Despite on ice officials making a terrible call on Kris Letang, ejecting him from the game for a phantom headshot that never happened, the Penguins beat the New York Islanders 3-2 in OT. The Letang penalty which was called on a clean shoulder to shoulder hit against the Islanders Blake Comeau came with Pittsburgh leading the game 2-0 in the second. The game turned and New York eventually tied the contest at 2-2. The Penguins have announced that they will appeal the penalty.

Pittsburgh played a lackluster game in the first period. In second period it was Mike Rupp (1) who gave the Penguins a lead 4:07 into the period. Tangradi (1) scored his first at 6:57 to extend the lead and the Penguins looked to have figured out that playing hard in front of the opponents net and actually shooting the puck would result in goals. But the Letang penalty derailed the Pens for a while.

Josh Bailey (2) scored during the five minute major which was cut to a three minute man advantage thanks to him jumping on Letang after the phantom penalty. He had to serve two minutes for that before jumping back on the ice to score. Radek Martinek (1) scored less than two minutes later to tie the game.

The game remained that way until overtime. Milan Jurcina of the Islanders took a hooking penalty 52 seconds in and it was Alex Goligoski (3) who ended it with a wrist shot.

Johnson, starting in goal in place of Fleury who struggled in Wednesday’s loss to the Maple Leafs, stopped 22 shots. He looked solid most of the game. He improved his record to 2-0 and is the only Penguins goalie to win a game yet this season. But before the Fleury bashers get on this train, realize that both those wins have come against teams beat up due to injuries. The Islanders were missing key players last night and New Jersey only skated with 15 (instead of 18) players due to salary cap issues.

The Penguins are now 2-3-0 on the season with 4 points. They play today at 6:00 PM against the Philadelphia Flyers who won the inaugural game at the Consol Energy Center 3-2.

Two days after the Flyers Scott Hartnell was so desperate to know what winning a championship tastes like that he bit Penguins Defenseman Kris Letang in the waning moments of a game in which the Penguins matched the beefed up Flyers rough and tumble style, the Penguins were looking down the barrel of the gun again. Last night the Penguins entered the Great Goonish North to square off against the beefed up, ready to kick your teeth in Toronto Maple Leafs and the result was the same – the Penguins won and the goon squad lost.

The Penguins are proving that they can play teams any way they want to play as they extended their season record to 4-1 while getting scoring Cooke (1), Gonchar (1), Crosby (3,4) and Jordan Staal (2). Staal once again playing on Malkin’s line is giving Coach Bylsma plenty to think about as the young center could have a monster year playing in that coveted role if he remains there all year. Craig Adams once again proved that he could take Staal’s place on the third line by turning in another strong performance.

Despite several fights which did little to spark the Maple Leafs or their fans it was really just an exhibition being put on by the Penguins all night with the Pens superstars dangling with the puck in the offensive zone, Brooks Orpik passing out free candy as if Halloween had already arrived and Marc-Andre Fluery stopping pucks 18 of 20 times to backstop the Pens to victory.

Final score 5 -2 … now the Penguins take a short trip across Canada to prepare to play the Ottawa Senators on Monday night. Toronto remains winless on the young season at 0-4-1 and the fans were obviously restless during last night’s contest as they mock cheered Toskala a couple times for easy saves and rarely cheered loudly even after Toronto players attempted to switch momentum with fights.