This Time Penguins, Crosby Finish The Job

The Pittsburgh Penguins had to be feeling a little deja vu late in their game against the Carolina Hurricanes last night at The Bird House.

After all, just 2 games before, they took a lead in the third period before allowing their opponent -- then the New York Rangers -- to tie the game late, and that's just what Carolina did last evening, scoring with less than a minute in the contest to tie the score at 4.

Surely Pittsburgh had to be concerned about the possibility of blowing their 5th lead in a game this season already -- a malady that plagued them over and over again two years ago.

But there would be no relapse this time, as the Penguins and Hurricanes went through the overtime scoreless, and the Pens won decisively in the shootout, 5-4, on goals from Kris Letang and Sidney Crosby.

The win allowed the Penguins to raise their record to 11-8-2 and get 2 points closer to the division-leading Philadelphia Flyers, who have 26.

Pittsburgh is now 5-1-1 in their last 7 contests.

And they beat the odds a little bit to get there too, since Carolina was 7-0 this year when scoring first, which is exactly what they did last night less than a minute into the game when Brandon Sutter scored to make it 1-0.

The Hurricanes did a great job attacking with speed on Sutter's goal.  They only had 3 forwards on the rush to go against the Penguins' 2 blueliners and 2 backcheckers, but they moved the puck around so quickly that they were able to create a brief 2-on-1 at the end of the rush that Sutter finished.

The Penguins obviously learned something from that because they did the same thing past the 11 minute mark of the 1st when Crosby used a quick pass at the Canes' blueline to allow Evgeni Malkin and Chris Kunitz to create a late 2-on-1 on their rush, and Kunitz made no mistake tying the score by lifting a puck over the shoulder of Carolina backup netminder Justin Peters.

Pittsburgh took the lead about 3 minutes later, this time finishing a 3-on-1 rush when a Kris Letang shot from the slot caromed off the Carolina defenseman and went right to Crosby to Peters' right.  Rather than shoot it in himself, Sid easily tapped the puck across the open crease to a wide-open Tyler Kennedy for the goal.

Before the period ended however, Patrick Dwyer tied the game at 2 by bouncing on a loose puck in front of Penguins' goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury and chipping it by him.

Pittsburgh went back in front at the 8 minute mark of the 2nd period when Crosby easily whipped a rebound of a Zbynek Michalek point shot past Peters.

Malkin got the 2nd assist on the play, his 250th of his career and 400th career point.

Unfortunately, that lead was short lived as Jussi Jokinen tied the score about 3 minutes later, getting loose to Fleury's right and finishing a nice pass from defenseman Jamie McBain across the low slot.

But the Pens' got a break at the 9 minute mark of the third period when Kunitz was awarded his second goal of the night -- on a power play -- following a sequence where he got a shot off from down low against Peters that Peters seemed to corral just enough for a whistle, before the puck ultimately did slide across the goal line. 

When the zebras went to the NHL's War Room in Toronto to review the play, however, they must have noticed something different north of the border, because they awarded Kunitz the goal.

Clearly, the puck did go over the line, but on the live replay -- with the audio -- it seems pretty clear that the referree did blow his whistle before that happened. 

Which ALSO means he had the intent to blow the whistle even before THAT.  When the official loses sight of the puck, intend to stop the action is all that is needed to make the play dead, so I'm not sure what the big boys in Canada were considering when they overruled the official on the ice and gave Pittsburgh the marker.  Certainly they look at plays with audio for that reason.

All that goal did, however, was set the stage for Jokinen's tying goal with less than a minute left in the game -- a goal which happened on a strange play with the puck bouncing around in the Penguins' zone and Carolina getting a bit of a break when Hurricanes' forward Eric Staal collided with Pens' blueliner Brooks Oprik (and actually knocked him down) only to find the biscuit finally settled down conveniently at his feet.   He quickly tapped it to Jokinen about 5-7 feet away, and that was just enough to keep Fleury slightly out of position and unable to stop Jokinen's quick wrister.

Once Pittsburgh got to the shootout, though, they clearly had the advantage against the inexperienced Peters, and sure enough, that's the way it played out, with Letang beating him on a backhand and the Captain slipping one between his legs. 

When Fleury stopped Canes' forward Jeff Skinner and then Jokinen, it was all over but the cryin' for Carolina.

Sidney Crosby finished with his goal and helpers on all three Penguin tallies, while Malkin added two more assists to go with his 400th career point.  Add in Kunitz' two goals and the big guys carried the load for Pittsburgh last night. 

Pittsburgh outshot Carolina, 36-34, by the way.

With his 4 points on the evening, Crosby now has 33 on the year and remains one point behind Steven Stamkos of the Tampa Bay Lightning -- who had 4 points of his own the night before in a barn-burning 8-7 win over the Flyers -- for the league lead.  Stamkos still leads the league in goals, however, and is on an incredible goal-a-game pace with 19 in 19 contests.  He's turning out to be a wizard in this league, and making people forget about Alexander Ovechkin, who sits back a ways in the points race with 25 points.  At least for now.

The Pens' go on the road next for their two games before turkey day.  Monday they are in Florida against the Panthers; Wednesday they are in Buffalo against the Sabres.

Next time, I'll take a look at our Boys of Winter and evaluate them at this season's quarter-pole.

Stay tuned.