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.

This really should come as no surprise seeing as how Malkin was supposed to sit out two weeks to rest an injury that wasn’t really bothering him. Now those two weeks are up and he will be back in the lineup Saturday against Boston to try and help the Stanley Cup Champion Penguins recover some of their early season mojo.

With the rash of injuries the Penguins have, the latest being Brooks Orpik, you certainly cannot blame the Penguins for wanting him back in the lineup.

Two separate sources with the Penguins have confirmed to me that Malkin will indeed be back in the lineup tomorrow night.

Well, it didn’t take the Red Wings long to commit to playing Pavel Datsyuk when the Stanley Cup Finals return to Detroit for Game 5 Saturday night. When asked about Datsyuk’s status for Game 5, Coach Mike Babcock responded simply, “He’ll play.”

Datsyuk brings a whole other dimension to the Red Wings that the Penguins will have to match up against. Certainly, with Pavel in the lineup it will relieve some of the duress Zetterberg has been under trying to skate with Sidney Crosby.

Time for the Penguins to evolve and deal with it. Because if Datsyuk is full strength, the Penguins will have to worry.

Rumors of the seriousness of Sergei Gonchar’s injury may have been greatly exaggerated. Lots of rumors began circulating last night by people supposedly “in the know.” And none of them were any good.

My sources however were telling me that while yes, Gonchar was indeed injured seriously enough to not return and was not being held out as a precautionary measure, the injury was not as serious as some were stating. Rumors I heard from people obviously without any sources at all ranged from a hairline fracture of the leg to a shattered kneecap and all were claiming he was done for the season. However with Gonchar being a game time decision all those rumor mongers appear to be wildly wrong. Either that or this a great piece of subversion by the Penguins to keep the Capitals guessing.

It was bound to happen. Honestly it was. The Penguins, despite any thoughts by the Washington Capitals, their fans and the media, have consistently outplayed the Capitials in this best of seven series. Yet despite that fact, the Penguins returned to Pittsburgh down 0-2 in the series. Varlamov, Washington’s rookie net minder, was the only reason for that.

However, after another dominating effort on Wednesday the Penguins followed up with yet another last night seeming to finally have solved the riddle of Varlamov and putting five pucks behind him to win Game 4 of the best of seven series 5-3. Just like every other game so far, it could have been much, much worse. Only Varlamov stopped it from being a slaughter – again.

Marc-Andre Fleury again allowed a goal on the first shot he faced barely a minute into the game. It was a soft goal and one he should have never allowed. But with the team scoring first loosing every game of the series so far, perhaps it was all part of the plan. Sergei Gonchar (2) opened the flood gates by ripping a power play goal through Varlamov at just 3:55 of the first to tie the game up. Gonchar would later be hurt on another one of Ovechkin’s famous head hunting missions later in the game and would not return. The exact status of Gonchar’s injury is still unknown but it looks like his status for Game 5 tonight is doubtful.

Capital’s fans will never admit it but Ovechkin has a history of taking runs at players in vulnerable situations. He has done it repeatedly to Crosby, although that stopped after Crosby jumped out of the way of a couple causing Ovechkin to slam into the boards hard and he has done it repeatedly to Malkin prior to this season. But again, Malkin has toughened up and Ovechkin has learned that headhunting Geno is not a safe bet any more. Ovechkin will never get a suspension for his antics because the NHL does not want to force a marquee player out of an important game in an important series no matter how justified it would be to do so.

Bill Guerin (3) and Fedotenko (3) also added goals in the first to send the Capitals into the intermission down 3-1. Clark (1) would get the Capitals back to within one late in the second period but Crosby (9) made the lead two again early in the third.

Two minutes late the refs put their whistles away. While on the power play, the Penguins were in their own end and an obvious bit of interference on Kris Letang went uncalled. The Capitals then scored short handed to make it 5-4. However it was Talbot (2) that iced the game late in the third beating Varlamov for the Penguins fifth goal.

Fleury made 19 saves with a few goal saving stops to help anchor the victory.

The two teams turn around and head to Washington for Game 5 tonight with the series now a best of three games. The Penguins need a win on Washington’s ice and if they don’t get one tonight, Game six on Monday night in Pittsburgh will be do or die.

If you have been wondering what the prognosis for Mike Zignomanis is and when he will return to the Pens lineup, wonder no more. Zigomanis underwent rotator-cuff surgery Saturday and will be four to six months meaning he is done for the year.

So no more Mr. Automatic in the face off circle this year.