Thursday, March 01, 2007

Pens earn hard-fought SO win @ NYR

The Pens lost defenceman Mark Eaton very early in the 1st period to a knee injury, but kept the Rangers off the board until late in the 2nd, allowing two goals late to trail 2-0 after 2. But the Pens stormed back to a tie on two shorthanded goals by Jordan Staal and Colby Armstrong in the first four minutes of the third. Pens went down again 3-2 on the same PP that Armstrong had scored during. It would be until the 14 minute mark when Sergei Gonchar would tie the game on a 7 second powerplay - he scored with 1 second remaining.

Overtime saw chances either way, with both goaltenders keeping it tied 3-3, sending it to a shootout. The Rangers went first, with Nylander, Jagr and Prucha their three shooters. Marc-Andre Fluery stopped them all. The Pens sent out Erik Christensen, Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby. Henrik Lundqvist stopped EC and Geno, but could not stop Crosby.

Crosby was named #1 star, even though he was kept off the regular scoresheet. The Rangers kept Crosby from getting his 200th career point, but the Pens play at Carolina tomorrow night. Jordan Staal was named third star, his goal being his 26th on the season and 6th shorthanded, tying the league record for rookies in a season.

The two points reduces the magic number from 30 to 28.

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