It was a night of back and forth hockey as the Penguins finally found ways to score goals, partially thanks to the return of Evgeni Malkin who had missed two weeks resting and injury. But as the Penguins scored so did the Boston Bruins. Until late it was the Penguins that would go up on the scoreboard and then force the Bruins to answer. At 17:31 of the third it was Marco Sturm that gave Boston their first lead of the night 5-4.

Brent Johnson started in net for the Penguins. Why, I don’t really know. Perhaps it was just to shake up the team which had struggled mightily the past few games with large portions of its Stanley Cup championship team out of the lineup with a variety of injuries. While he has played well this season, it still baffles me.  But the start of Johnson proved a mix blessing at best for every time the Penguins scored he seemed to allow a soft goal or a goal that was a result of him misreading a pretty obvious play. On Boston’s first goal, for example, with a Bruin (Krejci) set up behind the net, both defensemen moved to take the man with the puck. Numbers has been something that the Penguins have lacked when going for pucks and on this play they decided to overwhelm, and neutralize the puck carrier. Johnson saw this, yet he still seemed more concerned with the man behind the net rather than Blake Wheeler moving to the opposite post. Johnson looked like he was expecting a wrap around out to his right from the man behind the net (who was completely neutralized) and he got beat by the man coming to his left. It was a pretty bad play.

However, Johnson also made some spectacular, if not frantic saves throughout the game. It was a love hate relationship I had with him all night long as I sat in my seats in section D-7 and watched.  He finished with 28 saves on 33 shots.

Yes, all looked lost as the clock ran down in the third as the Penguins, with their goal tender pulled and down a goal could not seem to get anything going and were trapped in their own end. Then with the clock at 0:10 there was signs of life. A stick broke on the Bruins side and Sidney Crosby passed up to Malkin who gained the Bruins zone. The clock ticked to 0:04. Then Malkin found Billy Guerin racing down the far side of the ice and as the clock wound to 0:02, Guerin let loose a shot that beat Tim Thomas with just 0:00.4 left on the clock.

The crowd errupted in cheers thankful that the Bruins had missed several shots at the open net. Malkin and Crosby played side by side most of the night and while they had been productive from the opening puck drop, there was no doubt as the clock wound to 0:00 and the third period came to a close tied at 5-5 that the two headed monster was indeed alive, well and very, very hungry.

Malkin in his return finished with 3 assists and a +3. Crosby finished with 1 goal, 2 assists and a +3. But the hero of the game? That would be Pascal Dupuis who, in overtime, took a feed from behind the Bruins net from Jordan Staal who raced for a loose puck and caught Tim Thomas flat footed at the side of the cage. The puck squirted free to Dupuis who shuffled the puck into the empty net for the 6-5 win.

The Penguins spread the love last night getting goals from five different players including two defensively minded defensement. The goal scorers for Pittsburgh were Jay McKee (1), Pascal Dupuis (4, 5), Sidney Crosby (10), Mark Eaton (2) and Bill Guerin (4).

The win stops the Penguins four game skid and boosts their record to 13-7-0 (26 pts) ahead of Monday nights game against the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.

Despite squandering four power play chances in the first period and falling behind the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, the Penguins found a way to win on the West Coast. Something that has been more difficult for Pittsburgh than Eric Lindros taking to the ice and not getting a concussion. The underachieving Ducks (now just 4-7-2 this season) could not overcome the Penguins despite another pathetic performance with the man advantage that makes me wonder exactly what the coaching staff will have to do to wake up a bunch of guys who have plenty of talent but apparently not the desire to play on the ice when the other team is down a man.

The game seesawed back and forth with Anaheim’s Corey Perry (9) scoring early in the first, Pittsburgh’s Mike Rupp (4) scoring early in the second on a snap shot, the Kris Letang (1) finding the net midway through the period and finally Corey Perry (10) scoring again as the second period wound down.

Then in the third it was a fabulous flurry. That’s flurry, not Fleury, even though the Pen’s netminder performed well once again in the game stopping 26-29 shots he face. No, it was a flurry of goals that decided the game and then a save that sealed it.

At 7:55 of the third Alex Gologoski (6) put the Penguins up 3-2. Nineteen seconds later Saku Koivu (2) tied it up again. Fifty-nine seconds after that it was Pascal Dupuis (3) that put the Penguins up for good. With a few minutes remaining however it was Sidney Crosby who stacked his pads and stopped a Niedermayer shot that kept the Penguins on top.

The victory pushed the Penguins to a 7-0-0 road record this season and a 12-3-0 (24 pts) record overall at a time when they are missing key pieces to their lineup; Talbot Gonchar and Malkin. Tyler Kennedy returned to the lineup and tallied 2 assists.

The Penguins now have to travel to Los Angeles to battle the Kings and former Penguins Rob Scuderi on Thursday night.

How good John Tavares, the Islander’s 2009 first round pick, will be and how much he will help a team that has struggled in recent years despite trying to build a formidable team will not be known for some time. But there is no denying that the kid has talent and his hungry to prove himself as an NHL talent. With a goal and an assist in his debut, he will have to be watched.

But even with that performance it was Sidney Crosby and the Penguins that won on Saturday night, a day after the Penguins opened their season with a win against the Rangers and on a night that was the Islanders season opener. His Sidness opened the scoring at 8:50 of the first taking a bank pass off the board from Fedotenko and the other side of the ice to get behind the defense. Crosby cut into the offensive zone, behind the defense and opened up Islander goal tender Roloson for the 1-0 lead. The first period was a sloppy period for the Penguins however as they started taking too many uncharacteristic and down right bad penalties. After Brenden Witt put a clean open ice hit on Ruslan Fedotenko McKee and Malkin both got sent to the box and McKee’s penalty for instigating, a penalty the NHL has said they would enforce this year, was extremely painful as it gave the Islanders a 5-3 on which they scored to tie the game at 1-1.

In the second Tavares (1) scored to make the game 2-1. But in the third at 7:19 of the frame Mark Eaton (1) scored to not the score at 2. Less than half a minute later however, the Islanders Trent Hunter (1) put the home team back on top. It wasn’t until less than four minutes remained at 16:11 that Fedotenko (1) scored and the Penguins played hard down the stretch to force overtime.

After a scoreless 5:00 of OT the shootout sealed the deal for the Penguins with both of the first two lslander shooters missing high glove side on Fleury (something I have regularly pointed out in the past seemed to be his weakness) and both Letang and Crosby beating Roloson on the first two shots the Pens would take.

Fleury was spectacular again stopping 25 of 28 shots and making big saves by kicking out the pads and flashing leather when needed to stop what appeared to be primo scoring chances by the Isles. With a 2-0 mark to open the season the Penguins are off until Wednesday when they return home to host the Pheonix Coyotes.

After the Penguins clinched a playoff birth on Tuesday with their win over Tampa Bay, they could have just looked past the New York Islanders. But with playoff positioning still to be determined they did not. The game last night saw Mathieu Garon in net instead of Fluery and the return of Philippe Boucher to the lineup against the lowly Islanders.

Boucher was obviously overwhelmed in his first shift starting the game and quickly was replaced on the ice after several fumbles and missteps. The Penguins as a team played sloppy as well and took two penalties in the first five minutes which lead to an early 0-1 deficit for Pittsburgh. But Boucher and the Penguins stormed back. Boucher (3) scored off a rebound and, crashing the net late in the first to tie the game and the team never looked back as they rattled off five more unanswered goals from Dupuis (12), Cooke (13), Guerin (21), Crosby (33) and lastly Misterrrrrrrrrrr Kennnnneddyyyyyyyyyyy (15) to end the scoring.

The win keeps the Penguins with an outside chance at home ice advantage in the playoffs however, for that to happen Carolina must lose their final game against New Jersey (a possibility) and Philadelphia must do no better than split their remaining games against the Islanders and Rangers (also possible). But the Penguins must also win Saturday against the Canadiens which would give them, if this scenario plays out, two more points than Carolina, and the either the same or two more points than Philadelphia with the Penguins holding the head to head tie-breaker.

Regardless, the Penguins have the 6th seed locked up and can drop no further. All that is left to be determined is who they will face in round one and where.

The Penguins dominated the injury riddled Dallas Stars Sunday 4-1 in a road win that pushed the Penguins back into the playoff race. Dallas, hurt much like the Penguins had been from December through mid February, were not even much of a challenge as they continue to sink in the West. Dallas was coming off a blown chance for two points yesterday where they fell down to the Mighty Duck early then stormed back to take a lead and then lose in the end.

Pittsburgh and Dallas are heading in opposite directions as the Penguins picked up two points to move into 8th place in the East. The fight for the bottom five spots in the East is more jammed than the Parkway East during rush hour and the Penguins will need to keep the pedal to the metal as Philadelphia, Montreal, the Rangers, Florida, Buffalo and Carolina are all within seven points of each other.

Pittsburgh beat Dallas with goals from Staal (17), Letang (6), Satan (17) and Malkin (29). Malkin also got two assists as well. The win moves the Penguins record to 32-26-6 (70 pts) and precariously into eighth place in the East. The Penguins will continue their current road trip Tuesday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning who have given the Penguins fits this year.

I think the answer to that question I asked in the title is a tried and true quote. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

I couldn’t even comment after the Penguins blew a sure win in New Jersey on January 30th because if I did I might have said something I would later regret. The next night, watching the defense and backup netminder Mathieu Garon cost the Penguins a victory I was even more furious. Then watching the team’s absolutely pathetic performance against Montreal on February 3rd I was ready to hurl something large through my nice flat screen television and uttered how my seventeen month old daughter understood the fundamentals of hockey better than the Penguins appeared to.

Then last night, for 40 minutes I watched a Penguins team that seemed to have just completely given up after first falling behind 1-0. Then they fell down 2-0. And finally it was 3-0. Against the Tampa Bay Lightning who are boasting a roster full of Pittsburgh Penguin rejects nonetheless!

But I will tell you what gave me hope that maybe, just maybe, this team might be ready to do something other than stink up the joint. Evgeni Malkin, who after last night’s game makes me believe that he might be more worthy of the Captain’s C than someone else currently wearing it, took the team on his back. He had some help from other players, but the third period was his period just like that third period against Detroit all those games ago was Jordan Staal’s.

This time it was Malkin’s turn to stand up apparently in the locker room and, down 3-0, proclaim to the team that everything was ok because he had the Lightning right where he wanted them.

2:25 into the third Malkin (23) scored to cut the score to 3-1. But it was not until 14:06, with time running down that the rest of the team chipped in as Mark Eaton (2) scored to trim the score to 3-2. Malkin was on the ice for that goal although he did not figure into it. Then it was Sykora (20) on the power play from Malkin that tied the game up at 16:31 to send the game to overtime.

In that frame it was Jordan Staal and Geno that worked hard 4 on 4 to get the puck out of the corner into the net. Malkin (24) had the game winner with 0:16 remaining.

The defense came around too after a terrible first period where they allowed 14 shots to allow only 5 in the second, 3 in the third and just two in the overtime.

The problem is Malkin cannot do this every night. The team needs to respond without being forced to do something by arguably the team’s best player. The team needs to come out and be a professional hockey team, finish checks, putting pucks on net and doing all the little things they are paid to do from the opening drop to the final horn. And I do not honestly know that I have seen that sort of professionalism and determination in this team yet or ever will this season.

Sure they won. But they beat Tampa Bay. A team that is worse than the Pens are right now. Many of the teams ahead of them in the standings have games in hand on Pittsburgh and that just makes the chances of another Stanley Cup Playoff appearance that much more remote with a team that is winning at only a 40% clip since the All-Star Break.

Some people say that things will get better once Gonchar gets on the ice for a game. I say if Gonchar is all this team needs to start winning then that doesn’t say very much about the caliber of this team that one man can turn them into a winner from a looser. They had better start winning before Gonchar’s return to prove they are worth having another shot at the big prize.