Third Period:

The Penguins are back on the power play after Ryan Getzlaf was whistled for hooking...Pesonen is actually getting a look on the PP unit with Malkin and co.

* * * * *

Late in the power play Janne Pesonen got a chance right in front of the net. He put the shot on, Chris Minard crashed, the puck flipped free to Jordan Staal who had Giggy dead to rites, but he shot the puck off of the side of the net.

* * * * *

The Penguins were just whistled for too many men on the ice. They haven't gotten called for that near as often as last year, but they still take far too many of them...

* * * * *

Bill Thomas and Dustin Jeffrey were just given an opportunity to kill the penalty and looked pretty good in doing so. Thomas got in one on one short handed, though he didn't score. They also were getting their sticks on a ton of passes and breaking up the Ducks cohesion.

Nice kill...

* * * * *

I neglected to mention that Brooks Orpik left early in the second period...he has logged on 9+ minutes of ice in this game. No word on the situation as of yet...

* * * * *

Phillipe Boucher whistled for holding...Ducks PP...

* * * * *

Hal Gill just unleashed a blast from the point the picked the top left corner over Giggy...Jordan Staal had a huge offensive zone face-off win and sent it right back to Gill, who set it up and fired it!

3-1 Pens...

I will be making my way down to the rooms...stay tuned for much more post game...

Second Period:

Matt Cooke just picked up his second goal of the evening seconds into the period. Evgeni Malkin started the play off by feeding Ryan Whitney at the point. Whitney drifted towards the middle of the blue line and wristed the puck at the net. Matt Cooke was cruising through the slot and a huge rebound floated right to him...he backhanded it into the net for his 7th of the season.

The crazy thing is that Scott Niedermayer was right on him, but was looking the wrong way. You just don't see him do that very often...but the Penguins got a break and capitalized on it...

2-0 Pens...

* * * * *

Some hard work in their own zone in trying to clear the puck just earned the Penguins a power play. Brendan Morrison slashed Ryan Whitney in behind the net as he was trying to clear the puck around the boards...The Penguins go to work on their first power play of the night...

* * * * *

Tonight's attendance: 17,005 the Penguins 88th consecutive sell out.

* * * * *

Geno Malkin and Travis Moen and developing situation?? We will see...Malkin gave him a bump in the neutral zone and got a punch in the back of his head for his troubles. Malkin circled and threw a cross check at Moen, who also tangled a bit with Matt Cooke.

Keep an eye on it...

Moen actually came out of the situation with 2:00 for roughing...a goal here would be huge for the Penguins and their confidence.

* * * * *

The Ducks are now getting their first opportunity on the power play. Hal Gill was whistled for roughing. 6:11 remaining second period...

* * * * *

The Ducks just worked a beautiful passing play to get to within one. Bobby Ryan took a feed and moved into the right left wing face-off dot before backhanding a smooth pass across to a streaking Ryan Getzlaf, who buried it. It was in and out before Fleury even knew what hit him...

2-1 Pens...

* * * * *

Alex Goligoski was just whistled for holding...it looks to be more of a make up call for the rough that wasn't called seconds earlier when a Penguins threw Brendan Morrison to the ice after a whistle...either way the Ducks were entitled to a power play...

* * * * *

The Penguins are holding onto a 2-1 lead after two periods and have done a pretty nice job of sticking to their system this evening. It looks like all of the players who have been called up are doing their part and have even had a couple of opportunities. The Flightless Birds also out shot the Ducks in the period.

20 more minutes...can they hold on??

First Period:

Through five minutes of play, the Penguins have done a pretty nice job of executing their system. They have allowed 3 shots on goal, but they were from outside and Fleury has been up to the task thus far.

The WBS line looked ok in it's first shift...though they didn't get much going offensively.

* * * * *

The bad news is that the Penguins have only 1 shot through the first eight minutes of play. If any team can go defense for defense it is Anaheim...they have got to create a couple of opportunities here, as the Ducks will not make many mistakes...

* * * * *

Biz Nasty just decided to fire the boys up a bit...he just threw off the mitts with Nathan Mciver and beat him handily. Once again Biz worked the jack rabbit lefts while holding the front of Mciver's jersey opening himself up for the big right. He got in two of those rights before dumping Mciver with four quick lefts. He could be seen skating to the box screaming: "Wooooo, let's (expletive) go!!"

* * * * *

The Penguins finally got the break they needed as Matt Cooke was in the right place at the right time to pick up a loose puck behind the Penguins net. He walked out in front and wrapping a shot to the far side past JS Giguere.

Malkin and Gill on the helpers...

1-0 Pens...

* * * * *

The Penguins played a decent period of hockey after having turned in a pretty horrible performance in the third period of their last game. They held the Ducks to 9 shots while only posting 5 of their own, however the they were the ones who were able to put one past a goaltender.

It was really sort of a tennis match for most of the period, but the Penguins seemed to get some life after Paul Bissonnette's fight. They started to get their wheels going a bit more and started to spend some time in the offensive zone.

Matt Cooke, who got the Penguins goal, has been great tonight. He is a ball of energy and has been hitting everything in white. He has registered four officially. While Brooks Orpik has registered 5 in pacing the team. As a group the Penguins have been much more physical tonight and are outhitting the Ducks 21-6. They aren't giving up their zone easily tonight and have done a nice job of pushing Anaheim to the boards.

Marc Andre Fleury made a handful of nice stops...let's hope that he can keep that going throughout the night.

Overall, I will take that through one. How about you?

More as it happens...

Wounded Penguins Gear Up For Date With Ducks...Updated with Line Combos

After the Warm Up the lines for tonight look to be:

Cooke, Malkin, Sykora

Satan, Staal, Kennedy

Minard, Jeffrey, Pesonen

Goddard, Thomas, Bissonnette


Scout Situation:

I know you guys love to know...so here are the scouts who are in attendance this evening at the Igloo...

Ottawa, Philadelphia, Anaheim, Atlanta, Colorado, Minnesota

* * * * *

UPDATED LINES: I had intended to place Pesonen on the second line and left him off...Biz Nasty goes to line four...My combos are below. I actually could see them starting Pesonen off on line two and flip flopping him with Kennedy throughout the evening...

* * * * *

The Penguins will have a MASH unit look to them this evening as they go into their match up with the Anaheim Ducks. The squad will be without captain Sidney Crosby, Rod Scuderi, Kris Letang, Pascal Dupuis and Max Talbot. Add to that Mike Zigomanis, Ruslan Fedotenko and Sergei Gonchar and you get a line-up that has a very different feel to it. Almost a Wilkes Barre-Scranton feel, as Dustin Jeffrey, Bill Thomas, Chris Minard and Janne Pesonen will all participate in the game.

Of course, the team will still have the services of the NHL's leading scorer, Evgeni Malkin, Petr Sykora and Jordan Staal, all of whom will be counted on to pull a bigger offensive against the Ducks.

It will be interesting to see what the forward combinations are for this evening, as they were not available after today's skate. No but asked, but this is what I would do...

Line 1: Cooke Malkin Satan
Line 2: Pesonen Staal Sykora
Line 3: Jeffrey Minard kennedy
Line 4: Goddard Thomas Bissonnette

Give me your thoughts...

The defensive pairings are slated to be:

Orpik-Whitney
Gill-Goligoski
Boucher-Eaton

With Marc Andre Fleury in net.

The team is going to have to stick closely to the system that won the Philadelphia game for them, as we see what happens when they let down a bit. Washington was able to roll over them in the third period when the Penguins seemed to completely get away from what had then tied 2-2 through two periods.

The Penguins will get their first look at Bobby Ryan, the player chosen right after Sidney Crosby during their draft year. I often wonder how different things would be in Pittsburgh if they had won the right to draft Ryan instead of Crosby coming out of the lock-out. Would the Penguins still be in Pittsburgh? Probably not... Ryan has been on fire for the Ducks this season and is showing why he was selected 2nd overall. He has put up 26 points in 27 games and is looking like a nice offensive player in the league.

The Ducks boast a group of forwards that can burn you often, such as Ryan Getzlaf, Teemu Selanne, and Cory Perry...however their true strength is defense. They boast two of the best in the league in Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger and also possess one of the best two way forwards in the league in Sammy Pahlsson.

This is going to be a tough game for the Penguins, but it is one that they can win if they play smart, mistake free hockey. Time will tell if they are able to do that tonight.

I will be live at Mellon Arena bringing you all of the action...please join me!

Game Notes:

The Penguins are 9-7-3 all-time versus the Ducks, including a 7-2-2 mark at Mellon Arena. The last time the Ducks came to Pittsburgh was Oct. 6, 2007 in a 5-4 Penguins victory.

The Penguins are 9-10-2 on home ice this season, while the Anaheim Ducks are 9-8-2 on the road.

The Penguins are 3-5-1 against Western Conference opponents this season.

Petr Sykora has 12 points (4G-8A) in 16 career games versus Anaheim.

The Penguins have scored 54 goals in the second period, the most in the NHL this season.


Milestone Watch:

Evgeni Malkin is two goals shy of reaching 100 for his career.
Jordan Staal is six points shy of reaching 100 for his career and needs two penalty minutes to reach 100 in his career.
Miroslav Satan is eight games shy of playing in his 1000th NHL game.
Matt Cooke is five goals shy of reaching 100 for his career.
Pascal Dupuis is six assists shy of reaching 100 and eight goals shy of 100 in his career.
Eric Godard is eight penalty minutes shy of reaching 600 in his career.
Philippe Boucher is seven goals shy of reaching 100 for his career and four points shy of reaching 300 in his career.
Petr Sykora is nine goals shy of reaching 300 in his career.
Brooks Orpik is eight games shy of playing in his 350th NHL game.
Mike Zigomanis is 11 games shy of playing in his 200th NHL game.

Penguins Youtube of the Day:

Snoop Dog Loves the Ducks...



...and of course...



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