for the next week or so until Sergei Gonchar, Kris Letang and Brooks Orpik start rejoining the lineup.

Pittsburgh's next game on Thursday against the Senators marks the beginning of a 3-game road trip that will see them play in Atlanta and Florida, in addition to visiting Ottawa, before coming home for a pre-Thanksgiving day tilt against the Montreal Canadiens.

Hopefully they can keep their MoJo going.

I plan to have a full report tomorrow on the Penguins at the quarter pole of the season.