The battle is on NBC. The Pens are wearing their blue third jerseys. Drury is called for hooking less than three minutes into play. Sykie missed a nice feed from Geno. A number of great scoring chances but Lundqvist denies them all. Just crazy. Tanger blocked a potentially bad scoring chance as Fleury was behind the net to play the puck and a Ranger grabbed it. A huge amount of shots on Fleury but he plays them well. BizNasty gets a great hard hit on Rozsival. Then Jordan Staal goes down the middle all on his own…almost looked like a SO…tried to go five-hole but Lundqvist stopped it. Just then, Chris MInard buries it. Second goal in the NHL. Can we get a woo? WOO! Crucial first goal. Fourth line=on the board. Geno fed one to Cookie but the Monster ended up in the net instead of the biscuit. Fleury made a great save on Naslund. Then Lundqvist answered with a great save on Sid. The Pens are creating a lot of chances and their puck movement is awesome. The defense is playing well, too. Sykie fires one from the top of the crease but Lundqvist denies him. Godard hits the ice to block a shot, and then Hal Gill is high-sticked in the face but no call is made. He skates to the bench to be looked over by the medical staff. Then Miro feeds one to Kennedy and he tickles the twine. Nice. Lundqvist takes a five-finger discount on a great shot by Geno. Flower makes the best save of his life on Naslund…okay, maybe not, but it was ridiculous. Gill keeps the puck behind the net until the buzzer sounds. Solid period.
The Penguins begin this period by drawing another penalty. Marc Staal gets call for high-sticking. Sid weaves his way through three Rangers and is tripped up, ending up in the net. He gets a penalty shot, but Lundqvist denies him. Geno goes hard to the net but Lundqvist again denies him. The Penguins do not score on their advantage. Tk takes a sweet shot that went off the post. The skating is solid, the defense is incredible, the Rangers are sloppy. MAF makes a series of fantastic saves on Dawes and Drury. Scott Gomez is called for hooking and the Pens go on the PP again. Ryan Whitney feeds one ahead to Sykie who blasts one past Lundqvist on the stick side. Play is stopped as Tanger high-sticks a high-puck deflection from Flower. The crowd chants “LET’S GO PENS!”. Godard and Colton Orr stop and exchange words. Orr looks like he’s ready to go, he even almost drops the gloves. But Godard makes the right choice as his team is up by three and he doesn’t want NY to gain any momentum. Boucher is called for interference and the Penguins give NY an advantage for the first time this game. The Pens clear the puck and Geno plasters Zherdev behind the Rangers net. Flower saved a one-timer with ease. Penalty killed. Geno hit another Ranger along the boards. He’s upped his physicality this game and the fans are loving it. Sid and Orr take some shots at each other. Sykie and Cookie get in on the action too. 4-on-4 hockey as Sid and Orr go to the box. A minute into the penalty, Zherdev gives Geno a weak hit. Geno returns that with a monster take down. Staalsy and Geno both go after Zherdev and need to be restrained by the refs. Geno is sent to the box for cross-checking. 4-on-3 now. This game is AWESOME. The Rangers thought they had one but Flower makes a fantastic save. Penalty killed. Godard and Gomez exchange words and BizNasty exchanges stick-hits with Rozival as the period ends. Both pairs must be kept apart by the refs.
The third period begins with the smell of victory in the air. Flower denies Marc Staal and Scott Gomez. DJ plays the puck well in the Rangers’ zone and then MAF makes a crazy save on Betts. Orr is chatting up BizNasty, trying to gain some energy again. Blair Betts is called for interfering with Thomas. Pens on the PP again. They are 1/3 on the PP so far this game. They don’t capitalize on their advantage. The Rangers tried for some pretty plays in the Pens zone but Flower is playing so well that he knocked all those away. The top line goes rushing into NY’s zone but the linesmen call it off sides…it definitely on sides. I don’t know what they were looking at. MAF is just amazing this game as he makes a save on Dawes…and then Girardi. Unfortunately, Lundqvist then denied TK and Staalsy. Lauri Korpikoski is called for hooking. In other news, what kind of name is Korpikoski?! NBC shows a replay of Dubinsky’s hit on Staalsy. He skated back over to the bench slowly and was talking to the medical staff. NOT ANOTHER INJURY! MAF makes some more saves. About 5 Penguins crowd around Lundqvist and try to pound it in but no dice from Lundqvist. Fleury goes behind the net to play the puck and checks Dubinsky. HAHAHAHA! This is awesome! At the announcement of one minute left, the fans in the Igloo stand up and swing around their Terrible Towels. This was the BEST GAME EVER! MAF’s second shutout this season. Wow. Wow. Wow. First star of the game, Marc-Andre Fleury, skates out on the ice with a Steeler’s helmet and waving a Terrible Towel which may have been the awesomest moment of the game.
Canes on Tuesday.
Do it.
LET'S GO PENS!
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