Let’s all admit it was very nice of the Winnipeg Jets to treat Saturday’s game against the Penguins like an all-star game. The lackluster defense made it easy for the Pens to overcome the early 2-0 deficit, so easy that they decided to give it another try on Sunday against the Lightning. Once again the Pens were able to storm back against a weak opponent en route to a 4-2 victory. The score doesn’t really do the Pens’ dominance justice when you consider they out shot the 41-23 and completely dominated for roughly 59:49 seconds of the game.
The game started off slow due in part to an early Jordan Staal penalty; the Pens killed that easily and were able to sustain pressure in the Lightning’s end. Let’s give the Lightning their 11 seconds of fame. About half way through the period Steve Downie took a shot from the top of the circle that was either deflected by Paul Martin, a total mistake by Brent Johnson, or woke Johnson up from his pre-game nap. Those are the only acceptable reasons for allowing that weak goal. If he wasn’t awake before, he was 11 seconds later when Steve Sullivan lazily gave up on a pass in the neutral zone that created a 2-on-1 that turned into a 2-on-0 tap-in goal by new found Rocket Richard candidate Steve Downie. In the blink of an eye the Pens were down two despite controlling the early play. Some teams would have packed it in, but the Pens kept the pressure on the Bolts leading to a shift late in the period when Eric Brewer took two interference penalties and Steven Stamkos a holding penalty. Unfortunately only the holding penalty was called and coincidently that would be the last Stamkos sighting of the game, thanks for showing up Spicoli. Less than a minute into the ensuing power play Evgeni Malkin would roof a sick one-timer from the half boards. There isn’t a goalie in the league that would make that save and that goal would end the scoring with the Pens taking a 2-1 deficit into the intermission.
The Lightning decided to skip the second period and let the Washington Generals play in their place. As bad as they are on the court they were worse on the ice getting out shot 19-9 which in my eyes was very generous shot keeping. Chris Kunitz got the scoring started early when Geno and James Neal did their best Moses impressions drawing multiple defenders outside and parting the ice for Kunitz to walk down the middle and beat Mathieu Garon five-hole. A few minutes later Kunitz would find Kris Letang for a goal and soon after that would set up Geno for another with a sweet pass. The Lightning’s early two goal lead was now a two goal deficit and they had no answer. The Pens’ and primarily Geno were so dominant that it led Steigy to question if there were multiple Genos on the ice. Which led to this question: Would you rather watch multiple Geno’s play hockey, tour the country as a boy band, or find love in a weird Russian version of “The холостякs” (The Bachelors)?”
From that point on the Pens controlled the puck and the play, but could not find the back of the net. Geno had multiple cracks at the hat trick but fell short, including a long range shot at the empty net that hit the crossbar. Overall great game for the stars with multi-point games from Letang (1 goal -2 assists), Neal (0-3), Kunitz (1-2), and Geno (2-0). When that line is clicking it is incredible to watch.
The back to back wins this weekend were huge for the Pens playoff positioning. They have pulled into a tie with the Flyers and have kept pace with the Rangers who seem like they never lose. Three games still remain with the Rangers so the eight point gap seems a little more manageable. The pens continue their light weekday, heavy weekend schedule with a home game against Anaheim Wednesday followed by a couple matinees at Philadelphia and Buffalo with weekend.
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