Music To My Ears: Penguins Defeat Predators In OT

It was hitch-a-ride night in cowtown last night at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.

As in, hop on the back of the Pens' Captain, as Sidney Crosby's virtuoso performance helped the Penguins win a hockey game in Nashville for the first time in 11 years (and only 2nd time ever), and stay on the winning track with a 4-3 overtime victory.

In an extremely physical, fast-paced, and entertaining October hockey game between two non-conference rivals, Crosby paced the way with two goals and a lead assist on the game winner by defenseman Kris Letang -- a slap shot that rocketed by Predators' goaltender Pekka Rinne for the "W".

After a bit of a slow start, Crosby is tied for the league lead in scoring with former teammate Marion Hossa of the Chicago Blackhawks.

Evgeni Malkin also was dominant in the game, as he scored and added an assist while playing much of the night on a line with Crosby.

That ceratinly was not Blysma's intent entering the contest, but when those two got the occasional shift together as the game went along, they were just too dominant to separate.  That was especially true in the 2nd half of the game when the Penguins just took over, outshooting Nashville 17-5 in the third period and 20-8 including the overtime.

And Pittsburgh needed to step on the gas, too, because they were challenged by a good Predators club who had an early 1-0 lead, took advantage of a careless retaliatory penalty from Crosby in the 2nd period to score a power-play goal, and stayed ahead or right with the Pens' throughout the rest of the contest until Crosby's tying goal with about 7 minutes left preceded Letang's game winner.

Speaking of Letang, he, too, had a fantastic outing last night.  In addition to his goal in overtime, he added two assists and was +2 on the night.

Tanger is now tied for second in the league in plus/minus at +9 on the season.

In fact, Letang, Goligoski and Paul Martin sit 2, 3, and 4 in league scoring among all blueliners this year so far.  They've really given the Penguins great punch from the back end, and have taken advantage of the increased minutes given to them following the absences of teammates Brooks Orpik and Zbynek Michalek. 

They are validating what many thought going into the season --- with their offseason additions and growth, the Penguins would have among one of the best groups of rearguards in the league this year, despite the loss of Sergei Gonchar.

In the pipes, let's give some credit to Marc-Andre Fleury, who came up with a pretty strong game last night for his first win of the season.

Fleury stopped 21 of 24 shots and bounced back from an early goal-against that wasn't his fault.  While the goal was really accountable to his teammates' open and obvious dementia about who was covering which Predator player on the ice, it still could have set him back. 

It didn't though, as #29 made several strong stops in the game, including on 3 different breakaways by Nashville forwards J.P. Dumont, Joel Ward, and Steve Sullivan.

Fleury got a little help from his post and forward Pascal Dupuis at one key point in the game, too.  Fleury took a high shot in OT that he stopped at first, but had it roll up over him.  After it did that, the puck hit the crossbar and laid right down in the crease dangerously close to the goal line before Dupuis came to the rescue, swiped it away, and gave Letang a chance to give Pittsburgh the extra point.

Obviously, everyone in the Pens' locker room after the game was excited to help get Fleury his first "W".

"It's a great feeling to get a win," said Dupuis.  "The best feeling is getting a win for Flower."

Will Fleury start on Saturday night in the Pens' next game in St. Louis, though?  That remains to be seen.  Bylsma might go back to him, although his intentions were to play Johnson on this trip, too.  In fact, Saturday night's game was one the Penguins had pegged at the beginning of the season to play BJ in, so it will be interesting to see what the Head Coach decides to do.

Regardless, the Penguins will come into the game winners of 4 straight and 5 of 6, and atop the Atlantic Division standings with 10 points.

More over the weekend.