Thursday, March 11, 2010
Nicole Tracey
Tonight the Pens matched up with the Carolina Hurricanes. The first time the Pens and Pens fans were seeing Eric Staal with the C. Tyler Kennedy would be warming the bench along with Jay McKee tonight with the rumors of an injury looming around TK.
The beginning of the first period looked amazing, Jordan Staal opened up the scoring for the Pens with a nice rising shot over the Canes’ goal tender Justin Peters and from the sounds of the all the Pens fans, it sounded like a home game. A penalty led to the Pens second goal, a not stopping in front of the net pressure play, paid off for Billy G. 2-0 Pens. But as fast as the Pens scored, the Canes scored even fast . Before we knew it it was a tied game and it seemed as if the Pens were know on their heels. A PPG and even strength from Ray Whitney and Zach Boychuk tied up the game for the Canes. Geno gets a golden opportunity to put the Pens up 3-2 with a wide open net but couldn’t get a clear shot. The first period ended with the Pens up in the shot department 9-6.
The second period opens with the Pens on the PK. Even though the Pens kill it. Eric Staal answers Jordan with a goal of his own to put the Canes up 3-2. At this point the Canes have scored 3 unanswered goals. Sid gets on his high horse with a beautiful 40 second shift with the first line. The newly pieced together third line feeds off that 40 second shift and Matt Cooke scores to tie the game at 3. The first line continues to put in great shift with the Captain playing out of his mind. Unfortunately Robot takes an interference penaly and about 20 seconds later Gonchar takes a delay of game penalty. The Canes now have a 1:40 on the 5-on-3 and that’s where our elite PK takes over. The Pens did not allow to get any shots on the 5-on-3 or the 20 seconds left on the 5-4. The Pens looked to take a huge momentum swing going in to the third period.
Pascal Dupuis showing off his skills with a golden chance on an open net. Eric Cole goes on a breakaway but BeeJ shuts him down. Chris Kunitz goes on a mad man rampage throwing everything at the net, hitting the post on a beautiful scoring chance. Pens get the opportunity to go ahead with a PP. The PP looked very good but no dice. Geno rings one off the post to end the third period.
Overtime ...BLAH
Pothier wins it for the Canes.
THE GOOD AND THE BAD
The Good
Pascal Dupuis - Dupes has been showing us his best hockey and he proved it even more tonight. Any line his was on tonight he was contributing. It’s great o have a guy like Dupes getting into his game with playoffs just around the corner
Fore Checking- the fore checking was unreal tonight. Sid, Dupes, J. Staal all giving their best fore checking show.
Matt Cooke - Cookie obviously wasn’t phased with his name being plastered everywhere with a goal and his usual physical play.
PK- the Pens PK has been outstanding, killing off a lengthy 5-on-3 tonight
The Bad
Defense- not confident at all tonight, that has to change immediately
Losing - the game after the Pens pretty much dominated all three periods.
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