Heather Wampler-OVathletics.com
The Penguins took on the Dallas Stars Saturday afternoon. Right winger Billy Guerin is missing his second game.
Defensemen Eric Godard and Jay McKee are also out of the lineup. Penguins newly acquired left winger Alexei Ponikarovsky made his Pens debut. He came to us with 19 goals and 22 assists in 61 games. Not bad stats at all. They returned home hoping to stretch their winning streak to three games. Thankfully they did.
The Pens wasted no time getting the game started. Ten out of the past twelve games the Pens have started the scoring. Penguins’ center Jordan Staal is on fire lately. Left winger Matt Cooke passed the puck to Staal as he split Dallas’ defense. Despite being tripped by Dallas defenseman Karlis Skrastins he was able to wrist the puck in for his 18th goal of the season. Sergei Gonchar received the second assist.
The Pens were given their first power play at 6:52 when Stars defenseman Nicklas Grossman was sent off to the sin for holding. Unfortunately they were able to hold off the Pens two headed monster. The Stars were able to tie up the game at 12:05 when center Mike Ribeiro was able to create a shot for himself when he went for his own rebound and backhanded the puck into an empty net. Brandon Segal and Stephane Robidas were given the assists. Unfortunately not even a minute later at 12:40 the Stars were on their first power play. Thankfully the Pens penalty killers showed up for the game. Both teams spent the rest of the period fighting for the puck. Somehow at 18:05 Penguins’ center Max Talbot is tripped but is given an interference penalty. How does that one work? The Pens outshot the Stars 10-8.
The Stars started off by dominating the second period. They took the lead at 1:29 when right winger Brandon Segal and Ribeiro get a two-on-one. Segal is able to wrist the puck in right past Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury. I’m not too sure what’s been Fleury’s problem lately but I really hope he gets out of this funk. The Stars turned around
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