TAMPA BAY 3, PENGUINS 4
thank god. Game 53, over and out.
Oh yeah, and France is still on strike and canceled my class permanently for the third time yesterday.
But that's not what matters right now: PENS WIN.
What a BAMF.THIS JUST IN: MALKIN OWNS YOUR FACE-
"Malkin showed us what he was about. He ignited the crowd. He ignited his teammates. His third-period and OT performance is on the periodic table of elements."<--don't see it? look under the radioactive shit!
Point made ---->
Malkin's Heroics Resurrect Victory
The Pittsburgh Penguins playoff hopes were dimming as the team trailed the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-0 after two periods Wednesday night at Mellon Arena. With Pittsburgh’s postseason on life support, Evgeni Malkin came to the rescue. The Penguins center scored two goals and added an assist for a three-point night as Pittsburgh flipped a 3-0 deficit into a 4-3 overtime win. Malkin capped his heroic evening in overtime when he buried the game-winning goal.
“It was 3-0, and it went 4-3, and I scored two goals,” Malkin said. “Every player thinks, ‘I need (to) score and play hard.’ I try because we (were) losing and because we need to play playoffs.”
Pittsburgh opened a crucial four-game home stand with a monumental victory. The Penguins improved to 25-23-5 for 55 points. Pittsburgh currently sits at the No. 10 spot in the Eastern Conference but the win puts them only one point away from the eighth position - thanks in large part to Malkin's clutch performance.
“He really took the game over,” head coach Michel Therrien said. “It’s what you expect from your best players at crucial times and you could see the fire was in his eyes. He was ready to do everything that he can in his power to try to win this hockey game and he was a true leader tonight on the ice.”
Malkin showed leadership before the start of the third period when he addressed his teammates in the locker room.
“He kind of just said, ‘Let's go boys; let's get these two points,’” defenseman Brooks Orpik said. “He doesn't say much in terms of getting the guys going. He kind of just leads by example. But he came in and said something before the third period and obviously that kind of gets you going when he says something because he doesn't say it very often. His actions spoke a lot louder than that did because he was about as dominating as you can be in a single period.”
“We talk after second period and say ‘Let's go guys, play hard and shoot the puck,’” Malkin said. “We didn’t play hard and shoot the puck and do the job (in the first two periods). After second period we talked in locker room. The guys understand what’s going on and played hard.”
Malkin, who was anointed as the Penguins alternate captain, has matured into one of the team’s young leaders.
The game appeared over with the Lightning ahead by three goals in the third period. The Penguins’ fate looked sealed, but Malkin refused to let his team go quietly into the night. He was a force on the ice for the remainder of the game. Malkin played physical – evidenced by his four hits – skated harder than any other player and put on an inspirational showing to resurrected Pittsburgh's postseason hopes.
"Tonight it was Geno when he decided to put everybody on his back," Matt Cooke said. "He can score more than anybody on this team. He controls the pace. He controls the tempo. He's physical and when he has the puck, it's like no one is going to get it off of him. Even if he loses (the puck), he's going to get it back. That's contagious."
Malkin jump started Pittsburgh’s improbable comeback by netting a goal 2:25 into the third period. He intercepted a breakout pass by Tampa Bay’s Paul Ranger at the blue line, batting the puck out of the air with his stick. Malkin skated towards the Lightning net and made a drop pass to forward Pascal Dupuis. Malkin’s momentum carried him around the net as Dupuis unleashed a one-timer off the post. The puck died in the crease and Malkin alertly reached to poke it across the goal line.
“Geno made it through on the first goal,” forward Petr Sykora said. “He got us going and we knew that we had a chance to come back.”
Mark Eaton made it a 3-2 game with his second goal of the season. Malkin then set up Sykora for the game-tying goal with 3:29 left in regulation. The Russian native had the puck along the goal line and tried to made a backdoor pass. Sykora fought his way through a scrum in front of the crease to bury the puck and force overtime.
<---Eaton your heart out...
“I think the second and third goals, (we) just put the puck toward the net and just go battle for it,” Sykora said. “When you do those little things you are going to get rewarded with those big, important goals.”
The exuberant Malkin flung his stick aside and threw his body into the glass in a demonstrative celebration before he was mobbed by his teammates.
“You saw how excited he got after every single goal we scored,” Orpik said. “Whether he was getting a point or if he wasn't getting a point, he genuinely get's that excited. It was great to see. We definitely needed those two points at the rate we were going, that's for sure.”
Malkin added:
“It's a great game and I feel great. I think it's next game now. We need to make playoffs and we needed (to) win (this) game and next game, too.”
"Ok, Geno...maybe you can be a superstar too..."Captains agree: THE NEW A RULES!!!!!!
PROPS TO THE FLOWER SHOP FOR THE FOLLOWING
The TFS Award for broadcaster of the night goes to Bob Errey for telling Paul Steigerwald to 'Suck on it!' during last night's game. Then they both laughed like a couple of 10 year olds when one of them has said something 'naughty' in front of the adults.The only thing that our FSN dynamic duo have going for them is that neither one of them is Mike Milbury or Doc Emmerick. I keep waiting for Mike Lange to burst into the booth, slice both their throats and take over the broadcast.... Mike, I'll loan you my knife. Seriously, it's sharp and everything.
The TFS award for goal of the night has got to go to Luca 'You'll sleep with the fishes' Caputi. 1st game, 1st shift, 2nd whack at the puck and his first ever NHL goal. Yes, in case you missed hearing it during one of the 16 times someone mentioned it, the last Penguin to acomplish this was Les Manifique' himself, Mario Lemieux. I'm not sure how far Caputi is going in this League, but he'll always have that to brag about. Well that, and his name makes him sound like he's in the Mafia. He'll have that too.
The TFS Looney Tunes Lennie imitation award goes to: The Penguins for saying "Which way did he go, George?" so many times trying to find out what happened to the puck or the Canadien they should have been watching. I feel for the Flower, he made 31 of 35 saves and sometimes seemed to be alone out there....
Ratt note: I hope sometime tonight to see Maximus, TK and Caputi on the same line. I'd like to call it the Scrappy Line. I can only imagine what the three of them could do out on the ice all at the same time..... Are you listening Therrien?
Bash those Bolts: Tonight's game is against the Bolts of the Bay at home. Their goalie, Mike Smith is out with an injury and they have an AHL call-up Karri Ramo and a new guy, Mike McKenna to choose from, but they're not saying who it'll be as of yet, although one 'insider' is betting on McKenna. Tonight is the night of the return of Gary Roberts. Scary Gary has just come off IR (injured reserve) and will be in the line-up tonight. I wonder if anyone is going to be playing those 'Gary Roberts' songs?
Je suis d'accord, Flower Shop...
Oh, and in case you were wondering...the answer to WWGRD is as follows:
the question is, how did Error resist talking about Robert's "fiji water" for like two periods?
OH. and just for the hell of it: i would like to remind all of you:
just in case you forgot.
sorry about all the duplicates...my comp. did something weird.
LET'S GO PENS.
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