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Dupuis and Sykie Both Get Tricky as Pens Blowout Isles 9-2

December 12, 2008 by Paul  
Filed under Features, Highlights, News Digest

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The Pittsburgh Penguins exploded for 9 goals on Thursday night as they buried the troubled New York Islanders 9-2 at Mellon Arena.  Petr Sykora netted his first career hat trick after going 44 multi-goal games without one, the longest such streak in NHL history.  Pascal Dupuis also cashed in on his first career hat trick, uncorking his dry spell to double his season total in just one game.  Philippe Boucher, playing in his first game after missing 6 to injury, also scored for the Penguins as did Evgeni Malkin and Miroslav Satan.  In all, 9-Penguins players had a multi-point night and the team collectively had a +25 rating.  John Curry had another good night in net as he stopped 24 of 26 for a 0.923 save percentage.

In the 1st period, the Penguins jumped to a decisive lead as they outshot the Islanders 19-5 and outscored them 4-1 on the board.  Pascal Dupuis kicked it off with his 4th goal of the season after taking a cross-ice pass from Miroslav Satan and getting off a hard blast from the top of the circle that trickled through Islanders’ netminder Joey MacDonald.  Sidney Crosby followed the puck into the net for good measure.  Miroslav Satan and Rob Scuderi picked up the assists on the goal at 6:25.  The Islanders then got into severe penalty trouble as they took 4 sequential penalties, 3 coming in a span of less than 2-minutes to set up some 5-on-3 time for the Penguins.  Playing with a 2-man advantage at 13:49, Miroslav Satan collected a cross-crease pass from Sidney Crosby and quickly moved it to his forehand to wrist it into the net to make it 2-0.  Matt Cooke joined Crosby on the assist.  Then at 16:54, Matt Cooke went off for a tripping call and the Islanders converted on a hard slap shot by Mark Streit through traffic.  Doug Weight and Trent Hunter collected the assists on the powerplay goal.  The Penguins bounced back just 11-seconds later as Petr Sykora collected a cross ice pass from Evgeni Malkin and blasted a slapper past MacDonald to make it 3-1.  Ruslan Fedotenko combined with Malkin on the assists.  Then at 18:19, Philippe Boucher scored his first goal as a Pittsburgh Penguin as he launched a slapshot through traffic from near the blueline that deflected off from an Islanders defender.  Sidney Crosby and Miroslav Satan picked up assists on the Boucher goal.  The Penguins outshot the Islanders 19-5 in the period, went 1-for-4 on the powerplay and 0-for-1 on the kill.   

In the 2nd period, the Islanders started with Yann Danis in goal to replace Joey MacDonald, but he too would would soon fall prey to the hungry Penguins.  At 2:12, Evgeni Malkin fed Alex Goligoski who fired a hard wrister and then Evgeni collected the juicy rebound and beat Danis from the side of the net to make it 5-1.  Petr Sykora joined Goligoski on the assist as Malkin collected his 12th goal of the season.  The Penguins kept rolling after Bill Guerin took a slashing penalty at 7:07, as Petr Sykora took a feed from Alex Goligoski and wristed a shot past Danis from between the circles to make it 6-1.  Max Talbot collected the other assist on Sykora’s powerplay goal.  Then, a few minutes later it appeared that Petr Sykora had finally scored the elusive first hat trick after 44 multi-point games as the puck was clearly poked into the net before the whistle sounded.  However, the referee waved it off saying he had lost sight of it and was preparing to blow the whistle before the puck went in.  The video replay showed that had it counted, it was probably scored by Ruslan Fedotenko.  After receiving some condolences from his teammates, Sykora finally picked up his first career hat trick on the powerplay at 15:42 as he wristed the puck into the net from between the circles again on a laser pass from Sidney Crosby to make it 7-1.  Jordan Staal joined Sidney Crosby on the assist.   At 19:29, an ever-hungry Pascal Dupuis picked up his 2nd goal of the night as he came streaking into the zone late and took a beautiful wrap pass from Jordan Staal and drove it into the net.  Rob Scuderi picked up the other assist as the Penguins finished the 2nd period leading 8-1.  The Penguins outshot the Islanders 14-10 in the 2nd and were 2-for-4 on the powerplay and 1-for-1 on the kill.

In the 3rd period, the Penguins had to be careful as the Islanders started to get a bit chippy with the game fully out of reach.  At 11:33, Evgeni Malkin and Ruslan Fedotenko got into a scuffle with Andy Hilbert and they all sat 2-minutes for roughing with the Islanders getting the benefit of a powerplay.  At 12:55, however, Doug Weight got called for hooking to even the advantage for some 4-on-4 play.  The Islanders finally found some offense with the open ice at 13:06 as Andy Sutton found a way to beat John Curry to make it 8-2.  But it was far too little, and far too late for the Islanders.  At 16:48, Pascal Dupuis took a beautiful feed from Matt Cooke and drove home his 3rd goal of the night to join Petr Sykora for his first career hat trick.  Brooks Orpik joined Matt Cooke on the assist, and the Penguins won the game 9-2 amid the crowd chanting “We Want 10, We Want 10!”.  It was an electric night at the Mellon Arena!  The Islanders ended up outshooting the Penguins in the final frame 11-5,

Petr Sykora picked up 4-points (3G, 1A), while Pascal Dupuis (3G), Miroslav Satan (1G, 2A) and Sidney Crosby (3A) all had a 3-point night.  Evgeni Malkin (1G, 1A), Matt Cooke (2), Alex Goligoski (2A), Jordan Staal (2A) and Rob Scuderi (2A) all had 2-points.  Philippe Boucher (1G), Max Talbot (1A), Brooks Orpik (1A) and Ruslan Fedotenko (1A) each collected a point and rounded out the 13-Penguins players to find their way on to the scoresheet.  Pascal Dupuis led the game with 6-shots on net, while Petr Sykora, Kris Letang, Miroslav Satan and Sidney Crosby each had 5.  Evgeni Malkin fired 4 on net.  Tim Wallace and Mark Eaton each connected for 3-hits.  Kris Letand led all Penguins with 23:53 in ice time, while Sidney Crosby led all forwards with 21:33. 

The Penguins head to Philadelphia on Saturday for a 1PM matinee game.  The Flyers posted a 6-5 come from behind victory against the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday night after falling behind 5-1.

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Malkin and Crosby Loom Large in 3rd Period Comeback

November 27, 2008 by Paul  
Filed under Highlights, News Digest

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The Pittsburgh Penguins staged yet another impressive comeback performance by scoring five unanswered goals in the final 21 minutes of the game, including a 3rd period hat trick by Evgeni Malkin, to beat the New York Islanders 5-3 on Wednesday night.  After being largely outplayed through 2 periods, the Penguins got on the boards in the final 19-seconds of the 2nd period on a rare goal by Brooks Orpik.  That goal, and the reunion of Sidney Cosby and Evgeni Malkin on the top line, set up a furious 3rd period in which the Penguins outshot the Islanders 14-6 and outscored them 4-0.  Coming in halfway through the 2nd period, rookie goaltender John Curry relieved Dany Sabourin and was perfect in net in his NHL debut as he stopped all 11-shots he faced.

In the 1st period, the Islanders got on the scoreboard with a 5-on-4 powerplay goal at 7:45 as Mike Zigomanis sat for a goaltender interference call.  Hal Gill had just left the box 6-seconds prior to the goal after the Penguins managed to kill off 21-seconds of a 5-on-3.  Doug Weight was credited with the goal, but the replay showed that after Dany Sabourin stopped the puck, he inadvertently kicked it into his own net as he tried to close his legs on the puck.  Trent Hunter and Mark Streit picked up the assists on the play.  Then, just over a minute later, Trent Hunter backhanded a goal past Dany Sabourin to make it 2-0.  Hunter beat Kris Letang after taking a chip pass that landed in the feet of Letang, and then surprised Sabourin with a quick backhander.  Assists were given to Andy Hilbert and Joshua Bailey.  At 9:38, Eric Godard picked up a fighting major with Mitch Fritz.  Fritz managed to get Godard tied up in his jersey and neither player was able to do too much damage before being sent to the box;  it wasn’t enough to get the Penguins going.  The Penguins were outshot 12-10 in the first and were 0-for-2 on the man advantage and 1-for-2 on the kill. 

In the 2nd period, the Penguins continued to be outplayed by the Islanders as they were outshot 7-6.  At 9:27 with Evgeni Malkin in the box for a high sticking penalty, the Islanders powerplay connected again as Bill Guerin beat Dany Sabourin to make it 3-0.  Joshua Bailey and Mark Streit picked up the assists.  After the the 3rd goal on 14-shots, Coach Michel Therrien pulled Dany Sabourin and gave rookie John Curry his NHL debut.  Curry stopped all 5-shots against him in the remainder of the period.  As the period wound down, defenseman Brooks Orpik stepped into a slapshot with 19-seconds left that beat the Islanders netminder Joey MacDonald and gave the Penguins something to build on as they entered the 3rd period.  Pascal Dupuis picked up the lone assist on Orpiks 2nd goal of the season.  The Penguins were 1-for-2 on the kill in the period and were afforded no man advantages. 

Pittsburgh Penguins v New York Islanders

In the 3rd period, Coach Michel Therrien reunited Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby on the Penguins’ top line.  At 6:18, it paid off as Malkin fed a beautiful cross ice pass through traffic to Crosby who snapped it into the empty side of the net to beat MacDonald and make it 3-2 with plenty of time left in the game.  Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang picked up the assists.  Then at 11:03, Sidney Crosby returned the favor as he drew 3-Islanders to the boards and fed Malkin streaking through the center of the ice.  Malkin walked in unchallenged and beat MacDonald with a quick wrister to tie the game 3-3.  Brooks Orpik picked up the other assist.  Then, just 50-seconds later, Sidney Crosby undressed an Islanders’ defensemen who was looking to set up a play from behind his own net.  Crosby stole the puck at the side of the net and looked as if he was going to shoot on MacDonald.  Instead, he made a perfect blind backhanded pass to the slot.  Malkin, reading the play perfectly, had jumped in from the blueline and made a diving shot that beat MacDonald 5-hole to gain the 1-goal advantage.  Finally, with 18-seconds left and MacDonald pulled for the extra attacker, Evgeni Malkin completed the hat trick with his 10th goal of the season, an empty netter to seal the game 5-3.  Rob Scuderi picked up the lone assist on the play.  The Penguins’ domination in the 3rd period was evident in the 14-6 shot total.  The Penguins were 0-for-1 on the powerplay in the final frame.  John Curry stopped all 6-shots in the 3rd to pick up his first career NHL win. 

Sidney Crosby led all Penguins with 5-shots on net, and had 3-points (1G, 2A).  Evgeni Malkin had 4-shots and picked up 4-points (3G, 1A) to maintain his lead in the NHL points race with 35-points, 5-points ahead of 2nd place Simon Gagne.  Malkin also leads the league in assists with 25, 5-ahead of 2nd place Sidney Crosby and Boston’s Marc Savard.  Max Talbot was a perfect 2-for-2 on faceoffs before he left the game with an apparent foot injury after taking a hard shot to the skate.  Talbot appeared unable to put any pressure on the skate as he left the ice with the help of the team trainer.  Tyler Kennedy won his single apearance in the faceoff circle, while Sidney Crosby (12/28) won just 43% and Mike Zigomanis (8/19) and Jordan Staal (8/19) each won 42%.  Sidney Crosby led the team with 24:39 of ice time, while Malkin registered 21:29.  Amongst defensemen, Brooks Orpik led with 22:09 of ice time with Philippe Boucher following close behind with 21:43.

The Penguins will get Thanksgiving Day off before playing against Buffalo on the road on Friday evening.  They will then return back to Mellon Arena to face the Devils on Saturday night.

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