The Colorado Avalanche are still hanging on to their status as a surprise team in the West based on their tremendous start. However their performance as of late has been anything but spectacular as they came into the Igloo last night for a match against the Penguins who have defied ordinary (Ugh I hate that slogan) and injury to remain one of the league’s elite teams this season.
Despite an early lead thanks to a power play opportunity, in the end Colorado was no match for the Penguins despite a good game plan of close checking that they maintained through the first 40 minutes of play. After that however the Pens took control.
After the Avalanche took the lead in the first the Penguins answered back in the closing second of the period, once again playing to the whistle, and scored to tied the game with just 0:07 left. The goal by Sidney Cosby was his 18th of the season and was assisted by none other than Michael Rupp, one of the hottest players on the Penguins right now. The goal resulted from a 2-1 break after a turn over at the Penguins blue line. Closing in on goal Crosby passed the puck to Rupp who dished the puck right back to Sid as Budaj followed the puck and moved to block Rupp from shooting.
The Pens out shot the Avalanche 14-6 in the period.
The second was a tight checking affair with Colorado outshooting the Pens 9-5 but the third was all Pens as they notched three goals on 14 shots compared to no goals on just one shot for the Avalanche.
Guerin (7) scored on the power play, a rare feat for this team, to give the Penguins a 2-1 lead and just as a 5-3 had expired. But the game was not decided until a pair of empty net goals late from Jordan Staal (7) and Sidney Crosby (19) sealed the deal. On the Crosby goal, Malkin passed to Staal who could have easily taken the shot, but he passed the puck over to Sid who put the puck in the cage.
In all Fleury stopped 15 of 16 shots and played well considering how he sometimes has poor performances when facing relatively few shots.
The Penguins with the win are now 20-9-0 and keeping pace with the Washington Capitals in the East for first place. Both teams have 40 points but the Caps have one fewer game although three fewer wins. Coming up this weekend the Pens will host the Chicago Blackhawks – now with extra Hossa!
Notes:
No Penguin was a negative last night in the plus minus column.
The Penguins are as of last night one of only two teams in the NHL to have not lost a game in overtime/shootout. The only other team with such a distinction is the Vancouver Canucks.
Pittsburgh’s 20 wins is tops in the league.
Pittsburgh’s power play is still terrible clicking at just 14.4% or third worst in the league.
Despite Sidney Crosby getting better in the face off dot this season, the Penguins are still not better than 50-50 as a team (49.5% to be exact or 17th out of 30 teams) meaning that Malkin, Staal and others are not carrying their own weight in this regard.