Pens Rake The Leafs In Preseason Play

In front of a crowd of 15, 731 at Mellon Arena tonight, the Pittsburgh Penguins moved to 2-1 on the season with a solid victory over a team they were expected to beat, the Toronto Maple Leafs. The final score was 3-2.

Sidney Crosby didn't play for the Pens, due to a sore groin.
Word on the street is that some girl pulled it last night.

Sergei Gonchar was also out, only his injury is much more serious.
He has a dislocated shoulder, and is out indefinitely. This is a huge loss, but the Pens, as they showed tonight, are capable of winning without him...

The Pens got to young Toronto netminder Justin Pogge early, scoring two relatively fluky goals in the early going of the game.

Petr Sykora opened the scoring when his pass, intended for Jordan Staal, caromed into the net off of Maple Leaf Anton Stralman's stick. It was Sykora's third goal in two games this preseason, and a power play goal.

Newly acquired Ruslan Fedotenko put up an insurance tally a few minutes later, again on the power play. "Fedex" attempted to pass to Kris Letang cutting to the goal, but once again, Anton Stralman made it easier on the Penguins, deflected the puck into his own net....again.

The Pens, and Stralman, were not done yet.

Early in the second period, on a Toronto power play, Stralman tried to pull an escape move to the boards on Geno Malkin, only to lose an edge, and turn the puck over to #71 in black. Malkin took the puck in on Pogge, and dished it to Staal, who went right back to Malkin for the easiest goal of Evgeni's life, a tap in.

Dany Sabourin was strong in goal all the way through, holding a shutout until the final 5 minutes when Toronto's Alex Ponikarovsky and Mikhail Grabvoski scored meaningless goals for the Leafs.

The final score was 3-2 Penguins, but it was a dominating performance by the black and gold.

Notes-
-Alex Goligoski is an awful fighter, but should be a good short term replacement for Gonchar.
-Dany Sabourin willl be just fine as the backup goalie this year.
-Brooks Orpik has blossomed into an adequate top pairing defenseman.
-Kris Letang is so versatile, and so talented. He'll have a great year.
-Jordan Staal is going to be a beast this year at the second line left wing spot.
-Petr Sykora still has that goal scoring touch of his, and will be good for 30 goals this year.
-Miroslav Satan is a monster. A great combination of skill and size.
-Evgeni Malkin has shaken off his Stanley Cup slump, and will score 50 goals this year.

-The Toronto Maple Leafs will win no more than 22 games this year.

Go Pens.