In the past 48 hours the Pittsburgh Penguins have had more motivation than any team riding a six game winning streak should. Yesterday, the team announced Sidney Crosby would be participating in full contact drills, again, and may return as soon as Sunday against the Boston Bruins. Earlier today, on a 66 degree day before the Penguins played their 66th game of the season, Mario Lemieux’s statue was unveiled, celebrating arguably the most influential athlete in Pittsburgh sports history.
And yet, Pittsburgh’s current stars were not the main headline in their 3-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs, Wednesday night.
Brad Theissen stopped 22 of 24 shots to win his second game in just as many starts. Pascal Dupuis added a pair of goals and Jordan Staal had a goal and an assist en route to a 3-2 comeback win against the Maple Leafs.
After scoring two goals in their first seven minutes of the second period, the Maple Leafs looked to put a damper on the Penguins’ celebratory day. Phil Kessel scored his 34th goal one minute into the period on a nice feed from Jake Gardiner in front of the net. Brad Theissen was unable to make the save after colliding with two players outside of the crease, leaving Kessel a wide open chance to bury the puck.
Mikhail Grabovski’s wrist shot deflected off of Carl Gunnarsson 6:36 minutes later as the NBC Sports broadcast was in the middle of their interview with Mario Lemieux.
The Penguins quickly countered, getting a goal from Pascal Dupuis less than two minutes after the Gunnarsson goal. Jordan Staal took the puck from behind the Toronto net, passed to Matt Niskanen whose shot at the right point tipped off of Dupuis’ stick and behind Jonas Gustavsson.
Heading into the third period, the Maple Leafs were 20-0-1 when leading after two. The one overtime loss came against the Pittsburgh Penguins and, Wednesday night, they were denied a chance to redeem themselves. Brooks Orpik’s shot was deflected by Jordan Staal in front, to tie the game at 2-2.
The Penguins took the lead less than three minutes later on a backhand shot by Dupuis that went five-hole on Gustavsson. The shot came on a broken play and looked fairly stoppable, but Gustavsson was unable to make the save, effectively costing his team the game and maybe a playoff spot.
After surrendering two second period goals, Brad Theissen finished strong down the stretch. His biggest save came on the penalty kill with the Maple Leafs threatening to tie the game late in the third period. Phil Kessel’s wrist shot was heading for a wide open cage, but Theissen was able to get his right pad over in time to make the stop. Toronto pulled their goalie with under a minute remaining, but was unable to score. The Penguins defeated the Maple Leafs 3-2 and pulled within six points of the idle New York Rangers for tops in the Eastern Conference and Atlantic Division.
- The Penguins are 0-13 on the power play since Kris Letang was removed from the lineup with a concussion.
- Conversely, Pittsburgh has killed 49 of the last 52 shorthanded situations.
- The Penguins host Florida in their next game on Friday at 7 pm.
- Jordan Staal has a six game point streak and has registered 9 points in that span (3 goals, 6 assists).
Photo courtesy of Yahoo! sports
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