I missed the first ten minutes and I turned on the TV to see Bill Guerin shoot a slapper just wide.
After awhile Fleury makes a huge save on Ville Peltonen. Sidney Crosby makes his presence known with a spinning backhand which was saved by Tomas Vokoun.
New Panther Steve Eminger is sent to the box for holding. Alex Goligoski, who is wearing the number 3 to give the number 13 to Bill Guerin, is playing Sergei Gonchar’s spot on the point. Bill Guerin is also on the top power play unit. Power play is still subpar and the Penguins can’t convert.
A Panther rang one off the goal post. The Panthers come into the Penguins zone with speed but Fleury makes some great saves.
Matt Cooke grabs the puck as he finishes a check, passes to Jordan Staal who shoots a hard wrister at the net. Vokoun makes the save.
Pascal Dupuis is called for hooking. Fortunately, the Panthers power play is looking worse than the Penguins. Fleury only has to make one save, and it’s a beauty. A few seconds are left in the penalty to carry over into the next period.
The Penguins kill off the last couple seconds of the penalty.
Evgeni Malkin takes the puck off a Panther’s stick and whips it toward Fedotenko but he can’t connect. The Panthers go four on two but Hal Gill shuts down that play.
Right off the faceoff, Bill Guerin shoots the puck at Vokoun. Sidney Crosby’s stick is slashed in two by Gregory Campbell and Campbell goes to the box. Second power play of the night for the Penguins but they can’t convert. Petr Sykora, with 13 power play goals on the season, is only on the ice for about 25 seconds of that power play.
Craig Adams does a good job protecting the puck along the boards and then goes to the net to screen for Kris Letang who almost gets one in but Vokoun was in perfect position.
Marc-Andre Fleury has been spectacular so far tonight. Chris Kunitz shoots and Letang is right in front of the net with Orpik in behind the play. The blueliners are really getting into the action tonight.
Max Talbot blocks a shot and goes to the bench: it’s either his stomach or his hand.
Ruslan Fedotenko feeds Petr Sykora but Sykora fanned on the shot.
Cory Stillman runs over Kris Letang in the corner. Orpik plasters Stillman behind the net and Malkin hits him after the whistle but the ref doesn’t see that hit. Letang takes a long time to get up and his teammates have to help him to the bench. Stillman gets two minutes for charging.
The power play is even worse than the first two. Sykora somehow misses the net and then Radek Dvorak rushes into the zone, gets around Malkin and everyone thinks he has the shorthanded goal, but Fleury says no. Incredible save. Fleury makes some more great saves.
This is turning into a battle of goaltenders. Vokoun and Fleury are both making good saves, but Fleury is making some unreal saves.
On a weird play, in which Letang wasn’t able to lift the forward’s stick enough, Radek Dvorak tips one in.
Before the announcers can announce Dvorak’s goal, Guerin makes a great pass to Sidney Crosby, who splits the defense and slips it past Tomas Vokoun. Guerin gets his 800th career point on that assist.
Fleury makes sure to save the next shot from Richard Zednik to end the period.
FSN informs everyone that Sergei Gonchar and his wife have a new baby girl, Victoria. Congratulations.
Fedotenko had a good shot, but Vokoun makes a glove save.
Tyler Kennedy shoots and scores off a centering pass from Matt Cooke along the boards. Nathan Horton beats Fleury but it goes off the post.
Kris Letang fakes the shot. Campbell goes down to block it and Letang goes around him and shoots it over Vokoun’s shoulder. And just like that, the Penguins are up 3-1.
Mark Eaton is blocking everything, left, right, and down the middle. What he isn’t blocking, Fleury is.
There is back and forth fast play. Nothing too exciting happening except that Fleury is making amazing saves. Malkin speeds in all by himself but the defenseman breaks his shooting lane.
Petr Sykora is called for holding but the power kill keeps clearing it. Brooks Orpik takes a puck to the face, and heads off down the runway with a towel on his mouth. Penalty is killed.
Jordan Staal makes a great read on the play and gets the puck out of the zone.
Evgeni Malkin and Tyler Kennedy go in on a 2-on-1. Malkin feeds Kennedy who shoots and scores.
Ville Peltonen trips up Evgeni Malkin and goes to the box for it and the Penguins are on the power play once again. They are 0 for 3 tonight.
The team is trying to get Kennedy the hat trick. He almost scored on a feed from Staal but Vokoun was there.
Penguins win.
They are now tied with Florida who has a game in hand. So, they share the 7th spot with the New York Rangers.
THOUGHTS:
--Tyler Kennedy was unreal. He's on a hot streak.
--Marc-Andre Fleury kept the team in the game while it was scoreless and stood on his head to save some really great scoring chances by the Panthers for the rest of the game
--Sidney Crosby answered with the incredible tying goal 24 seconds after the first goal
--Alex Goligoski was fast and dangerous tonight. Nice.
--Bill Guerin was great: 800th career point and Craig Adams was gritty, going in to get the puck and protecting it once he got it.
--Every Penguin registered at least a shot tonight.
Capitals on Sunday.
Do it.
LET'S GO PENS!
