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Sabourin Victimized by Rangers in Shootout

The Pittsburgh Penguins coughed up a 2-goal lead to a New York Rangers’ rally on Wednesday night to force the overtime, and then lost the game 3-2 in the shootout.  The Penguins got goals from Mark Eaton (yes, you read correctly) and Jordan Staal in regulation, and Kris Letang in the shootout.  Sidney Crosby was held to a point and, in a rare moment, Evgeni Malkin failed to get on the scoresheet.  Dany Sabourin stopped 25 of 27 through 65-minutes of play for a commendable 0.923 save percentage, but turned to swiss cheese in the shootout where he was beaten mercilessly by all 3 Rangers’ shooters. 

In the 1st period the Penguins fired the puck relentlessly on Henrik Lundqvist, getting off 12-shots despite being short-handed for 4-minutes of play.  At 2:46, Mike Godard squared off with Colton Orr for an extended tussle.  While neither player landed any killer blows, Orr appeared to finish with a bit of an edge.  Then at 12:23, Brooks Orpik took 2-minor penalties for tripping and unsportsmanlike conduct as he retaliated against Orr for his physical work over on Sidney Crosby.  Fortunately for the Penguins, less than a minute into the first penalty, the Rangers were called for too many men on the ice.  In the ensuing 4-on-4 play, Sidney Crosby mesmerized the crowd by taking the puck around the back of the net and then passed the puck out to Mark Eaton who jumped up on the play.  Eaton took the pass and deposited into the empty side of the net at 13:56 as Lundqvist was caught hugging the post in anticipation of a Crosby shot.  For Eaton, it was a rare goal on a memorable night as he skated in his 400th career NHL game.  The Penguins outshot the Rangers 12-6 in the first, and were 0-for-2 on the powerplay.

In the 2nd period, the Penguins widened their lead to 2-0 at 9:35.  With traffic in front of the Rangers’ net, Rob Scuderi blasted a shot from the blueline.  Towering in front of the net, Jordan Staal got his stick on Scuderi’s shot and deflected the puck past Lundqvist.  Matt Cooke was credited with the other assist on the play.  Just a minute and a half later, however, the Penguins were dealt a similar hand as Scott Gomez unleashed a hard shot that was deflected past Sabourin by Nikolai Zherdev to make it 2-1.  Wade Redden picked up the other assist on the play.  The Rangers came on stronger late in the period and managed to outshoot the Penguins 9-7.  Both teams were 0-for-1 on the powerplay.

In the 3rd period, the Rangers kept coming as they managed to score the game-tying goal on a wrister at 14:03 from Petr Prucha.  Scott Gomez and Wade Redden were again credited with the assists, their second of the night.  The Penguins were dealt a blow as both Mike Zigomanis and Tyler Kennedy left the game with undisclosed injuries and did not return.  The Penguins continued to battle on and got numerous scoring chances, but were unable to beat King Henry.  Dany Sabourin posted some important saves late to send the game into overtime, and guarantee a point.  The Rangers edged the Penguins in shots in the 3rd period 10-9. 

After a scoreless overtime in which the Penguins outshot the Rangers 3-2, the game went to the shooout for the final decision.  The Rangers chose to shoot first and put Markus Naslund up front.  Naslund skated in and beat Sabourin with the backhand high glove side.  The Penguins then inexplicably fielded Miroslav Satan who has cooled off and is 0-for-3 on the shootout this season…..make that 0-for-4 now.  Next, the Rangers put up Nikolai Zherdev who had the team’s first goal of the night, and he beat Sabourin with a backhander as well.  In a must score situation, the Penguins put up sniper Kris Letang.  Letang came in and roofed a snap shot that beat Lundqvist quite handily and gave the Penguins a thin lifeline on the game.  But it just wasn’t meant to be as Fredrik Sjostrom came in and wristed the 3rd consecutive shootout goal past Sabourin to clinch the game 3-2, just as he did in their last matchup in October.  Despite playing a decent game in regulation, poor Sabu just got taken to the cleaners in the shootout.  

• VIDEO:  Game Highlights
• PHOTOS:  In-Game Photos
• Game Rosters
• Game Summary
• Boxscore
• Faceoff Summary
• Shot Report
• Shootout Summary
• Penguins Ice Time Report

Jordan Staal, Max Talbot, Ruslan Fedotenko and Kris Letang all registered 4-shots on goal, while Evgeni Malkin posted 3 and Sidney Crosby had 2.  In the faceoff circle, the Penguins were horrible.   While Max Talbot was 67% (2 of 3), Jordan Staal was the next best at 47% (9 of 19).  Sidney Crosby was just 31% (5 of 16) and Evgeni Malkin was 17% (1 of 6).  Mike Zigomanis, who leads the NHL in faceoffs, was just 33% (2 of 6) before leaving the game with injury.  Evgeni Malkin led all forwards with 23:23 of ice time, while Kris Letang led the team with an impressive 26:25.  Marc-Andre Fleury and Philippe Boucher remained off the roster with injuries. 

The Penguins make a quick trip down to Carolina overnight where they will take on the Hurricanes on Thursday evening.  It is uncertain who will play in net for the Penguins.  Marc-Andre Fleury is traveling with the team and practicing, but no return time has been announced.  John Curry is also traveling with theteam and was tonight’s backup.

Jordan Staal Reigns God-Like as Pens Stun Red Wings in OT

It promised to be a great rematch between last season’s Stanley Cup finalists, and for Jordan Staal and the Pittsburgh Penguins it turned into a personal and team statement about resilience!  After falling behind 5-2, the Pittsburgh Penguins posted one of the most significant comebacks in recent years against the seemingly invincible team that bested them for Lord Stanley’s prize in June.  Long overdue for a breakout, it was Jordan Staal who put the team on his back in the 3rd period and carried them to an improbable overtime frame by scoring 3 consecutive goals for the hat trick.  But he wasn’t done there.  In the overtime frame, Staal stunned the Stanley Cup champions by stealing the puck from Pavel Datsyuk to force a turnover and then threading a cross-ice  pass to Ruslan Fedotenko who buried the puck in the net to win the game.  The 7-6 victory powered the Penguins to their 4th straight win and improved their record to 9-3-2. 

In the 1st period, the Penguins jumped out to a quick lead on a goal by Sidney Crosby to make it 1-0 at 4:34.  Tenaciously chasing the Red Wings into their own zone, Max Talbot stripped the puck away and passed it back to Miroslav Satan coming across the blueline.  Satan fed the puck to Crosby at the net, where he backhanded it through the pads of Chris Osgood.  At 13:21, the Red Wings bounced back on a goal by Darren Mccarty, his first of the season, off from a chip pass by Kirk Maltby.  Then at 13:43, Mike Zigomanis took a tripping call to set up the league’s best powerplay unit.  At 15:19, with Ziggy in the box, Tomas Holmstrom tipped in a shot by Niklas Lidstrom to make it 2-1.  Marian Hossa also picked up an assist.  With 32 seconds left in the period, Alex Goligoski (holding) took the Penguins 3rd penalty which would carry over into the 2nd.  The Penguins were outshot 14-5 in the 1st, were 2-for-3 on the penalty kill, and 0-for-1 on the powerplay. 

In the 2nd period, the Red Wings scored with 19-seconds left on the 1st period carryover penalty to Alex Goligoski.  Mikael Samuelsson attempted a cross ice pass that got caught up in Brooks Orpik’s skates, before Jiri Hudler collected it and placed it on the blade of a wide open Johan Franzen who beat Marc-Andre Fleury to make it 3-1.  At 4:14, however, the Penguins drew within a goal as Petr Sykora threw a puck on net that deflected off from Max Talbot’s skate and across the goal line.  Sidney Crosby and Petr Sykora were credited with assists on Talbot’s goal.  But with under 2-minutes left to play in the period, Pavel Datsyuk let a hard one-timer rip from the point that eluded a screened Marc-Andre Fleury to make it 4-2.  Marian Hossa and Niklas Lidstrom were credited with the assists.

In the 3rd period, it looked as if the Red Wings were going to finish off the Penguins as they built a 3-goal lead on a powerplay goal at 5:03 while Sidney Crosby sat for interference.  Henrik Zetterberg took a cross ice feed and placed the backhander into the open side of the net to beat Fleury and extend the lead to 5-2.  The Red Wings then got into penalty trouble as Johan Franzen and Vilttari Filpulla each took hooking calls 5-seconds apart to give the Penguins an extended 5-on-3 opportunity.  After some early frustration, the Penguins took their timeout to regroup and discuss a change-up in their set play.  They then came back out and executed a pass play to perfection that moved the puck to the side of the net first, before moving it back out to Evgeni Malkin at the point for the one-timer.  The play turned the Red Wings defense around and got Osgood out of position as Malkin’s shot blistered into the far side of the net to make it 5-3.  Miroslav Satan and Sidney Crosby picked up the assists on the goal.  Then a little over a minute later, the Penguins drew to within a goal as Jordan Staal chipped a backhander into the net at 8:09.  Matt Cooke and Mike Zigomanis were credited with the assists on Staal’s goal.  At 10:14, however, the Red Wings got a goal back as Jiri Hudler launched a big blast that trickled behind Fleury and into the net just out of the reach of a scrambling Kris Letang.   With just over 4-minutes left in the game and trailing 6-4, Jordan Staal collected a rebound in traffic and beat Chris Osgood to make it interesting as the Penguins trailed by just one goal again.  Matt Cooke and Kris Letang got the assists.  Then with just 23-seconds left in the game and Marc-Andre Fleury at the bench for the extra attacker, Jordan Staal collected another rebound in traffic and fired it into the net for the hat trick and the improbable game tying goal.  Evgeni Malkin and Alex Goligoski were credited with the assists.  With just 4-seconds left in regulation, Brian Rafalski took a hooking penalty that would carry over 1:56 seconds into the overtime period.  The Penguins finished the 3rd period by outshooting the Red Wings 16-8.

In the overtime period, the Penguins were unable to score on the 4-on-3 but managed 3-shots on net.  After the penalty expired, Pavel Datsyuk was attempting to carry the puck out of his zone with Jordan Staal approaching from behind on the backcheck.  Staal lifted Datsyuk’s stick and stripped him of the puck and turned it back into the Red Wing’s zone.  Staal then placed a perfect cross ice pass onto the stick of a streaking Ruslan Fedotenko who one-timed it past Chris Osgood to win the game 7-6 with 1:11 left in the overtime.

• VIDEO:  Game Highlights
• PHOTOS:  In-Game Photos
• Game Rosters
• Game Summary
• Game Boxscore
• Shots Summary
• Faceoff Summary

Jordan Staal had 4-points (3G, 1A).  Sidney Crosby had 3-points (1G, 2A) and led the team with 6-shots on net.  Evegeni Malkin had 2-points (1G, 1A) to keep his NHL leading points streak alive at 11-games.  He also leads the NHL in points (24) and assists (19).  Miroslave Satan (2A) and Matt Cooke (2A) each picked up 2-points.  Defenseman Rob Scuderi left the game with an ankle injury after blocking a hard-shot in the 1st period.  He returned briefly, but then left the game in the 2nd period and didn’t return. 

The Penguins return to the Mellon Arena where they will face the cross state rival Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night.

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