THE PENS SALVAGE PITTSBURGH'S EVENING

BLUE JACKETS 4PENGUINS 3SHOOTOUTI had high hopes for Thursday night, what with Pitt in a winnable first-round matchup with West Virginia and the red-hot Pens making a short trip to Columbus, Ohio. And as I saw my beloved Panthers' hopes of appearing in roughly their 100th Big East Championship game this decade go down the tubes in a little over two hours, the Penguins were behind three goals in the third period. This night was not going as planned.Fortunately, the Pens' apparent deal with the devil is still intact, which means they somehow picked themselves off the mat for a team hat trick in a 3:25 span of the third period and stole a coveted point on the road, ultimately falling to Columbus 4-3 in a shootout.Sergei Gonchar started the comeback eight and a half minutes into the final period with a Sid-and-Kunitz assisted power play goal, Pascal Dupuis added a big one 1:20 later, and Max Talbot brought them all the way back two minutes after that. Marc-Andre Fleury sealed th...