Cardiac Pens do it again

The Buffalo Sabres looked to be in control midway through the third period. They had played a systematic brand of hockey all night long, permitting only a powerplay goal to the incomparable Evgeni Malkin.

Buffalo's go-to guys, Jason Pominville and Thomas Vanek, had scored one goal apeice to give Buffalo a 2-1 lead. Vanek's goal came on the powerplay, a beauty that saw Clarke MacArthur feed him with a cross crease pass that Marc-Andre Fleury had no possible method of defense against.

Henrik Tallinder's tripping minor at 10:30 of the third period opened the door, giving Pittsburgh a golden opportunity to tie the game, a chance the Pens were not about to squander.

Malkin, now the NHL's scoring leader with 30 points, got a pass at center point from fellow superstar Sidney Crosby before sending the puck directly back to #87. In turn, Crosby sent a beautiful one touch pass across the zone to a streaking Alex Goligoski, who beat Ryan Miller glove side with a wicked wrister to even the contest.

Sabres forward Derek Roy found himself with a breakaway off of a lobbed puck just moments later, but Marc-Andre Fleury was on his game to make the stop.

Minutes later, the Penguins took the lead when Tyler Kennedy won a race to the puck in the corner, and passed the puck to Matt Cooke behind Miller's net. Cooke then dished the biscuit to the white hot Jordan Staal in front of the net, and Staal made no mistake to make it 3-2. That third line of Cooke-Staal-Kennedy has been just fantastic in recent weeks.

Malkin again worked his magic soon after. Petr Sykora sent Malkin a breakout pass at his own blueline and Malkin took off with the puck running. After entering the Buffalo zone, Malkin kept eye contact with Miller the whole way, distracting the Sabres' goaltender. Then, with all eyes on Malkin's primary trailer, Petr Sykora, Malkin sent the puck through Buffalo defenseman Jaroslav Spacek's legs right to the tape of Ruslan Fedotenko, who buried it past Miller to seal the deal.

Jordan Staal officially closed it out with an empty netter from Malkin and Sykora with 24 second left. It was Staal's 7th goal of the year, further confirming that he is back and better than ever.

Notes-

• Matt Cooke is quintiple the hockey player of Jakko Ruutu.
• Some of Cooke's hits tonight were simply devastating.
• Ryan Miller is a tremendously inconsistent goalie.
• Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby are the best two players in the world.
• Marc-Andre Fleury bounced back nicely from a few rough games in the last week.
• Alex Goligoski is clutch. What an awesome offensive defenseman. Young Coffey, anyone?
  
• Mark Eaton is our worst defenseman. Bench him, and put in the proven Sydor.
• 11-4-2 for 24 points--Not too shabby.
  

GO PENS!