Thursday, October 12, 2006

Penguins 6, Rangers 5

Sidney Crosby had the game winner with 3.3 seconds left in the game. It deflected off the skate of a Rangers defenseman. I don't need to tell you, but this is the exact kind of game the team would have lost last year, or they would have gone to OT and come away with one point. To have a one-goal win on the road at this early point in the season in dramatic fashion is tremendous, and will be a huge boost to the team as the season goes on. This is the kind of win you can build on.

Jordan Staal and Kris Letang both had their first NHL goals. Jordan had his short-handed, and Kris, appropriately enough, had his on the power play. Ryan Whitney added two and Michel Ouellet scored one.

The Pens broke through on the power play for four goals in nine chances. They allowed three goals themselves on the PK. You'd expect the PK to break down at some point and let in a few - they've been playing so well. The same could be said of the power play, but in reverse. The test will be over the next few games to see how it evens out.

Something that is slightly troubling is the Pens lack of shots on goal - there were only 22 tonight to the Rangers 42. That's a disturbing number. It's something that the team is going to have to work on. Sergei Gonchar had only one shot, despite 10 minutes of power play time. That's not enough.

All things considered, this was a great win.

Next up: Carolina on Saturday.

3 comments:

Jenpet said...

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Jenpet said...

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faux rumors said...

1) Thus far this was the most exciting game in the NHL this young season!
2) Great to se the young guns knock off the NY Jagrs.
3) This may be a trend in that the Ranger defense/goaltending is looking quite weak/vulnerable