Pittsburgh Penguins Caught in a Rut

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The Pittsburgh Penguins had an amazing start to this season, looking like they were going to be unstoppable. However, their season has begun to level off in the past month, and the past week has been a little disheartening. Sunday night, the Penguins suffered another loss in their match against the Florida Panthers. Pittsburgh took the early lead, still ahead by a goal at the end of the first period; however, by the end of the second period, Florida had taken the lead, and they continued to extend it in the third period.

Only about five and a half minutes into the game, Tyler Kennedy put in an opening goal for the Penguins.  A couple of minutes later, Sidney Crosby made it a two goal lead off an assist from Alex Goligoski.  Crosby is currently ranked fifth for total points in the NHL, only a single point behind the fourth place position.  Before the first period came to an end, Florida put in a goal to close the gap a little.

The Penguins remained on top until the 17th minute of the second period when the Panthers tied up the score.  About a minute later, Florida took the lead for the first time in the game.  The Penguins still had a chance going into the third period, but Florida continued to add goals to their score.  The first came in the 8th minute of the period, followed by another in the 13th.  With a little under two minutes left in the game, the Penguins pulled Marc Andre Fleury to gain the man advantage; unfortunately, with three seconds left, it only ended up in another Panther goal. 

Fleury did a great job in the first period, only giving up a single goal; unfortunately, four more got past him.  Fleury made 29 saves in the Penguin’s loss to the Panthers.  Not all the shots allowed were Fleury’s fault; some were just products of careless mistakes on the defense.

The Penguin’s will try to end their losing streak against the Atlanta Thrashers on Tuesday, January 5.  The puck will drop at 7:30 P.M. ET. 

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