A week after a tough overtime loss to Philadelphia, the Power returned to action and dominated the Iowa Barnstormers in front of just over 9,000 fans. The lower attendance, I have no doubt, was probably due to Pitt playing Butler in the NCAA tournament at the same time. However, those that decided to watch Pitt lose to Butler in the last seconds were no doubt wishing that they had gone to the Consol Energy Center instead last night.

Despite losing starting quarterback Bernard Morris to a shoulder injury, the Power kept their foot on the accelerator in the second half. Backup QB Kevin McCabe through for three touchdowns in a 58-28 stomping of Iowa. The big man, Joshua Rue had three touchdowns. Despite only rushing six times for six yards, Rue found the end zone twice with the power game. He added a third when he stretched out to haul in a pass over his head.

Mathis, and “Joystick” Washington each added offensive touchdown catches on the night as well.

The defense came up big all night too. It wasn’t just the offense. Smith, Herbert and Dewalt all added interceptions. DeWalt’s was retuned for a touchdown.

Before leaving the game at halftime, starting QB Bernard Morris had two touchdown passes and 114 yards passing to post a 28-14 lead heading into the locker room.

The Power’s next game is Monday, March 28th versus the Milwaukee Mustangs (in Milwaukee) who are 0-2 on the season. They lost to the 2-0 Arizona Rattlers on Saturday.

Its almost spring and while some brain dead fans in Pittsburgh are dreaming of Pirates baseball, and another losing season, anyone with a brain is excited about the new Arena Football League team in Pittsburgh; the Pittsburgh Power. And yes, I have season tickets.

Last night the Power kicked off their season to a crowd of 13,904 at Consol Energy Center. Many of these people, it appeared based on the lines at the ticket window, were walkups who decided to buy tickets the day of the game. I’d love to give you stats, but the AFL has not updated their site as of this morning.

The game was back and forth all night with both teams driving up and down the field on each other. The Power however made several key mistakes. They dropped interceptions, they were unable to sack Justin Allgood (Philly’s QB) several times when they had him dead to rights and they allowed the Soul to intercept a pass off the end walls late in the game.

But in the waning moments of regulation, with the Power trailing 52-49, and after a dropped touchdown pass that would have put the Power up, Paul Edinger, formerly of the Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings tied the game up with a 35-yard field goal through the narrow AFL uprights.

The Power however self-destructed in OT. They were unable to get anything going and on fourth down an interception return for a touchdown capped the game. Bernard Morris, quarterback for the Power, watched as Philadelphia’s Mike Brown ran the ball in to end zone.

The crowd, which thinned out late as the Power were down, was loud and boisterous all night long cheering their new team on. Lots of people appear to be giving the Power a chance here in Pittsburgh. Which, considering the options (i.e. the Suckos who have a losing streak so long that if it were a person it would be old enough to legally have sex with) who can blame them?

Oh, but just one suggestion to the Power. It sounds really weird when the announcer comes on and talks about getting a “black Power” t-shirt. It would sound equally weird if he were to come across talking about a “white Power” t-shirt too. You guys might want to rethink that!

Had I known that prior to last night’s game at the Consol Energy Center that Tampa Bay had apparently been telling off-color “Yo Mamma” Jokes about the Penguins player mothers, insulted their wives and girl friends and, just for good measure, pissed in their Cheerios I probably could have predicted the ass whooping delivered by the Penguins unto the Lightning last night.  After all, who wouldn’t be upset after all that and take it out on the ice?

Ok, so none of that really happened, but believe me you, the thought about what the Lightning had done to cause the Penguins to show them no mercy last night crossed my mind just ten minutes into the first period with the score already 4-0.  In the end the Penguins would win 8-1 after a dominating performance against a team that is no slouch and leading the South East Division of the Eastern Conference.

Evgeni Malkin had a chance to do something very spectacular last evening as he scored right off the opening faceoff after intercepting an errant pass.  Tampa Bay won the draw but Malkin pushed forward and went in on goal uncontested.  He bobbled the puck and instead of scoring in an amazing five seconds had to settle for the ever so less amazing feat of scoring with just seven ticks of the clock gone.

It was an omen of bad things to come for Tampa Bay.

What followed was a clinic of scoring prowess even as the Penguins gave up a few chances in their own end.  After about eight shots on net or so the Penguins had galloped to a 4-0 lead with just 7:42 gone. Malkin (15), Conner (5), Kennedy (6) and Kunitz (11) lead that flurry but the team was not done.  To add insult to injury, Tampa Bay took a late penalty and Kunitz (12) added his second goal of the evening on the power play to set the score at 5-0 at the end of the period.

Letestu (9) added goal number six half way through the second and Kunitz (13) got his second career hat trick (his first with the Pens) with time running out and another power play being had for the Penguins.

Adam Hall (5) scored early in the third for the Lightning but Alex Goligoski (7) answered right back just a shade over a minute later to stretch the score to 8-1.  Pittsburgh tallied 41 shots on the night.  Tampa Bay had 32.

It wasn’t an easy time in net for Marc-Andre Fleury however as he needed to time and again make big and spectacular stops as the Lightning fought tooth and nail for a goal.  Meanwhile the Lightning played musical net minders all night.  Roloson started the game.  Then he was chased in favor of Ellis.  Then he was chased in favor of Roloson.  Then Roloson was again chased in favor of Ellis.

The win comes just days after the Penguins lost in the Winter Classic to the Washington Capitol on a rainy New Years Day night here in Pittsburgh.  And the Penguins looked like they wanted to reestablish themselves early in this matchup and show that that loss was more of a hiccup than anything else.

Today the Lightning are tending to their sores.  Hey, when you get screwed like the Penguins screwed them last night you are bound to have some sore spots.

Tonight the Penguins take on the Montreal Canadiens who are 21-16-3 and no slouch themselves.

Simon Despres has made his case to be the Pens No. 6 defenseman this season.  And the Pens have taken notice as no one else has stepped up to fill that role.  But are they going to be more interested in playing salary and contract games or fielding the best team possible come this Thursday when they christen the Consol Energy Center?

Reports are that the Penguins are giving Despres a hard look for the open day roster.  But those reports also say that his spot on the roster would be for a limited time as the Pens want to send him back to his Juniors team before he would trigger the NHL’s arbitration clock on his entry contract.  That would be a limited engagement of not more than 9 games if the Pens go this route.

Ok, I can understand the Pens not wanting to start the clock ticking on having to give this 19 year old a new contract but seriously the NHL is about winning not about playing contract games.  If Despres is good enough to win the No. 6 spot then he should be rewarded with that spot.  Sure, no one else has stepped up, but Despres is not going to be awarded the No. 6 spot because he is the best of some pretty bad options thus far.  He has played better than anyone could expect for a 19 year old defenseman and has earned the spot outright.

The Penguins should put him on the roster and put their faith in him.  If he proves incapable then you decided what to do with him afterwards.  However as of right now he is our best option.

Season ticket holders are in a cat bird seat this year with Pens tickets for the inaugural season of the Consol Energy Center in high demand.  Judging by the prices on TicketExchange season ticket holders looking for help paying off their packages are having no problem whatsoever demanding and getting twice face value for their tickets.

A cursory glance of what has sold in sections around me (201) shows that for games even in the middle of the week ticket holders are getting easily $100 a seat if they ask it.  Our seats in 201 are just a hair short of $50 so that is double full season ticket pack prices.  Of course, list price is nearly $65 a seat so for non full season ticket plan holders so it is not as big of a hit for fans trying desperately to get down to the new arena and see a game.

So if you want to go to a game where there are no tickets left and you really want to go you will have to open up your wallet to do so.  I am sure that there will be a lot of complaints from fans over this being the reality of the situation but if you don’t want to pay the secondary market prices then you can always shell out four grand plus for a set of tickets and do so up front.  Then you can hope that someone will want to buy the tickets to all the games you don’t want to or cannot go to.

This season for ticket holders it will be easy.  It is not that easy in most years though.

Ok, so it took me a week but here are the pics of the lower bowl area at the new Consol Energy Center. Hey, sometimes life happens in between posts!

The view from rink level at Consol Energy Center

Here is my 10 month old son Magnus working the glass.

Here’s a view of the lower bowl looking up from the glass.

My daughter got a good look at the new player’s benches:

Here is a look at how the players will enter the ice from behind the benches at the new Consol Energy Center:

And lastly, center ice from ice level:

Center Ice from Ice level at Consol Energy Center