Back in Hockeytahn

Pittsburgh is Hockeytahn and the city is excited to have its Penguins back in Mellon Arena for this Saturday afternoon tilt with the Carolina Hurricanes. The Canes are the team that began the Pens difficulties on the road by defeating Pittsburgh in overtime of what was a fantastic hockey game by both sides. After the defense had one of its best performances of the season against the Boston Bruins in their previous contest, Pittsburgh will look to continue their disciplined play in their own zone and prevent costly giveaways from taking place. Carolina has been making a strong push for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference recently and their latest overtime victory over the Washington Capitals is just one of many in a string of good fortune for the Canes. Pittsburgh lost to Carolina just over a week ago when they began their road trip against the Canes as rookie Justin Peters put on a clinic in net. Tonight the Penguins will get the more veteran of the two Canes netminders as Manny Legace is between the pipes and he has been great during his career against Pittsburgh with a 4-0 record, .937 save percentage, and 1.80 GAA. Fresh off of his first shutout of the season, Marc-Andre Fleury will be in the cage opposite of Legace as expected for this contest. Much of Fleury’s difficulties this season have been because of defensive mistakes from the guys in front of him, but getting that first donut of the season has to be a confidence booster for the Flower.

The Penguins coaching staff had been getting more optimistic about the return of Evgeni Malkin after he returned to practice on Friday with the club, and sure enough he is back in the lineup for this Saturday matinee. Malkin’s return means more healthy scratches will need to be made as Maxime Talbot, Eric Godard, and Jay McKee will all sit in this one with Geno back on the ice. This game begins with the Staal brothers each on the ice against one another as Carolina’s Eric lines up across from Pittsburgh’s Jordan and those two will likely be major factors in this contest before all is said and done. Malkin shows just how healthy he is in the early going as he skates figure eights around Canes defenders en route to a solid shot on goal padded away by Legace. Neutral zone giveaways continue to haunt the Pens as Tyler Kennedy turns the puck over and Joni Pitkanen carries it down the left wing boards before delivering a pass to the front of the net that gets directed behind Fleury by Zach Boychuk for a 1-0 Carolina lead. Sidney Crosby does his best to try and level things as he makes a great pass from behind the Canes net to Jordan Leopold who just misses the cage with his blast from the point. An incredible stop is made by Legace to rob Geno on a one timer from the faceoff circle moving laterally to snag the biscuit in the webbing of his glove. Tom Koustopoulos and Sergei Samsonov run a beautiful give and go along the corner boards in the Pens zone before forcing Fleury to hold his ground and make a pad stop near the goal post. The Eastern Bloc unit has looked great in Malkin’s return as he, Alexei Ponikarovsky, and Ruslan Fedotenko have all spent the majority of their shifts together in the Canes zone getting to that Penguins style of hockey that Head Coach Dan Bylsma loves to see. Despite some quality zone time in the opening period of play, Pittsburgh is outshot by Carolina 9-4 and will have to hope that their investment in the Canes end pays dividends later on in the game.

North and south action is what Bylsma has preached to this team and they have had an apparent focus in that area thus far. More of the same hard work along the boards and digging pucks out behind the cage will lead to good things as the 2nd period begins with some helter skelter action before Jamie McBain gets a shot to Fleury who somehow snags the puck with an assortment of traffic in front of the net. TK gets a great chance cherry picking at the blue line, but Legace stops his shot that nearly found its way through the five-hole. Chris Kunitz does some hard work to create a quality chance for Kennedy in the slot, but Legace again makes the stop before a number of bodies come crashing into the net knocking him over and appearing to injure his knee before he gets back to his feet. As a result, TK finds himself in the sin bin for the game’s first penalty on a goaltender interference call and Legace exits in favor of Justin Peters after he decides he is unable to continue.

The penalty expires and a crazy exchange is had when a fresh Kennedy comes out of the box and flies toward the Canes net nearly scoring which is countered by Chad LaRose who slides into Fleury and denied by a stellar poke check by the Pens netminder. Carolina takes their first penalty of the game as Brian Ponthier is sent to the box for interference, but too many shots miss the net once again for Pittsburgh before the penalty expires. Crosby again shows his skills behind the Canes net, but Kunitz misses the cage when the pass is delivered to his stick. Carolina appears to have watched some New Jersey Devils footage before this game because their style of play is a mirror image with the congestion that they are creating in the neutral zone making passing extremely difficult to execute. Kennedy has been relentless in this game doing work along the boards and his effort is rewarded before the period ends as he is held by Ponthier.

Yet another timely goal on the power play for the Pens as Crosby feeds Ponikarovsky skating into the zone and instead of shooting he feeds a wide open Jordan Staal who buries the one timer into the open cage to level the game at 1-1 after two periods. Energy has not been lacking from the Penguins in this game, but that goal may release some of the frustration from the congested ice they have seen throughout this contest. The final period gets going with more intense cycling from the Pens as Crosby nearly stuffs a pass from Kunitz by Peters who makes a quality reflex stop with his left pad. Geno serves up a gorgeous pass for Fedotenko streaking down the slot, but Peters again stands tall stopping his shot with a shoulder. Carolina gets a power play after a holding call is made on Mike Rupp and during the kill Jordan Staal takes a tripping penalty to give the Canes 21 seconds of five on three time. Some scrappy penalty killing allows the Pens to dodge a bullet maintaining this tie game as they search for another tally in this tight checking affair. Erik Cole is sent to the box for holding giving the Pens a power play before Alex Goligoski is called for interference after not allowing a Canes player to get a new twig from the bench after his breaks setting the table for some four on four action. It all goes for not as neither team is able to get a puck over the goal line with Fleury stealing the show in net making a number of quality saves. It seemed to be only a matter of time before Malkin and his line came through and they do so in the clutch on a great cycle getting Geno just enough room to rip a wrist shot over the shoulder of Peters for a 2-1 Pens advantage. This Carolina team is so resilient as Pitkanen gets a pass on the left wing that he rips over the shoulder of Fleury in a similar fashion to Malkin’s to knot things back up at 2-2. In what could be a costly penalty, Pascal DuPuis takes a boarding penalty for a borderline hit on McBain on the forecheck and the Pens will need another big effort from their penalty killers. Pittsburgh kills off their seventeenth consecutive penalty, but this game will require overtime to decide a winner.

This is a parallel scenario to the last meeting between these two clubs as they just have a knack for playing tight games against one another. The OT period begins with the Pens still missing the net and fanning on shots around Carolina’s cage with Staal doing the bulk of the pressuring on Peters in goal. Fleury continues his stellar play making a clutch stop on Tuomo Ruutu after he is fed a great pass by Pitkanen. What an incredible finish as LaRose gets all iron on a great chance down low in the Pens zone before the best player on the ice for the Canes all game McBain gets the puck on the point and fires a blast by the glove of Fleury into the twine with just .9 seconds left on the clock.

The ending was quite fitting even though it wasn’t in Pittsburgh’s favor with a buzzer beater in the vein of March Madness. This game tied the Pens lowest shot total of the year with just 21 in regulation as Carolina took a page out of the Devils playbook and really neutralized the offensive weapons of the Penguins. Despite the incredible streak that the penalty kill has been on, the Pens didn’t have quite enough to win this one after Peters put in a valiant effort in relief of the injured Legace. Bylsma’s Penguins now have a two point lead on the Devils in the Atlantic Division as the playoffs are on everyone’s mind around the league. Pittsburgh takes their show back on the road Monday night for a Stanley Cup rematch with the Detroit Red Wings which is sure to be a barnburner.

Tags: Alex Goligoski, Alexei Ponikarovsky, Boston Bruins, Brian Ponthier, Carolina Hurricanes, Chad LaRose, Chris Kunitz, Dan Bylsma, Detroit Red Wings, Eric Godard, Eric Staal, Evgeni Malkin, Jamie McBain, Jay McKee, Joni Pitkanen, Jordan Leopold, Jordan Staal, Justin Peters, Manny Legace, Marc Andre Fleury, Maxime Talbot, Mike Rupp, New Jersey Devils, Pascal DuPuis, Ruslan Fedotenko, Sergei Samsonov, Sidney Crosby, Stanley Cup, Tom Kostopoulos, Tuomo Ruutu, Tyler Kennedy, Washington Capitals, Zach Boychuk