By Brian LeBlanc
NCSportsTalk.com - Puck Drops
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Two of the hottest teams in hockey hook up tonight in Raleigh.
Wait, Raleigh? Home of the 13th-place Carolina Hurricanes? The team that at one point lost fourteen straight games?
Believe it. Over the last ten games, no one can touch the Canes' 8-1-1 record, and following an overtime loss in Washington last night the Canes have solidified their hold on 13th in the conference, eight points out of a playoff spot with 15 games to go.
After Manny Legace did a solid job in fending off the Caps' attack last night, he gets the night off and Justin Peters, 3-1 in his NHL career, will have the honor of facing the Pens' lethal scoring machine, including newly-acquired Alexei Ponikarovsky who came to Pittsburgh from the Toronto Maple Leafs at the trade deadline. Also, the Pens have some guy named Sidney Crosby, who scored a goal you might have heard about at the Olympics.
Speaking of the Olympics, the Penguins haven't lost since the NHL returned from its two-week hiatus, going 4-0 in that stretch. The first time the teams met at the RBC Center was one of the fourteen straight losses, a 3-2 shootout loss on October 14th. Like that night, the RBC will likely be a hotbed of Pens fans tonight, as they always come out en masse when their team comes to town.
One large swath of fans will go home disappointed tonight. Which will it be? We're about to find out...
1:04 1st: Pens lead 1-0; J. Staal 19 (Dupuis, Eaton) Well, that didn't take long. The Penguins get on the board first on their second shot of the game, on a goal that was created by a Rod Brind'Amour turnover behind the net. The puck came to the left point where Mark Eaton fired it back deep to Pascal Dupuis, who then hit Jordan Staal with a perfect pass in the far circle and Staal snapped a wrist shot home before Peters had a chance to react.
5:29 1st: Pens lead 2-0; Guerin 18 (Malkin, Crosby) (pp) And the fun continues. Here's hoping I'll have more to write about than just Pittsburgh goals tonight. A wild scramble at the front of the Carolina crease resulted in a couple of chops by Evgeni Malkin from point-blank range before Bill Guerin put an end to the proceedings by banging home the fifth or sixth rebound low to Peters' blocker side. And in case you were wondering, yes, there are a good number of Penguins fans here, and they've had plenty of reasons to be very loud thus far.
7:45 1st: Canes make it 2-1; Whitney 20 (Pitkanen, Pothier) (pp) Yes, I'm still writing about goals, but this time it's the home team putting themselves back in it on their first shot of the night. After a Sergei Gonchar boarding penalty that drew the Canes' ire, Ray Whitney blasted a one-timer from the top of the near circle and put the Canes on the board on their first shot of the night, off the post on the glove side low and past Johnson.
9:05 1st: Jussi Jokinen took a blatant high-stick that drew blood five feet away from referee Dan O'Rourke, and nothing was called, to the Canes' amazement. It would have been a double minor, and at the next stoppage Jokine angrily slammed his stick on the boards to alert O'Rourke to the idiocy of the non-call.
9:11 1st: Canes tie it at 2; Boychuk 2 (unassisted) But honestly, what's a better way to make up for a non-call than by tying the game off the ensuing faceoff? The Pens won it by the letter of the rule, but Zach Boychuk snuck through the Penguins forwards and gained possession, then potted his second goal on a beautiful backhand to the top shelf after undressing the Canes' old pal Brooks Orpik with a ridiculous backhand-forehand-backhand deke. The dont' come much more gorgeous than that.
16:30 1st: Big kick save by Peters on Dupuis, who was set up at the top of the crease in perfect position by Sidney Crosby but couldn't beat Peters' pads to give the Pens the lead.
17:45 1st: And speaking of big saves, Peters came way out of his net to try to trap the puck, but he couldn't cover and the puck came to the front of the net where both Alexei Ponikarovsky and Ruslan Fedotenko were stopped by a bizarre combination of Tim Gleason and Peters scrambling around to keep the puck out of the net. Kind of hard to figure out how the Pens didn't score there, but the Canes will gladly take it.
End 1st: A wild period settled down late, but the Penguins still had the better chances and find themselves tied. Chalk that up as a victory for the home team. Shots in the period were 9-6 Pittsburgh, who will begin the second period down a man for 1:06 thanks to a late Maxime Talbot holding penalty.
Begin 2nd: Brandon Sutter's night is done after he took a check late in the first and finished his shift, but didn't return to the ice. The Canes are calling it a lower-body injury, looks like something in the area of his leg.
2:09 2nd: Canes lead 3-2; E. Staal 21 (Cole) The Staals are tied at one, which means the Canes have their first lead of the night. Eric did the honors after playing catch with Erik Cole behind the net, working his way out to the near post then somehow finding daylight between Brent Johnson's skate and the post to sneak the puck in and give the Canes a 3-2 lead. Johnson has allowed 3 goals on 7 shots, and can probably be glad he doesn't play for Ottawa coach Cory Clouston, who would have told him to hit the showers in all likelihood.
6:00 2nd: Pens tie it at 3; Cooke 13 (Dupuis, Goligoski) Matt Cooke has had a week, eh? First he knocks out Boston's Marc Savard, becomes synonymous with the NHL's head-shot debate, earns the ire of seemingly every NHL fan for not being suspended, then ties the game thanks to some hard work in front of the net. After failing to clear the puck, Alex Goligoski kept the puck in allong the far boards and worked it behind the net to Pascal Dupuis, who fed Cooke at the goal mouth and after a few whacks, beat Peters to tie it up.
11:54 2nd: PING! Bill Guerin beats Peters but not the crossbar to keep it a tie game. Since the Cooke goal, the Penguins have owned the number of chances, with the Canes' only good chance coming on a fanned Erik Cole rebound chance in the low slot with Johnson out of position.
18:00 2nd: Loud boos for the Canes' power play after they fail to do anything with a lengthy two-man advantage, and the "shoot-the-puck" types are coming out of the woodwork. Honestly, can't say I agree; the Penguins took away all the passing lanes and did a great job killing the penalties.
End 2nd: Late in the period, Chad LaRose finally gave in to the loud "SHOOOOOOOOOOT!" yells from the stands, and fired...right into Jordan Leopold's leg about a foot away. See, there isn't always a shot there, folks. Shots in the period were 16-7 Penguins, and the Canes once again are lucky to be tied, if not for some stellar work by Justin Peters.
3:30 3rd: The Canes' lines have been all jumbled since Sutter's injury, but the best one of the retooled lines has been a Whitney-Staal-Cole combination, which has already accounted for one goal and did everything it could to record a second with some serious zone time deep in the Pens' end of the ice.
6:25 3rd: And speaking of that combination, Cole earns a breakaway from the red line...and fires it into Johnson's pad. They've certainly had their chances tonight.
8:29 3rd: Tuomo Ruutu earns a questionable interference penalty for pushing Mark Eaton into Johnson, which caused Johnson to fall face-down to the ice and not move for a few seconds at a TV timeout. Ruutu earned some facewashes for his trouble, but honestly it didn't look like it was his fault. He did get a penalty for interfering with Eaton, however.
12:24 3rd: Good Lord, the Penguins are just owning the ice right now. Peters has been sharp, and that's the only thing keeping the Canes in the game. They're being outshot 11-3 right now in the period.
19:05 3rd: Evgeni Malkin hits the post with under a minute left. The Canes sure don't deserve a point, but it looks like they'll get one barring a miracle.
End 3rd: Just like the last time these teams met, the Canes and Pens will move to overtime. Jussi Jokinen was slashed by Malkin in the far corner as regulation ended, and he's probably lucky he didn't pick up a retaliation slashing penalty. Shots were 14-7 in the third period, but it sure seemed more lopsided than that.
:23 OT: Canes win 4-3! Pothier 5 (Whitney, Staal) Can't script it much better than that. It's not stretching the truth at all to say that the Canes stole two points courtesy of their newest defenseman. Brian Pothier was on the receiving end of a cross-crease pass from Ray Whitney and he placed the one-timer perfectly, firing it home past Johnson and sending the crowd into delerium. Despite being outshot 40-21, Justin Peters and the Canes somehow managed to rob the Penguins of the second point, and the Canes now firmly have a stake on the hottest-team mantle with their eighth straight home win.
Postgame: The Canes were visibly tired after the second part of a back-to-back, and Paul Maurice referenced their fatigue multiple times after the game. It seemed like they knew that they had a built-in excuse to lose the game and didn't take it up, which is a far cry from where we were the last time the Penguins were in town. With the win, the Canes move to within three points of ninth, and those playoff hopes -- however faint -- still cling to life. Who'd have thought that in mid-November?
Click for audio from Zach Boychuk, Eric Staal and Justin Peters. Paul Maurice's press conference is attached.
The Canes continue a four-game homestand Saturday night when the Phoenix Coyotes, led by coach of the year shoo-in Dave Tippett, come to town for the only time this year. After the ACC Tournament, join us here for some puck action, won't you?
Thursday, March 11, 2010
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