Someone finally told the Pens that there was a third period in these games, and it really paid off. It was a night of benchmarks for our superstars, all of which was witnessed in person by our good Friend of The Show Pensgirl. She shared her amazing photos with us, so almost all of the following photos are her pictures in the recap tonight. I only used 2 Getty shots of Sid's 100th goal because they are really sweet pictures - I'll mark them so you know which ones they are. (Stay tuned for Pensgirl's amazing shot of Miro Satan's goal...)
FIRST PERIOD
The majority of the first period was 4-on-4. First, about 5 seconds into the game, Niklas Hagman was called for hooking. The Leafs successfully killed their penalty.
Then Alex Goligoski (whose nickname was revealed to be Gogo!) was nailed with four minutes for high sticking. The Pens killed Gogo's penalty only to have Mark Eaton get penalized for hooking 20 seconds later.
The Leafs didn't score on their advantage, but they got yet another chance when the Pens got the dreaded too many men penalty (Petr Sykora served it for the team). Nik Antropov scored on a rebound. [Pens 0, Leafs 1]
The Pens got it right back when Pascal Dupuis scored with assists from Geno Malkin and Sid. It marked the 200th career assist for our title man. [Pens 1, Leafs 1]
SECOND PERIOD
Geno took the puck through the neutral zone and passed it to Dupuis, who nearly sneaked one by Curtis Joseph. Then, Marc-Andre Fleury had to stack the pads to make a nice save to keep the game tied at 1. Ruslan Fedotenko was nailed with a penalty for hooking. The Pens got a chance for a shorthanded 2 on 0, but it was whistled down because Dupuis hand passed the puck to Mad Max Talbot. The Pens killed Tank's penalty. The Pens got a power play when Jonas Frogren was called for interference. Satan scored his 3rd power play goal of the season with assists from Geno and the Saint. [Pens 2, Leafs 1]
The assist marked Siddo's 300th career point!
Nikolai Kulemin got punished with a big hit from Brooks Orpik. Dupuis fired a big shot from the top circle, but CuJo was up to the task and made the save. We were told that, predictably, Brooksie leads the Pens with 23 hits. Flower made a crazy flopping save on Jason Blake to preserve the Pens' lead.
THIRD PERIOD
Geno was penalized for holding off the faceoff. The Leafs didn't score on their advantage. Satan was called for tripping, but the Pens again kept the Leafs from scoring on their advantage. Then, Sidney banked the puck off Mikhail Grabovski after CuJo came out of the crease and went down to score his 100th career goal. [Pens 3, Leafs 1]
(Getty Images)
(Getty Images - click this one for a HUGE widescreen version)
Siddo's benchmark goal (which prompted the crowd to give him a standing ovation for a more than a few minutes as shown in the picture above) came from an assist from none other than Geno, who recorded his 200th career point!
Almost immediately following that goal, the Pens got a power play chance when Dominic Moore was called for interference. And we all know that when Sid opens up the can, he really opens up the can, so it came as no surprise that Siddo sent the puck to Syko for another beautiful Pens goal. [Pens 4, Leafs 1]
The Leafs had more wind taken out of their sails when a great scoring chance was ruined by Antropov as kicked the puck into the net instead of using his stick. The play went to the War Room in Toronto, but it was clearly not a goal.
With only 1:44 left in the game, the crowd began a deafening "FLEU-RY, FLEU-RY!!!" chant.
With 1:08 to go, Pavel Kubina was called for holding, but the Pens didn't score on their abbreviated power play. No matter - on a night when Sid and Geno showed why they are the future of this team with each of them having a 4 point night and each of them hitting individual benchmarks, the Pens won this one handily.
Many, MANY thanks to Pensgirl for these fantastic photos and to my husband for knowing that this was exactly what I needed. :)
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