Pens lose to Columbus 4-3 (SO)
Jonathan Farzalo | Pittsburgh Penguins
Mar 12, 09:08 PM | Hype this story!
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| Summary |
| After a perfect road trip (5-0) and a successful single
game at home the Penguins took to the road one more time against
Columbus before returning to the Mellon Arena for a long home stand.
The Pens came out of the gate flying, playing their usual up-tempo aggressive
style that they have adopted under Dan Bylsma, but the extremely defensive
style of play by the Blue Jackets ended up thwarting their offensive,
and even potted a goal by Kristian Huselius to lead 1-0 after
one. The period wasn’t without it’s opportunities for
Pittsburgh, Pascal Dupuis for one had a glorious chance to net a goal
but missed a wide open cage on a one-time play. He hadn’t scored
yet the calendar year 2009. The Penguins played a pretty weak 2nd period except for the amazing save Marc-Andre Fleury made on R.J. Umberger at about the halfway point, however he later made up for his amazing save by poorly playing the puck behind his cage, as Fleury tends to do, and then Jason Williams put a soft backhander behind him for a 2-0 lead. Up to this point the Penguins played a very poor game, minus the first few minutes of the first; slow, penalty ridden (though the calls were at times pretty bad), and simply uninspired. The 3rd period didn’t start with a kind word for the Penguins either, with the Blue Jackets making it 3-0 on a shot from the point after a Sergei Gonchar giveaway. At about the 8 minute mark into the period the Pens had a brief 2-man advantage but failed to convert. However…then the gates opened…the seas parted, and the Penguins mounted a comeback….just as they did the previous game. They did net a goal on the back penalty of the 2-man advantage, to make it 3-1. Not minutes later Pascal Dupuis put home a garbage goal (negating the ‘no goals in 2009’ from earlier) when Evgeni Malkin stole the puck from behind the Columbus net and stuck it out front for Dupuis to poke it home. Then off an icing call Crosby did his job along the wall, Malkin took the puck behind the net and snuck it back out in front…..Max Talbot chopped it home to tie it up at 3. The Penguins continued to pour it on, bringing it, looking like the team that has won 7 straight, and gone 9-1-1 in the last 11 games. With less then 15 seconds to go Fleury made a game saving stop on Michael Peca out in front. The overtime period had it’s set of chances for the Penguins; Kris Letang was robbed of a game winning goal, and the Pens didn’t allow a single shot by the Blue Jackets in overtime. The teams headed to the shootout where the Penguins lost 1-0 for a final of 4-3, but earning a point when trailing by 3 in the 3rd period is something that can not be overlooked. |
| Three Stars | ||||
| # | Player | Team | Pos. | Stats |
| 1 | Kristian Huselius | COL | W | 1 Goal |
| 2 | Antonie Vermette | COL | C | 1 Goal, 1 Assist |
| 3 | Evgeni Malkin | PIT | C | 2 Assists |
| Stat Line | |||||||||
| Shots | Faceoffs | Power Plays | |||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | OT | Total | Won | Lost | Convert | Total | |
| Penguins | 10 | 9 | 19 | 3 | 41 | 29 | 33 | 1 | 4 |
| Blue Jackets | 10 | 14 | 4 | 0 | 28 | 33 | 29 | 0 | 6 |
| Scoring Summary | |||||
| Per. | Time | Team | Goal | Assist 1 | Assist 2 |
| 1 | 8:42 | COL | Kristian Huselius | Tyutin | Klesla |
| 2 | 16:59 | COL | Jason Williams | Vermette | |
| 3 | 1:03 8:33 9:53 11:58 |
COL PIT PIT PIT |
Antonie Vermette Chris Kunitz Pascal Dupuis Max Talbot |
Williams Gonchar Malkin Malkin |
- Crosby – Crosby |
| OT | - | - | - | - | - |
| Penalty Summary | ||||
| Per. | Time | Team | Player | Penalty |
| 1 | 7:25 7:50 13:44 18:40 |
COL PIT PIT PIT |
Boll Kunitz Orpik Talbot |
Puck over glass – 2 min High stick – 2 min Hooking – 2 min Roughing – 2 min |
| 2 | 3:25 17:25 |
PIT PIT |
Cooke Letang |
Interference – 2 min Roughing – 2 min |
| 3 | 2:06 3:53 6:01 7:41 |
COL PIT COL COL |
Commodore Malkin Klesla Tyutin |
Holding – 2 min Inter. Goalie – 2 min Slashing – 2 min Tripping – 2 min |
| OT | - | - | ||
Comments
Luke
Mar 12, 10:25 PM
how does mason not get a star? he was clearly a #1 star lol oh well
Jonathan Farzalo
Mar 12, 10:45 PM
He WAS until he let in 3 in like 5 minutes….we were in danger of being shutout #10 for him this year, then the onslaught came!
Eric
Mar 12, 10:46 PM
At the Jackets’ third goal, I wrote the game off as a win that was going to break up a winning streak and put pressure on the team to bounce back and get back on the right track on Saturday. Mason was just showing no signs of weakness. I thought it was game over.
Boy was I wrong. But in the same way, I think the Penguins got a jump start on what I was hoping happen if they were to lose 3-0. They just ended up doing it tonight, instead of waiting to bounce back on Saturday. That’s a commendable trait for any team to have. Especially a team with a new coach and one who is starting to find their identity during the playoff stretch.
Tonight is probably my perfect example of a “good loss.” It brought the Penguins back down to earth a little bit. But it also showed that the team can still comeback when the odds are stacked against them so late in a game. I think it will also add to the character of this team in the next few weeks.
Plus, they picked up a valuable point when most other teams in the race were shutout.
TIM
Mar 12, 10:53 PM
What are the chances of a team playing 3 games straight that end with the same score and finishes in a shoot out?
Jonathan Farzalo
Mar 12, 10:54 PM
@ Eric – agreed. A “good loss”...
bag o' pucks
Mar 13, 12:02 AM
Fleury is odd sometimes. Gives up a softie then makes a world-beating save on the next shot. If someone had que’d up the scoring chances Columbus had in this game, one video snippet at a time and stopped the tape just before each eventual outcome, I probably would have guessed that Columbus would have scored three times. But none of the three chances I’d guessed would have been correct.
DaBich
Mar 13, 05:31 AM
Tim, I hadn’t noticed that, that’s wild.
Pucks, Fleury has been like that since his first season.
What a great effort in the comeback, I wrote them off as well.
Let’s turn it around at home again. Tough work this weekend.
Zack Dawson
Mar 13, 09:06 AM
The key to making this a “good loss” is how they respond Saturday. It’s important when you go on a long winning streak to also know how to recover from a loss. I think this team knows that they put forth a monster effort in the game last night and got rewarded with a point. They have to maintain the intensity. A great effort on Saturday will show that they learn the lesson of losing well.
Nate
Mar 13, 09:25 AM
For the longest time I was on the Coach T bandwagon, and for as good as the man was at getting the team to the SCFs last year, if he was still coach, they lose last nights game. IHCDB has this team playing inspired hockey right now. Hell, I even turned the TV to catch CSI last night after it went 3-0, I chalked it up as a bump in the road. Well “shame on me for six weeks”. I really think this team is back as a contender, a month ago I wouldn’t have said that, even though I never gave up on the team making the playoffs. Three points behind Philly, here they come!
scruff
Mar 13, 09:32 AM
malkin running over mason…game changer.
bag o' pucks
Mar 13, 10:31 AM
Dab, all goalies have plenty of moments like that, really. We just watch so much more of Fleury than any other club & netminder that both his good and bad points are more familiar to us.
Happens to all of them.
DaBich
Mar 13, 05:00 PM
Pucks, sure they do, but Fleury seems to have a knack for letting in too many softies and making spectacular saves that take my breath away! Love him anyway :)
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