Before tonight, the Penguins had gone 30 straight games without having a game decided by shootout.
James Neal and Evgeni Malkin hardly seemed to miss a beat.
Malkin scored as the lead man in the shootout, James Neal netted the game winner and Marc-Andre Fleury stoned Eric Staal to clinch the Penguins’ third straight win in what has become a month of resurgence for Pittsburgh.
Staal, who has had a tough first half to the 2011-2012 campaign, attempted to backhand a shot past Fleury who managed to stretch out his left toe to make the save. A crowd of 18,535 erupted in front of their hometown team as the Penguins reached their third win of 2012 after starting the year 0-4.
The Carolina Hurricanes took the lead on Jamie McBain’s 4th goal of the year 2:11 into the first period. Jussi Jokinen’s pass was intended for Alexei Ponikarovsky but went out of the former Penguin’s reach and landed on Mcbain’s stick. Mcbain fired a wrist shot past the stick side of Marc-Andre Fleury and the ‘Canes were on the board. It was Mcbain’s 4th goal and 7th point in 9 career games against the Penguins.
Cam Ward, who was excellent in his last start against the Penguins on November 12th, stopped 40 shots en route to earning the third star of the game. The one shot he failed to stop, was against a player who has made him the unfortunate co-star to his highlight film.
Evgeni Malkin stole a bouncing puck from Eric Staal and fired a nearly impossible shot over the glove hand of the former Conn Smythe winner. The improbable goal resembled a similar goal Malkin had scored in the 2009 playoffs. It was Malkin’s third straight game with a goal to put him into a temporary tie with NHL points leader Herik Sedin.
Malkin, for lack of a better term, dominated.
In fact, the Penguins’ first line of Kunitz-Malkin-Neal dominated as they totaled 16 shots. Malkin’s chances were thwarted by Ward but he seemed to dictate play for most of the game. With the game in overtime, Malkin dove in front of a slapshot to deflect the puck over the Penguins’ cage; a play that was improbable in seasons past.
That may have been forgotten given some of the previous events that unfolded during the course of the game. Brooks Orpik, who was already seen as Carolina’s public enemy number one for his hit on Erik Cole in February of 2008, flattened an outstretched Jeff Skinner who was playing in his second game since missing significant time with a concussion. Skinner laid on the ice for a few seconds before being helped off by trainers as Orpik went to the penalty box for interfernce. This hit will likely be viewed by the league, especially if Skinner misses more time.
With under 30 seconds remaining in the game, Jussi Jokinen had a wide open chance in front of Fleury who stopped the rising shot with the skinny end of his stick.
It was the closest the Hurricanes would come to winning the game.
Malkin skated slowly towards Cam Ward in the shootout and slid a backhander under the stick of the goaltender to give Pittsburgh the 1-0 advantage. Jokinen scored on the following attempt as he lifted a backhand past the glove hand of Fleury. After Kunitz and Skinner were stopped, James Neal snapped a shot past Cam Ward to put Pittsburgh back on top. Fleury stopped Staal desperately using his left pad leading to the Penguins first shootout win since their 3-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings in November.
Photo courtesy of cfnews13.com
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