It's time for home cookin' baby.
After a stretch where the Pittsburgh Penguins lost 3 in a row and 6 of their last 8 -- 7 of which were on the road -- the Boys of Winter returned home this weekend to kick off a 6-game stretch at Mellon Arena in style, beating the Philadelphia Flyers 4-1 Saturday afternoon and capping off the weekend with a rousing come-from-behind 5-4 shootout victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs.
After the Devils only prevailed in 1 of their 2 weekend games, the Penguins now lead the Atlantic Division with 95 points, two ahead of New Jersey -- although the Devils have a game in hand.
While being back at The Igloo obviously provided the Penguins a boost, it helped that they got their offense going a little bit, too --- and did it without the services of defenseman Sergei Gonchar (illness) and Evgeni Malkin (foot), who missed both games.
After failing to score more than 3 goals in each of their last 8 contests, it was no wonder the Penguins hadn't fared well in the won/loss column recently. It's amazing what can happen when you plunk in just one more.
Interestingly enough, the Pens started off Saturday's game against the Flyers slowly, and were put behind the 8-ball early as a result when Philadelphia forward Aaron Asham got a gift goal by meekly tossing a puck to the net from the far boards on a 2-on-2 rush and somehow having it elude Pittsburgh goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury on one bounce.
After that, though, it was all the home team.
Chris Kunitz tied the score later in the first period just as a power play expired by picking up a rebound from a Jordan Leopold shot and burying it before Flyers' rookie netminder Jonas Backlund -- making his first NHL start -- could get over to the far post.
After Pascal Dupuis got his 18th finishing off a Sidney Crosby pass to give Pittsburgh a 2-1 lead before the end of the second period, the Pens turned it on further in the 3rd against Brian Boucher, who came in to tend goal for Philadelphia after Backlund had to leave with a flare up of a recent groin problem he had been dealing with.
Matt Cooke snuck behind the far post and found himself open for a slick feed from Ruslan Fedotenko to make it 3-1 at the 7 minute mark, and Rusty scored himself about 7 minutes later to finish the scoring and give Pittsburgh a dominating victory in what could have been Philly's final appearance at Mellon, depending on whether the teams meet in the post-season.
Or whether the Flyers even MAKE the post-season. The Flyers have been struggling lately and putting on a mostly lame performance against Pittsburgh Saturday certainly won't help their playoff chances. I, for one, would be thrilled to see them miss the dance this year and I know I'm not alone in Penguin nation in feeling that way....
After getting back on the winning track by beating Philadelphia, the Penguins had another puzzling start in their game against the Leafs last night.
That is to say, they were back on their heels early again.
Toronto got a 1-0 lead on another gift goal, this time by Leafs' enforcer Colton Orr, when forward Rickard Wallin had a breakaway that Fleury -- starting again in the back-to-back situation -- stopped so beautifully it left him out of position and unable to make up for the fact that his teammates were beaten to the rebound by Orr, who easily deposited the puck into the vacated cage.
Fortunately, Tyler Kennedy tied the game for Pittsburgh later in the period when he slipped in front of the Leafs net and slid the biscuit behind Toronto netminder J.S. Giguere after some great work behind the net by his linemates, Mike Rupp and Craig Adams. Rupp, in particular, gave a great effort to use his hand to get the puck to himself while almost on his stomach to the right of the cage, before somehow shoveling it out in front to TK fo the goal.
In the second frame, Leaf's forward Phil Kessel popped his 30th of the year to give Toronto a 2-1 lead on a shot from about 35/40 feet that deflected off Pens' blueliner Brooks Orpik and dropped down past Fleury on the stick side.
Pens' Head Coach Dan Bylsma called a timeout at that point, and understandably so, since the scrappy Leafs were skating well and giving the Pens' all they could handle up to that point in the game.
Smart man that Bylsma. His timeout helped change the momentum when Crosby scored the next 2 goals -- his 46th and 47th, to again lead the league -- to give the Pens' the lead again, 3-2.
Crosby's first was a rebound of a Brooks' Orpik shot that Sid found near his feet in front of Giguere faster than the goaltender or the Leafs' defense did.
His second was a beautiful goal right off a face-off play that #87 won to the far wall. Orpik pinched in to take the puck from there, used a sublte pick by Fedotenko to get an extra second or two, then found Crosby who backed to the left edge of the right circle, took the puck and quickly wristed it far side, above Giguere's pad.
After the Leafs took the lead again on goals by Carl Gunnarsson later in the second and Tyler Bozak in the third, it wasn't looking good for the Penguins, but Matt Cooke saved his teammates' bacon by deflecting in under the crossbar a Leopold point shot with under 3 minutes to go to even things again.
The teams played a scoreless OT, and that set the stage for the Penguins to complete their comeback.
Crosby scored in round 2 of the shootout by beating Giguere top shelf, and Dupuis scored low stick side in round 3 on his first attempt of the year. Meanwhile, Fleury got some redemption from allowing 3 straight shootout goals to the Captials earlier in the week when he stopped both Kessel and Nikolai Kulemin easily to help give Pittsburgh the win.
While the scored was close and the Pens needed a late goal to just get to the shootout, they really turned around their play after Blysma's timeout. They outshot the Leafs 45-29 on the night and only some great stops by Giguere kept Toronto close.
Orpik had a career-high 3 helpers in the game, and was strong throughout. Leopold had a strong game, too, as did TK.
For as hairy as their results have been lately, there are a lot of elements in place for the Pens to get on a roll. They're getting good contributions from several support players, and just need to smooth out some details out there. If they can start playing more consistently in their own end the last 6 games, they should be in a good position going into the post-season.
Pittsburgh will look to continue their momentum in their next game on Wednesday against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
More tomorrow on the status of Malkin and Sarge, and the recent updates that have been circulating about Pittsburgh being the likely candidate to host the next Winter Classic .......
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