Without Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Mark Letestu, the Penguins limped into New York way underpowered and depleted at center.  By all rights the Rangers, 29-20-4, should have had at least an fairly easy time against the gimpy Penguins.  And after jumping out to a 2-0 lead on goals by Prust (8) and Anisimov (11) things were looking that way early in the second period.

Then came a spurt.  Pittsburgh scored on goals by Dustin Jeffrey (3) at 5:30 of the second, Mike Rupp (5) at 10:36 of the second and Chris Kunitz (17) at 14:12 of the second.  They were up 3-2 when they lost another center, Jordan Staal, to a match penalty and when he was ejected for throwing a gloved punch.  The Penguins almost escaped the second period without that hurting them.  But at 19:47 of the frame Callahan (11) scored to tie up the game on the power play that the Staal penalty afforded the Rangers.

The Penguins dug in in the third period and held off the Rangers through overtime.  Then came the shootout.  Marc-Andre Fuery, who made 26 saves in regulation and OT, stopped shots by Wolski, Zuccarello, Callahan, Anisimov, Stepan and Dubinsky.  Lundqvist stopped Letang, Dupuis, Kunitz, Goligoski, Kennedy and Conner.

Then came Dustin Jeffrey, the man who scored the first goal of the game for Pittsburgh and who by all rights would be playing daily for the big club on a lesser team not chocked full of talent.  He scored in round seven of the shootout.  Fluery then proceeded to stop Marian Gaborik to end the game.

The Penguins were undoubtedly happy to come out of it all with two points considering their situation.  But surprisingly the Penguins have been playing well without their superstars lately.  They are proving that they can stay competitive, adapt and even win when temporarily missing pieces to the puzzle.

Carolina plays an up tempo game. Vancouver prefers that style too, but the Penguins newly found commitment to defense shut them down. Last night was another test for that new found respect for focusing on the blueliners.

However, Pittsburgh struggled. However, so did Carolina.

Both teams found the net four times during regulation and overtime and Fleury looked stronger than that record as his defense let him down a couple times. Fleury stopped 30 of 34 shots and kept the Penguins in the game despite a teamwide collapse that let the Hurricanes tie the game with just 0:52 left in regulation. Pens fans no doubt had visions of the game against the New York Rangers dancing in their heads. In that game the Penguins down 0-1 late scored twice to take a 2-1 lead only to give up a late goal in regulation and then lost in overtime.

But not last night. After goals in regulation by Chris Kunitz (6, 7), Tyler (Mr.) Kennedy (4) and Sidney Crosby (14) the Penguins shut the door in overtime despite playing much of it in their own end. Then came the shootout.

In the shootout it was not even a contest. Kris Letang scored on the Penguins first shot. Fleury stones Jeff Skinner. Crosby scored on the Penguins second shot. Then Fleury flipped out his pad and stopped Jussi Jokinen. Game over. Two points.

The win in the shootout moves the Penguins to 11-8-2 on the season and they have won four of their last five and have a point in each of those games.

Pittsburgh produced consistent offense all night tallying 36 shots in regulation and overtime. 10 shots in the first, 12 in the second, 11 in the third and 3 in the five minute overtime show that the Penguins never let off the gas. His Sidness paced the Penguins with four points (1 G and 3 A) while Malkin added three quality assists. Jussi Jokinen had four point for the Hurricanes (2 G and 2 A) and menaced the Penguins all night.

Pittsburgh is now off until Monday night until they face the 8-9-0 Florida Panthers on the road.

Ottawa had the unfortunate privilege of coming into Pittsburgh just two days after the Penguins suffered another humiliating defeat at the hands of the New Jersey Devils. After a game in which the Penguins literally handed Martin Brodeur his record setting shutout, the Senators had to know they were walking into the lion’s den.

Although it might all have ended differently if not for Marc-Andre Fleury. In the first period alone Flower had to face 24 shots and allowing just one goal. Leclaire, returning from injury for the Senators, faced just nine but also allowed a goal to Evgeni Malkin (11) on the power play to end the period tied at 1-1.

While it looked like a hockey game was afoot, what was about to happen is so horrific that young children, women and people with heart conditions are advised to look away. As the second period started a murder started to took place. The victims were the Ottawa Senator.

The period went like this:
1:03 Billy Guerin (10) – PPG and 2-1 Pens
7:35 Ruslan Fedotenko (7) and 3-1 Pens
11:25 Chris Kunitz (5) and 4-1 Pens
13:57 Billy Guerin (11) – PPG and 5-1 Pens
18:27 Evgeni Malkin (12) and 6-1 Pens

The bloody and beaten carcass of the Senators though still had life matching the Penguins 15 shots with 15 of their own but nothing to show for it due to a brick wall in net for the Penguins.

In the third the Penguins put the Senators of out their misery as Sergei Gonchar (5) added a seventh goal and Evgeni Malkin (13) capped off the hat trick for an 8-1 lead. Ottawa, in its death throws, added a late goal to make the final score 8-2 but died a short while after.

The crowd was ruckus late in the third repeatedly cheering for Billy Guerin to get more ice time in search of his own hat trick. After failing to finish on a couple opportunities however it was not meant to be.

Fleury finished the night with a massive 45 saves as the Penguins improved to 26-11-1 (53 pts) ahead of a Sunday match up with Toronto, one of the worst teams in the East at 13-17-8. Currently the Penguins sit in 4th place in the East in large part due to their inability to beat New Jersey who is in first place and also with 53 points.

Notes:
Craig Adams (-1) was the only Penguin to finish the game in the red when it comes to +/- rating.

Kunitz (1G, 3A) and Guerin (2G, 2A) both paced the Penguins with four points on the night.

As snow fell heavily all over the east coast, a Fleury fell in Buffalo – a Marc-Andre Fleury. And it was mightier than any snow storm. Stopping 31 of 32 saves in 65 minutes of regulation plus over time, the Penguins net minder added two more in the shoot out to earn his 21st win of the season the hard way. Yeah, his saves were not always pretty and a handful were just down right lucky but Fleury put himself in that possition to be lucky all night long as the Sabres peppered him with shots and crashed the net regularly.

If Fleury has not secured his spot on Team Canada for the Olympics as at least the back up then something is oh so very wrong.

Despite a face paced second and third period with Pittsburgh and Buffalo each traded rushes up the ice it was the first period where both teams scored their lone regulation goals. Jason Pominville (8) buried a rebound off Fluery’s pad at 15:05 and Chris Kunitz (4) wristed a shot past Lalime with less than a minute to go.

In the shootout Kris Letang buried his chance to put the Penguins up 1-0 after Fleury stood tall at the other end of the ice. Then, a little controversy as on Crosby’s shot, Lalime went nearly entirely into the net with the puck somewhere on or under his body. The Buffalo goal tender shimmied quickly out of the the net and the puck dropped outside the line. No review was called or needed as Fleury stopped both the prior shot and the shot afterwards to end the game.

Buffalo, who leads the Northeast Division, was a good test for the Penguins who had just come off two bruising victories against the lowly Philadelphia Flyers. The Penguins are now 25-10-1 (51 pts) and just behind the New Jersey Devils, also 51 pts but who have two games in hand in the Atlantic. Both teams will square off Monday night in Pittsburgh for a showdown.

Notes:
The Penguins power play, which had shown signs of life lately, was 0-5 despite some good chances.

With the win in Buffalo, Pittsburgh is currently riding a 5 game winning streak after starting the month 1-1-1.