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The Pittsburgh Penguins knew, before they started this series, that the Montreal Canadiens were not a team to underestimate. This eighth seed team dropped to a 1-3 record against the Top Ranked Washington Capitals, only to come back and finish the first seed off. So far, in this series, neither team has won two consecutive games, and if the pattern continues, the Penguins will come out on top; however, this is the Pens last chance to keep their playoff hopes alive.

A little over a minute into this game, Montreal started off the scoring, taking the early lead. Then, in the seventh minute, Sidney Crosby put in his first goal of the series, giving him six for the post season. Then, in the fifth minute of the second period, Kris Letang took advantage of a Power Play, giving the Penguins the lead.

Pittsburgh didn’t hold the lead for very long, because in the tenth minute, Montreal tied the score up again, followed by a leading goal in the 13th minute. The Pens entered the third period down by a goal, still with a chance to pull out the win. The Canadiens fourth goal halfway through the third period gave the Pens a bit more than they could handle. With less than a minute and a half remaining, Bill Guerin made one final effort to pull out this win, grabbing his fourth goal of the Post Season. However, it just wasn’t enough.

The Pens out shot the Habs 37-25, but had trouble getting more than three goals past the Canadien goal tender. Marc Andre Fleury had 21 saves, but it wasn’t enough to hold off their opponents. Fleury really needs to be on his “A” game in Game 7, otherwise his team’s hopes of back-to-back championships will no longer be an option.

Game 7, and the conclusion to this back and forth series, will take place this Wednesday, May 12, at 7:00 P.M. ET. Due to the Pens higher seeding, the game will come back to Pittsburgh.

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The Pittsburgh Penguins win over the New York Islanders and the New Jersey Devils loss, last night, has now tied up these two teams in points and records. Unfortunately, since the Devils have a better record over the Penguins, Pittsburgh will need to win in points. With two games remaining for both of these teams, both of these teams are guaranteed to fall somewhere between the second and fourth seed.

Brooks Orpik wasted no time scoring against the Islanders, putting in the opening goal in the first 23 seconds of play, giving him one of the fastest goals this season. A little under five minutes later, Alex Goligoski scored his eighth goal of the season during a Penguins Power Play, giving Pittsburgh the two goal lead. However, New York closed the gap a few minutes later with a Power Play goal of their own.

With about five minutes remaining in the period, Evgeni Malkin had an unassisted goal to put the Penguins ahead by two again. New York answered right back two minutes later, but with under a minute left in the first period, Sidney Crosby put in his 49th goal of the season, making the score 4-2. Crosby grabbed four points in this game, putting him just four points behind the NHL points leader.

New York held it strong up into the second period, trailing by only a single goal after scoring their third. Fortunately, the Penguins stepped up their game in all aspects, and held the Islanders to those three goals, while putting in three more of their own. The first came from Bill Guerin during a Power Play in the 14th minute of the second period, deflected in off a slap shot from Crosby, followed by a goal from Tyler Kennedy about two minutes later. Guerin grabbed a second goal early in the third period to finish off New York.

Marc Andre Fleury gave up three goals against the Islanders, but made 32 saves in the process. Determined not to get switched out, and to add another win to his record and his team’s record, Fleury stood his ground and held the Islanders scoreless for the second half of this game.

The Penguins play their second to last game this Saturday, April 10th, against the Atlanta Thrashers. The Penguins defeated the Thrashers in Over Time a few games ago, and if they can do it again, they will stay alive in this race for Division Leader. The puck will drop at 7:00 P.M. ET.

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The Pittsburgh Penguins had to deal with another Penalty Shot in Saturday’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning; however, this time, they managed to save the shot. The Penguins put up a great effort, remaining tied by the end of the first period. The two teams remained tied for the majority of the second period, but they began to pull ahead towards the end of the second period.

Only about a minute into the game, Tampa Bay put their first goal in, but before the period came to an end, Bill Guerin got his 13th goal of the season off an assist from Jordan Staal.  The score remained tied until the the 14th minute of the second period, when the Lightning took the lead again

Nearly five minutes into the third period, Tampa Bay had a Penalty Shot opportunity; luckily, it ended up being unsuccessful.  The Penguins were still only down by a point up until the seventh minute of the period when Tampa Bay put in their third goal.  There was still plenty of time left in the final period, but the Penguins just couldn’t put anything else in. 

Marc Andre Fleury did a great job not allowing the penalty goal, but, unfortunately, three others still got past him.  Fleury had 34 saves against the Lightning, with 19 of them coming in the second period. 

The Penguins next game will be against the Florida Panthers.  They play Today, January 3, at 5:00 P.M. ET. 

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For what started out as a competitive game, took a complete 180 in the second and third period. Wednesday night, the Pittsburgh Penguins gave the Ottawa Senators a lump of coal for Christmas, taking them down in their 8-2 victory. Evgeni Malkin got his first Hat Trick of the season, while Sidney Crosby managed to add three more points to his record with three assists. The Penguins are still tied with the Devils for that number one spot in the division.

Less than five minutes into the game, Malkin had the first goal during a Power Play.  However, in the 13th minute, Ottawa tied the score up.  The first period would end 1-1, with the Senators taking 24 shots and the Penguins only taking 9. 

The second period was where the scale tipped highly in Pittsburgh’s favor.  Only about a minute in, Bill Guerin put in a Power Play goal.  During the seventh minute, Ruslan Fedotenko gave the Penguins a two goal lead.  About 11 and a half minutes in, Chris Kunitz, who had assisted in Guerin’s goal, had the favor returned.  Less than three minutes later, Guerin had his second goal of the game, off another Power Play.  It looked like the Senators might be able to make it out of the period without any more goals, but with less than two minutes to play, Malkin got his second goal.

The Senators switched out their goalies for the third period, but it didn’t prove to be any better.  Less than two minutes in, Sergei Gonchar made it a 7-1 game.  Then, a few minutes later, Malkin got his Hat Trick off an assist from Crosby.  Ottawa managed to put one more goal in during the final two minutes, but it did little good other than help save some face.

Marc Andre Fleury played an amazing game!  Despite the huge loss for Ottawa, Fleury really had to work for the win, saving 45 shots.  He bumped his Save Percentage up to 91.1% with this big win.

The Penguins will get to celebrate the holidays, returning December 27 to take on the Toronto Maple Leafs.  The game will take place at 7:00 P.M. ET.

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The Pittsburgh Penguins had an amazing opening to their season, going 11-3 at one point. However, in the last 5 games, they've been 1-4 with their only one of those wins coming on Saturday night against the Boston Bruins. Luckily, Evgeni Malkin returned after his two and a half weeks of being out because of his shoulder injury. He managed to add three assists during his first game back, including the assist that sent the game into Over Time.

This was a very back-and-forth game.  Jay McKee wasted no time, putting a goal in 1:42 into play.  The same team that had been shut out twice in the last four games now had an early lead.  Unfortunately, Boston answered back a few minutes later, tying the score up.  Before the end of the period, Pascal Dupuis got his fourth goal of the season off a rebound from Matt Cooke's wrist shot. 

The action continue in the second period, starting off with another tying goal from the Bruins.  About six minutes later, Sidney Crosby had an amazing deflection off of Alex Goligoski's shot, after skating circles around the Bruin's goal.  The Penguins were only able to keep their 3-2 lead for several minutes before Boston put in, yet, another tying goal. 

The third period started off with a goal from Mark Eaton off a great pass from Sidney Crosby.  The score has already jumped up to 4-3, but that wasn't the end of it.  With less than six minutes left to play, the Bruins put in the fourth tying goal of the game.  Then, only about three minutes later, the Bruins took the lead for the first time in the game.  It looked like it was all over for the Penguins, who had fought so hard to maintain the lead for the majority of the game…but Pittsburgh wasn't ready to chalk up another loss.

Down by a goal in the final 1:40 of the game, Pittsburgh pulled Brent Johnson from the goal to add an extra forward on the ice.  Now, with only seconds on the board, Evgeni Malkin stripped the puck away from a Bruins player on the Pittsburgh side.  He skated down the ice and sent a pass to Bill Guerin on the opposite side.  Guerin sent a shot whizzing past the Bruin's goalie in the final SECOND of regulation play, sending the game into Over Time.  Only 1:24 into Over Time, Dupuis put in a behind-the-net pass from Jordan Staal, winning the game for the Penguins.

Marc Andre Fleury, who's recently had a couple rough games, took the night off from the net.  In his place was Brent Johnson, who did a great job trying to hold off the Bruins.  Luckily, the Penguins offense stepped up their game and helped match up to the Bruins goals.  Both goalies had a total of 33 shots on them, but Johnson walked away with one more save, making his total shots saved, 28. 

The Penguins can hopefully get back on their winning streak this Monday, November 16 when they play the Anaheim Ducks at Home.  The game will begin at 7:30 P.M. ET.

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