Thomas Vokoun backstopped the Florida Panthers for two perfect periods and Steven Reinprecht scored two goals for his team as the Penguins found themselves down 2-0 heading into the third. Brent Johnson let in one so-so goal and one soft goal in the first but played strong for most of the night finding ways to keep Florida from making the deficit worse.

It was in the second period that Pittsburgh started to turn things around. But Vokoun was up to the task stopping all 14 shots by the Pens in that frame.

Then came the third period and who stepped up? None other than Sidney Crosby. Just 2:14 in and on a power play Sid found the back of the net as Vokoun was not able to move as fast as the cross ice pass. Then a little later Sid thought he had his second goal, but a review showed that the play was a hand pass to Bill Guerin and it was waved off.

That’s ok, because Sid was not to be denied. With the Penguins down a man it was both Malkin and Crosby on the ice together to kill the penalty. Malkin raced down the rink with the puck, looped behind the goal and fed Sid in front who buried it to tie the game.

After a scoreless overtime it was Sid that scored the only goal in the shootout to give the Penguins the comeback win. The victory pushes the Penguins record to 9-1-0 (18 pts) and keeps them atop the East and the Atlantic wit the season still young. Tonight they hit the ice again to host the New Jersey Devils (5-3-0).

Martin Skoula played well (+1) in his first live game action of the season filling in for the injured Sergei Gonchar.

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.

With the Penguins certain to loose a few player to free agency including at least one or two or three scoring wingers in the group of Sykora, Guerin, Fedotenko and Satan, the Penguins might look like a potentially weaker team next season. Of course the free agent market works both ways and I really think that while the Penguins will look at who is available and at what price I think that Guerin and Fedotenko are priorities to resign. And if Sykora and Satan are given their exit interviews, that frees up some dollars to resign those previously mentioned and highly targeted wingers.

But let us not forget about someone in the minors who I still think has a world of potential at the NHL level – Finnish winger Janne Pesonen. Pesonen came into the Pittsburgh system after tearing up the hockey world in Europe and feeling he had nothing left to prove there. He signed for peanuts which is pretty good considering he did not play all that much for Pittsburgh’s NHL franchise. He appeared in just seven games and failed to register a point while seeing limited ice time.

I was personally disappointed that the team never really gave him a chance this year to get his legs under him and play regularly with some real talent. But his production in Wilkes-Barre was impressive scoring 32 goals and registering 50 assists in 70 games for the Baby Pens. Now that, my friends, is impressive. I do not care who you are, if you register 82 points in the AHL you have NHL talent.

Pesonen will be an unrestricted free agent this summer but the good news is he has said that he would like to resign with the Penguins to help realize his dream of playing regularly in the NHL. Even better, Ray Shero seems intent on seriously attempting to make sure that Pesonen returns to the Penguins system. And who know, with a couple openings sure to arise for wingers over the summer, he may just get to do to the NHL what he did in the minors and Europe.

Just three days after winning their third Stanley Cup, and denying Marion Hossa his perceived better shot at winning it in Detroit, the team took to the streets today and were met by the cheers of hundreds of thousands of fans. Official estimates have the total attendance somewhere between 375,000 and 400,000 fans, people in attendance claim many many more with fans hanging out of parking garages to cheer on the victors.

Of course some of us have to work and keep this country going so we could not attend but I did make sure to wear my Brooks Orpik power blue jersey while on my motorcycle today to show my support. Yahoo has an entire slide show of AP pics from the event here.

The Penguins players will have some time to enjoy their summer with each member of the team getting their traditional day with the cup. Just keep it away from any swimming pools guys.

Ok, I just got myself out of bed after a night of sound sleep resting easy knowing that the Stanley Cup was heading back here to Pittsburgh. Now that my head has cleared I am ready to give my thoughts about not just Game 7 but also the entire Stanley Cup Finals and playoffs.

• “That’s life” – Yes, it certainly is isn’t it Mr. Hossa. When asked about how it felt loosing the cup again after bolting from the Penguins to the team he felt had a better chance at securing Hockey’s ultimate prize this is what he had to say about it. Karma sucks huh?
• Hockey is an odd sport. Sure Penguins booed the Hossa every chance we had after he spurned the Penguins for Detroit, but we respect him because we know how good of a player he is. It was like when Jagr left the team. He was booed constantly on the ice but when they showed video highlights of him and tributes to his successes even while he was on the visiting team we cheered him … then we went right back to booing him. We all wish Hossa success in the future … just not against the Penguins.
• Hossa not only did not get the Stanley Cup he so desperately wanted, but he was for all intents and purposes a complete non-factor in the Finals. You think Pittsburgh Fans were hard on him? Wait until Detroit gets through tearing him a new @**hole. He won’t be able to get out of Detroit fast enough.
• Who would have thought that Maxime Talbot would be this year’s Fedotenko and score both the Penguins goals in the final game? And who would have thought that Mad Max would be the series leader in goals with four?
• During the Penguin’s first Stanley Cup run in 1990-1991 Frank Pietrangelo made what became known as “The Save” subbing for the legendary Tom Barrasso in Game 6 of the first round against New Jersey and robbed Petr Stastny of an easy goal. This year I think we have The Save II and The Save III and The Save IV. The Save II was when Fleury robbed Ovechkin in Game 7 of the second round in Washington to suck the air out of the Capitals. The Save III was by Rob Scudderi in Game 6 as he prevented the tying goal with Fleury out of position in the final moments. The Save IV was Fleury leaping like superman from the far post with the final two seconds ticking away, lept into the air to stop an elevated puck shot by Lindstrom and saving the game from going into extra frames.
• No Crosby? No Problem. Sidney Crosby was knocked out of the game for all intents and purposes by a fairly clean check by Johan Franzen. It was a tense moment for the Penguins as Crosby would return to play only one shift in the third. But the team rallied and played hard even if they did D-up too much in the third and gave Detroit far too many opportunities.
• 6:07 – that’s when I started to get really worried after Fluery let in another soft goal to allow the Wings to cut the lead to in half and be within one.
• Thank God for the posts. The posts were in play all series long. Early on in the series the Penguins were the victims of every bad bounce off of them. In Game 7, late, it was the crossbar that made one of the biggest saves against the Red Wings to keep me from being even more anxious than I already was.
• Penguins evolved when they needed to in this series. The Red Wings made it clear that they were not going to allow the Penguins to play their brand of up and down the ice high octane hockey. So they adapted, turned into a checking monster and hit like most Pens fans have never seen before.

My Three Stars of the Game:

3rd star: The crossbar

Hey, it made a great save in the waining moments!

2nd star: Max Talbot

With the only two goals of the game Max unquestionably deserves this honor.

1st star: Marc-Andre Fleury

I don’t care what you say, despite the vast amount of improvement Fleury still needs to make in the coming years (he needs to get much better handling the puck and with his glove hand on the high side) Fleury blossomed and saved this series with performances in Games 6 and 7 that make him worthy of the 1st star.

Series MVP:

I’m giving this honor to our two best goal tenders – Fleury and Scuderi. Without Fleury’s glove and without Scuderi sacrificing his body constantly, the Penguins would never have won this series.

Player I am happiest for:

Bill Guerin. I love this guy. He plays hockey the way it should be played and was a great addition to this team at the trade deadline.

What I hope for most:

Well, other than another Stanley Cup, I hope the Penguins and many of the pieces of this team can come to agreeable terms to keep the Champs mostly in tact moving forward. Scuderi, Fedotenko and Guerin are all free agents and are key parts to this team. They are not irreplaceable and I have not seen a list of free agents yet, but keeping all of them would be a boost. But Scuderi put on a clinic in the playoffs and will have teams falling all over themselves to sign him. I hope that Fed and Billy will decide to stay on for next year. Miro Satan and Petr Sykora are also players I would like to see come back, but honestly I do not see the Penguins paying Miro the kind of money they currently are to play on the fourth line – a role I think he blossomed at this year once put into it.

And just for good measure I want to say it once more …

THE STANLEY CUP CHAMPION PITTSBURGH PENGUINS!

Game 7 could not have played out any better for the NHL; a close game that came down to the wire between two excellent teams. But I will not lie to you that I am ecstatic that the Penguins came out on top after a wild run to beat the Detroit Red Wings and FINISH what they could not complete last year.

Talbot was the hero for the Penguins in game 7 scoring both goals for the Penguins but Marc-Andre Fleury has got to be the MVP of the entire series because despite some soft goals and missteps he stood tall when need be.

I’m too excited right now and still on an adrenaline rush to much more than to say it sounds so right to say.

STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS PITTSBURGH PENGUINS!

WOOOOOOOOOO!