Finally! Pens take out the "trash"

MAF freezes the puck right off the bat and then Geno misses a nice opportunity in the middle. Lehtonen makes a save on TK. Then Colby Armstrong and Ruslan Fedotenko drop the gloves. Army has no chance to get any hits in before Fedo lands two right in his face and he goes down. Total domination.
Fedo is shown stretching his right hand and he goes off down the runway. I speculate about a broken hand. We learn later that he will not return to the game. Max Talbot makes a nice pass to Eric Godard who goes hard to the net. Eaton takes his third shot on net right now. Wow. Sid unintentionally high-sticks Valabik in the face and he hits the ice with his hand to his face. Sid gets a double high-sticking minor. Whitters takes it up the middle on a shorthanded 2-on-1 with Geno, but he was unable to pass and the opportunity was missed. MAF denies Kovalchuk then Armstrong. Penguins kill the four-minute penalty. Army takes Sid down in a tussle that results in Sid with no helmet and Army with 2 minutes for holding. Penguins are now on the PP. No PPG. Maxie slaps at the puck near the goal, but misses it and it went back to the Pens zone. FSN shows their quote of the game, a humorous one from healthy scratch defenseman, Hal Gill. He says, “If we score more goals than Atlanta then I’m pretty sure we’ll win.” Gotta love him. Penguins go on another 2-on-1, but Sykie and Geno cannot connect. Dustin Jeffery goes for his second NHL goal but is denied by Lehtonen. TK fires a nice pass from Duper at the net but it hits the post. Havelid is called for tripping. Pens on the PP: here we go again. Wait: Sykie gets a PPG with a great pass from Whitter. Staalsy had another good opportunity on a wrister but just missed it. After a flurry of activity in front of the Penguins’ net, Fleury making some great saves, the defense clears it. Fleury’s stick somehow ends up behind the net. Geno runs over Army. Welcome back to the Burgh, Colby. :]

Nice puck movement, but nothing too exciting to start the second period. The Penguins are running on great momentum until Geno knocks the net off its supports. MAF makes a save on Valabik. An incredible amount of back and forth but after last period, this one is much less exciting. Staalsy, Cookie and Jeffery along with the defense on the points are cycling the puck really well. Satan, as usual is underwhelming the whole game so far. Geno wastes a pass on Satan…he should have passed to Sykie. Fleury makes a sweet glove save. Geno gave Sykie a nice feed and Sykie shoots in a backhander. We find out now that Duper is out and will not return. Havelid in the sin bin for hooking. Geno and Sid are both upended but no calls. Lehtonen robs Sid but then Geno gets a PPG. Wait, Sid tipped it in. Sid’s 16th goal. Geno’s third assist of the night. MAF blocks a doozy by Kovalchuk. Orpik takes Boulton down in the middle of the Pens zone. Then, Maxie goes by himself but he’s taken down. So exciting. MAF made his best save on Havelid. With seconds left, Jeffery, Maxie and Godard go on a 3-on-1 but time expires just before they take a shot.

The first couple minutes aren’t very interesting, yet again, except that Flower makes some stupendous saves. Godard tries to instigate a fight with Valabik, but the 6’7” baby, retreats to the Thrashers bench. Slater whips the puck at the net but Flower makes a nice pad save. MAF robs White on a centering pass from Armstrong. Sid grabs the puck off the stick of a Thrasher in the Pens zone, goes up the middle, passes to Staal then stands in front of the net. Staalsy feeds it back to him but Lehtonen makes a lucky save. Enstrom ends up in the net and stops play. Sid had the puck and could have made a nice shot but tried to pass to Staal who wasn’t there in time. A bench minor is called on Atlanta. Valabik sits out on the unsportsmanlike conduct on Atlanta’s coach. Pens on the PP. They are 2/3 on the PP tonight. Satan draws a penalty as he goes down behind the net. Todd White goes to the penalty box for holding. 5-on-3 for 23 seconds. Geno lets loose a hell of a slapper from the top of the zone, but Lehtonen just saves it. Whitters goes to the sin bin for slashing. Thrashers kill the 5-on-3 and get an abbreviated PP. Cookie sets Maxie up but he just misses it. Kovalchuk wrists one in from the blue line. Flower just made the biggest save of the night as he deflects a shot from Jason Williams. Letang is called for hooking. Pens kill this penalty and they’re as good as gold. Maxie dives to get it out and kills the remainder of Tanger’s penalty. Jeffery speeds down the ice with Kennedy and Staal. Kennedy tries to get it in the five-hole but Lehtonen makes the save. TK gets into a scrum behind the net but nothing comes of that. Maxie and Army exchange some words but the refs step in and nothing happens between them. Empty net for the Thrashers. Kozlov cross-checked Geno and the Pens are on the PP with 47 seconds to go. Pens win! It’s about time!

Thoughts:
--Sykie with two goals. Oh yeah. Kaitlyn said the H-word...she jinxed it.
--Geno with 3 assists. HECK YES!
--Fedo vs. Army...out of this world.
--Maxie: no goal tonight but a crazy amount of opportunities.
--Confidence. It's the key that unlocked this game.