Sidney Crosby - 3, Atlanta Thrashers - 2

Pittsburgh Penguin fans have seen a lot of things from their superstar center and Captain since he came into the NHL in 2005.

Things like Stanley Cups, scoring championships, and gold medals.

Now, he's completely outscoring other teams.

Like, for instance, in last night's game against the Atlanta Thrashers at the CONSOL Energy Center, which the Penguins won 3-2 on the strength of Crosby's natural hat-trick.

"He's dominating good teams by himself right now," said Pittsburgh RW Tyler Kennedy.

"He's just unbelievable," said fellow teammate Pascal Dupuis.

So much for Atlanta's 6-game winning streak.

Crosby's effort last night was his 7th career HT, and his second straight at home after racking up one the last time he and his teammates suited up at The Bird House and beat the Calgary Flames last Saturday afternoon.

Crosby now has 21 goals in 27 games, and is on pace for 64 this season.  Add in his 23 assists, and his 44 points this year thusfar are now good for a 4-point edge on Tampa Bay's Steven Stamkos in the league scoring race.

And, oh, Crosby also is working on a 14-game scoring streak and averaging more than 2 points a game during it, with 14 goals and 15 assists during that stretch.

Not coincidentally, Pittsburgh is now on an 8-game winning streak.  In fact, they are 10-0-1 in their last 11, and 11-1-1 in their last 13, all of which has been good enough to finally vault them past the Philadelphia Flyers and into first place in the Atlantic Division with 36 points.  They also are 2 behind the Washington Capitals -- who lost last night to the Dallas Stars -- for the top spot league-wide.

Crosby's goals last night were all above-the-line.  After the Penguins allowed a power play goal by Thrashers' forward Bryan Little for the first time in 32 chances 6 minutes into the first period, Crosby tied the score later in the frame by capitalizing on a nice Chris Kunitz pass to the left of Atlanta netminder Ondrej Pavelec.

In the second period, he struck twice -- first on a breakaway, beating Pavelec easily on the backhand after taking a nice lead pass from Aaron Asham, then on an incredible deflection, redirecting a shot from defenseman Brooks Orpik that was easily 3-5 wide past a stunned Pavelec.

That tally gave the Pens' a 3-1 lead and, despite a goal later in that second frame by Atlanta center Nik Antropov after he took advantage of an Evgeni Malkin turnover, the Thrashers got no closer.

In fact, Pittsburgh did in the third period what it's been doing so well lately, which is clamp down defensively.  Atlanta only had 5 shots in the final frame, which made it easily for goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury to win again.  He stopped 20 of 22 Thrasher shots overall.

Pittsburgh also outhit Atlanta by a whopping 36-15 tally on the night.  Max Talbot was one of the guys leading that parade, and while I'm talking about Talbot, props to him for throwing himself in front of a booming shot from Thrasher blueliner Dustin Byfuglien as the seconds were ticking off the game clock late in the 3rd.

At this point, all the Penguins are trying to do is keep it going.  They'll have a tough task in their next game on Saturday night in Columbus against the Blue Jackets because Columbus is a team that's playing pretty well this season, and are tough to play against in their own barn. 

That said, there's always a lot of great Penguin fan support in columbus because it's so close to Pittsburgh.  I've experienced that personally and I'm sure it won't be any different this weekend.

More soon.


NOTES:  The Penguins played without forwards Eric Godard and Mike Comrie, as well as defenseman Ben Lovejoy last night.  Godard and Lovejoy haven't played much lately and have been sitting as healthy scratches.  Comrie would be a healthy scratch if he wasn't otherwise injured, but he's been battling a lower body injury the last week or so.  His ailment is believed to be a groin problem.  While this is where I'd normally make jokes about whether his wife had a hand in helping him sustain that injury, or whether she should have more of a hand in nursing him back to health, I won't go to that level this time.

Wait a minute ..... I just did.