SLBD

After going down 3-1 Sidney Crosby’s 2nd Period Hattrick powers the Penguins back who hold on to the 5-4 win.  The Penguins move into a points tie with Buffalo for 3rd in the East at 71.  It was a great reversal of the 12/29 Buffalo comeback. Crosby now leads the league in goals at 37.

Jay McKee was a late scratch and as such Martin Skoula skated in his place.  Despite the pregame confirmation from the Penguins that Brent Johnson would go, Marc-Andre Fleury got the nod tonight which makes sense heading into this weekend playing 2 games in under 24 hours.  The Pens put the pedal down quickly 47 seconds in a Mark Letestu put home a pass from Tyler Kennedy on a 3 on 1 that developed on Pittsburgh’s second rush. Kris Letang with the secondary assist.

Nick Johnson would go to the box for holding on a Paul Gaustad dive.  Immediately off of that Jordan Staal would get a shorthanded 2 on 1 with Matt Cooke but fail to score.  Derek Roy would put in a Powerplay goal with 2 seconds left in that advantage from Drew Stafford and Steve Montador with 14:28 to play in the frame.  Sergei Gonchar was terribly out of position on the play and Flower made a bad read or lost the puck in feet.  Way to soft of a goal.

Buffalo would come right back 48 seconds later and get another one from Thomas Vanek.  It was a bad neutral ice turnover that Buffalo just transition really well off of.  Sloppy care of the puck from the Penguins burned them.  Roy and Henrik Tallinder with the assists.  2-1 Sabres.  The Penguins yet again score in the first five minutes ans seemed to exhale and the got stomped on quickly.

Pittsburgh would not find good defense the rest of the period.  They would have to kill an Interference call on Ruslan Fedotenko around the mid point when Stafford and Vanek broke on a 2 on 1.  The Penguins offensive transition continued to rely on the up pass to the center red line and invariably when it was not there Buffalo countered right back to offense.  Ryan Miller was vulnerable all period leaving big rebounds that Pittsburgh just could not get back on net.  TK and Staal both had strong periods.  Of note was that Staal for the second straight game was centering the 2nd line with Evgeni Malkin on his win and Letestu was in between TK and Cookie on the 3.  Geno also seemed to have trouble handling the puck.  Much of the team did and it showed in their inability to sustain offense.

The 2nd period would belong to Sidney Crosby who put in his 3rd hattie of the season

First of all there were Twitter problems to start the frame for the first 5 minutes, so my apologies for the delay in updates during the opening few.  Hope would sink quickly after Bill Guerin went to the box 5 minutes in.  The Pens would kill it but Tim Kennedy would score on a nice tic-tac-toe play from Mike Grier and Clarke MacArthur immediately following the kill. 3-1

Buffalo finally took their first call at the 10 minute mark and Sidney Crosby made them pay on a bad angle shot following an Alex Goligoski fake shoot to pass on the Powerplay.  Geno extended his points streak to 8 with the other assist and there was life 3-2 after looking lethargic for the first 8 minutes.

Miller would give up a very leaky goal four minutes later as Geno and Jordan drove the zone.  Staal got out of his slump on the goal, his first in 13 games, and made it 3-3 with about 6 minutes to go.  Pascal Dupuis would get the other assist.  The Penguins weren’t done.  With 2:30 to go on a bad play between Calder candidate Tyler Myers and Miller, Crosby put in a wacky goal to make it even.  It came off of Miller’s right side and Sid just slid it by Miller.  Pens up 4-3.  No assists on the play.

Crosby would complete the in-period bag hattrick on a wicked drive to the net to the net.  He had Letang with him but was shooting the whole way and blew it by Miller.  Yes it was yet another giveaway night at the igloo.  Miller would stay in net and the period would end with that score.  Crosby’s 3rd hattie on the season.  The Penguins just completed a comeback on the Sabres very similar to what they did to us up 3-0 on December 29th.  Pens go to the locker room up 2 with the 5-3 lead.    Four unanswered for the Penguins.

Staal got his 1st in 13 games. Good to see him off the schnied.

Ryan Miller would try to sneak in a trip on Sid right in the crease in the first two minutes and get nailed for it, but the Pens wouldn’t do anything with the PP.  Play would be back and forth for almost the entire period with the Penguins playing decent defensive hockey and the Sabres taking some chances trying to force the offense.  Things really wouldn’t pick back up until late.

Sergei Gonchar took an obvious trip with 3;33 to go.  Jason Pominville would score from Tim Connolly and Vanek when the Pens thought the had it cleared and were headed to the bench.  Vanek fed Pominville for the one timer and all of the sudden it got really interesting with 3 minutes to play.  In a classic case of the referees wanted to make it exciting they called a phantom holding call on Brooks Orpik just under a minute later.  There was NOTHING there.  Orpik was pushing off with his free hand but never held, it wasn’t even close.  It effectively put the Sabres on the PP for the rest of the game.

The Penguins would be up to it despite tremendous pressure from the Sabres.  Fleury stood tall and made 3 game savers in the final 90 seconds.  Pens win 5-4 in a comeback on Sid’s hattrick.

• Stall breaks 13 goal drought
• Malkin on 8 game point streak
• Crosby’s 3rd hattie of the season but still looking for assist 300
• Geno or Sid have figured in on 21 of last 22 Pens goals.
• Stars:  3.) Vanek 2.) Letang 1.) Crosby
• Pens now tied with Buffalo at 71 points but the Sabres have 3 games in hand.
• Crosby now has the NHL lead in goals with 37, tied with Patrick Marleau

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