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.

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.

Things looked bleak for a second straight game as the Penguins had another chance to close out their first round series against Ottawa after staking out a three games to one lead. After leading in game five on Thursday the Senators tied up the game and won in three over times to force a game six behind Leclair who replaced Elliott as their starting goal tender. Leclair and a plethora of blocked shots were the only reasons the Penguins did not win that game.

Game six looked bad as well for the Penguins as Leclair found ways to keep the Penguins out of the net. Even when he didn’t and with the help of on ice and league officials. With the Senators up 1-0 at 7:20 of the first period Mike Rupp pushed a puck to the net which was called no goal by on ice officials even with Leclair clearly in the net. Replays showed clearly that the puck was also in the net and well behind the goal line. However even league officials in Toronto refused to call it a good goal which just goes to show you that even instant replay cannot correct people unwilling to see the truth. Later in the game the officials would also call off a good goal scored after Malkin was tripped up into the goal tender claiming he interfered with Leclair’s ability to play the puck. Remarkably however there was no penalty on Malkin showing that the refs really knew that they blew the call.

The bad call on the Rupp goal swung momentum away from a surging Penguins team and by midway through the second Ottawa had expanded their lead to 3-0.

But the Penguins began to answer and Marc-Andre Fluery began to lock down the Senators and hold the fort in a manner reminiscent of last year’s series against Philadelphia. Pittsburgh was also down 3-0 in a deciding game in that series too before storming back to win.  Matt Cooke scored at 10:56 of the second to cut the lead to 3-1. Then at 7:03 of the third Billy Guerin fired a shot into the net from the circle as Leclair was playing without his goalie stick. Matt Cooke scored his second of the game at 12:24 of the third to tie it all up and Ottawa looked like they were just getting beat all over by a better team.

As time wound down and this game also headed to overtime there was no doubt that both teams hope for less than the previous three over time affair. And with up and down action it did not. There were saves at both ends made but it was Pascal Dupuis that beat Leclair for the winning goal less than half way through the extra period after being set up by Jordan Staal who brought the puck out from behind the Ottawa net.

The victory means a chance at either Buffalo or Boston in the second round and a couple of days to rest and heal after a hard fought series.

Notes:

The Penguins top line was pretty much neutralized in game six.  Crosby, Guerin and Kunitz were a combined -8 and Guerin’s PP goal was their only point.

The Senators tried to play it safe with a 3-1 lead in the third and learned that you don’t win games against Pittsburgh that way.  The Penguins out shot Ottawa 18-4 in the third and out scored the Senators 2-0.

It looks to be a stormy night in the ‘Burgh with thunderstorms rolling through the area.  And with the temperature dropping Pens fans are wondering if there will be a chance of Fleurys as in Marc-Andre Fleury playing they way all Pens fans know he can rather than the way he has been playing as of late.

In Wednesday’s night loss to the Senators Fleury was not on his game.  He let in four goals that he should have stopped or at least had a better chance of stopping than he did.  Without their star goal tender bringing his A-game the Penguins are going to be behind the eight ball and will have a good chance of falling behind 0-2 in the series.

Malkin and Crosby could not have been asked to do more in game one combining for several goals and assists.  Now with injuries mounting on the Senators bench and Ottawa’s third line not likely to produce at the same level again two nights in a row the Penguins will have to find a way to get a victory on home ice before heading north for the next game.

Mike Rupp will be in the lineup tonight after sitting out game one according to reports.  Rumors are that he will replace Ruslan Fedotenko in the lineup after Feds had a sub-par first game.  If you ask me he should probably be replacing Ponikarovsky who has not played at all up to expectations since joining the team at the trade deadline.

We will have to see how it all shakes out.

To say Marc-Andre Fleury had some rust when returning to between the pipes for Thursday night’s game against the Rangers would be an understatement. He was so corroded and full of holes that an anemic New York offense chased him from the net. Fleury faced only twelve total shots in 32:49 of action and allowed four goals.

Out came the hook and in came Johnson with the Penguins down 4-2 despite an offense that was completely smothering the Blue Shirts. Mike Rupp (12) answered the bell and brought the game to within one and Alex Goligoski (7) tied the game midway through the third as the Penguins clamped down on New York allowing just four shots in the remaining period and a half of regulation.

Then in overtime it was Evgeni Malkin (22) who scored with a 4-3 advantage after a Wade Redden hooking call. Game over. Guins win.

Fleury was obviously frustrated by his performance, refusing to even remove his mask as he sat on the bench for the rest of the second period. I don’t know if he was wearing his gold medal around his neck still and if that was the problem or not but for certain it was not a good performance from the Penguins starting netminder. The offense peppered the Rangers net for 55 total shots in what should never have even been a close game.

Newly acquired Penguins defenseman Jordan Leopold was even with two shots and 21:11 of total ice time. Bill Guerin was a late scratch.

The win vaulted the Penguins (38-22-4, 80 pts) over the idle New Jersey Devils into first place in the Atlantic Division by a single point and into second place in the Eastern Conference. The Devils have two games in hand however.

Saturday is a showdown with the Western Conference’s Dallas Stars and will mark the debut of rent-a-winger Alex Ponikorovsky for the Penguins who could not play against the Rangers due to visa problems. Ponikorovsky is in the last year of his current contract and comes to the Penguins from Toronto as a perennial 20+ goal scorer who looks to be placed on a line with Malkin and Fedotenko. He will probably command too much money for the Penguins to resign next year with all the cap implications that would be involved but I think he is a good addition to the team. Although I am not certain that long term it was a good move to trade away Luca Caputi who was looking ready to be a permanent NHL fixture and good goal scorer in exchange for a slight upgrade to a team that is already built have a good shot at winning another Championship.

The Philadelphia Flyers are living up to expectations of many, myself included, that paid attention to how they built their team for this season. A floundering team that has lost a coach, the Flyers are in disarray without leadership and lacking too much in the talent department and are obviously living in denial. This isn’t the 1970’s and the whole Broad Street Bullies act doesn’t cut it today’s NHL.

Last night at the Igloo, the Flyers played a brand of amateurish hockey the likes of which has not been seen since the movie Slap Shot. After falling behind 1-0 on a Sidney Crosby (dare I say it?) power play goal, his 21st goal of the season, at just 3:30 of the first it was time for the goons to come out of their shells. First Arron Asham got a beat down from Mike Rupp. While both were still warming their seats in the sin bin, six seconds late off the ensuing face off Riley Cote tangled with Eric Goddard and could not do anything decisive in the scrap. Then, ten seconds after that Carcillo and Adams went for a dance. At the end of it all, and with the Flyers having successfully taken the Penguins entire fourth line to the penalty box, all the Flyers had to show for this childish display was nothing.

The penalty boxes overflowing, Bill Guerin (8) scored to put the Penguins up 2-0. The shot from Sidney Crosby squirted through Boucher’s pads and was laying behind him in the crease and Guerin just scooped it up and placed it into the cage with the blade of his stick.

The only sign of life that the Flyers exhibited was a goal midway through the first by Carcillo on the power play. The nail in the coffin however was delivered by Jordan Staal (9) who scored short handed three minutes later.

Staal added his second goal of the night (10th of the season) with 15 seconds left in the second beating Boucher with a wrist shot.

Ruslan Fedotenko (6) got out a shovel and finished burying Philadelphia with a third period goal at 12:17 and Evgeni Maklin (10) laid the wreath at 18:39 with a short handed goal.

Marc-Andre Fleury earned the win despite appearing shaky at several key moments during last night’s game and not having played in nearly a week. He ended the night stopping 26 of 27 shots and made some big saves as the Penguins improved to 23-10-1 (47 pts) and back into first place in the Atlantic ahead of New Jersey although the Devils have three games in hand.

Philadelphia fell to 15-16-1 and will host the Penguins Thursday night before the Penguins head off to Buffalo and then return home to host New Jersey.

Notes:

Scott Hartnell didn’t bit anyone during last night’s game.

The Penguins are 4-1-1 so far in December.

Despite their attempts to be tough guys, the Flyers at best netted only a draw in three fights last night while clearly loosing two of them. Oh and they got their rears kicked when they actually tried to play hockey too.

Judging by the way they are playing, the Flyers are trying to see if they can get a second coach fired before 2009 comes to a close.