Aftermath: Penguins 3, Thrashers 2
Thursday, 11.20.2008 / 10:30 PM
/ Features
By Sam Kasan
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QUICK ANALYSIS
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| The Penguins got clutch goaltending and a big night from their franchise player en route to a 3-2 victory. Dany Sabourin continued his strong play this season by making a ton of difficult saves in the third period to keep the game tied, including a huge shorthanded stop on a breakaway. His efforts were rewarded when Pittsburgh scored a clutch power-play goal with 2:20 left in the game. The Penguins are off to the second-best start (tied) in franchise history and haven’t lost in their last seven games (6-0-1). The Penguins have become masters at making the big play late in the game to pull off a victory. Thursday was a continuation of that trend. | |
| WHAT HAPPENED |
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| The Penguins got a late third-period, power-play goal from Petr Sykora to defeat the Atlanta Thrashers, 3-2, at Philips Arena on Thursday night. Sidney Crosby registered three points (1G-2A) and Dany Sabourin made 21 saves for his fourth win of the season. The teams traded goals in the first two periods. Vyacheslav Kozlov and Miroslav Satan scored in the first period to make it 1-1. Crosby and Jim Slater notched goals in the second to make it a 2-2 game. Sykora re-directed a Crosby shot on the power play for the game-winner with 2:40 left in the game. |
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| SHOT OF THE NIGHT | |
 Pascal Dupuis is congratulated for setting up Pittsburgh's first goal against his former team (photo by Getty) |
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| ESSENTIALS | |
| What Worked: Clutch Power Play A great effort by Pittsburgh drew a penalty in the final four minutes of the game. The Penguins then went out and converted the opportunity for the game-winning goal. Pittsburgh showed a sense of urgency as they knew time was running out and this was its best opportunity to get the win. The team performed in the clutch, as they have this entire month. What Didn't Work: Neutral Zone Breakdowns The Penguins were baited into playing the up-and-down style that the Thrashers thrive on. As a consequence, Pittsburgh’s turnovers resulted in odd-man rushes for Atlanta. Luckily for the Penguins, Dany Sabourin was ready with a big save. A few times, Penguins were trapped deep on plays and the team wasn’t always quick to recover. |
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DIFFERENCE MAKER(S)
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| It was hard to choose between Sidney Crosby and Dany Sabourin, so I’ll give them a tie. Sabourin made save after save in the third period to give Pittsburgh a chance to get the game-winner. He stopped Ilya Kovalchuk on a breakaway early in the third period. On Pittsburgh’s late third-period power play, Sabourin stopped Marty Reasoner on a shorthanded breakaway to allow the Penguins to notch the game winner on that man-advantage. Crosby registered a three-point night with a goal and two assists. He scored an amazing goal on a pass that was a little behind him. Fielding the puck caused him to lose his edge and fall backwards towards the ice. However, he still had enough smarts to roof a shot into the top left corner. Crosby tee-ed up a slap shot from above the circle that Petr Sykora re-directed for the game winning goal. The shot, which broke Sykora's stick, may have actually gone in without Sykora’s deflection but the goal counts either way. Crosby made other plays that contributed to the win. Crosby’s backcheck on Reasoner forced him to take a shot instead of making a play with the puck on his shorthanded breakaway. He skated circles in the Thrashers zone in the final two minutes to kill clock. Crosby took the game’s final faceoff in the defensive zone with 5.1 seconds left in the game. It was a crucial draw that Crosby won cleanly. |
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| INTRIGUING NOTABLES | |
| The turning point of the game happened moments before the game-winning goal. On that same power play, Goligoski had the puck at the point and tried to skate around Marty Reasoner, who was challenging the rookie high on the play. Goligoski fell down and Reasoner had a shorthanded breakaway. Crosby’s backcheck forced Reasoner to shoot instead of attempting deke-ing. Sabourin made the save with his pads and moments later Pittsburgh scored the game-winning goal. Sykora notched the game-winning power-play goal to give Pittsburgh a 3-2 win with a great deflection on Crosby’s shot from above the circle. Evgeni Malkin slid a pass to Crosby through the middle of Atlanta's box. Sykora went to the front of the net and re-directed Crosby's shot into the net, breaking his stick in the process. He collected his broken pieces with a huge smile on his face. Dupuis should get a honorable assist on the game-winning power-play goal for a great effort to draw the penalty. Garnet Exelby tried to clear the puck from the zone but Dupuis got a glove on it along the boards to keep it in the zone. Satan finished a check on Garnet, taking him out of the play. Dupuis rushed with Crosby for a two-on-one with Chris Thorburn racing to catch Crosby. In the process, Thorburn was called for interference for taking down Crosby. The Thrashers scored the first goal of the game on a power play. Ilya Kovalchuk sent a slap shot towards the net with Dany Sabourin out high, challenging the shot. The puck was deflected off of penalty killer Jordan Staal’s skate and caromed to Slava Kozlov’s stick. Sabourin was trapped atop the crease and dove to his right as Kozlov buried his 11th goal of the season. Former Thrasher Pascal Dupuis was placed on the top line with Sidney Crosby and Miroslav Satan. Dupuis has seen action on the top line periodically throughout the season. Head coach Michel Therrien must have had a hunch that Dupuis wants to put on a show against his former club. Therrien’s hunch paid off when Dupuis setup Satan for the a tying goal. Dupuis sped down the near boards. He was close to the goal line when he sent a pass towards the crease. Satan setup by the opposite goal post unchecked to Thrashers goaltender Ondrej Pavelec’s left. Dupuis’ pass hit Thrashers defenseman Tobias Enstrom and ended up in the crease where Satan had planted himself. It was an easy tap in for Satan’s team-leading ninth goal, and first goal in six games. Mike Zigomanis played alongside Evgeni Malkin and Petr Sykora for a shift. He won the faceoff in offensive zone but instead of swapping off the line, he remained for the entire shift. An excellent forecheck by Malkin led to a great chance by Sykora with under one minute left in the first period. Malkin lost control of the puck in the Thrashers zone. Veteran defenseman Mathieu Schneider picked up the puck between the circles. Malkin applied pressure on Schneider with Sykora behind him. Malkin tied up Schneider’s stick and the puck came loose to Sykora, who sent a quick wrist shot on the net from close range. Thrashers goalie Pavelec made a number of key saves while his team successfully killed two overlapping penalties, including 1:18 minutes of a five-on-three. There was a few times when Pavelec was down on the ice when Satan had the puck to his left. But Satan never tried to roof it. Sykora was denied on a great chance with Pavelec high on top of the crease. Philippe Boucher took a shot and Sykora was stopped on the rebound. At that point, Pavelec’s momentum took him way out of the net but Sykora couldn’t get a second crack with a wide open net as the Thrashers defense converged on him. Tyler Kennedy used his hustle to create Pittsburgh’s go-ahead goal, 2-1, in the second period. Ron Hainsey fell down while collecting a dumped puck behind the Thrashers net. Kennedy got around Hainsey and centered the puck to Crosby. Crosby lost his edge and was falling backwards to the ice when he sent a shot over Pavelec and into the net. Jim Slater tied the game, 2-2, with a sweeping shot after skating out from behind the Penguins net. He skated to Sabourin's left. Slater spun his entire body around and sent the sweeper onto the net, eluding Sabourin. A great shift late in the second period by the Dupuis-Crosby-Satan line. The trio, along with Philippe Boucher and Goligoski kept the puck in the Atlanta zone for over a minute. The Penguins dominated the second period with possession time and shots on goal. Pittsburgh registered 16 shots to Atlanta’s six in the frame. If it weren’t for some good netminding by Pavelec, the Penguins would have notched more than one goal. Sabourin made a great save on Kovalchuk on a breakaway early in the third period. Boucher took a slap shot from the blue line. Kovalchuk blocked the shot and had a head start towards the puck before Boucher could turn around. Sabourin challenged high and made the save on the deadly Kovalchuk. Later, Kovalchuk raced down the ice on a three-on-two. Both Thrashers went hard to the net, forcing the two Pittsburgh defenseman to back up to their own goal. Kovalchuk dropped the puck to Justin Williams in the slot. His shot got past Sabourin but clanked off the goal post. Hal Gill has done a great job of taking away the backdoor pass down low on penalty kills. In the first period he blocked a pass with his leg by dropping down on one knee. In the third, he dropped his stick to the ice at the last second to negate another cross-crease attempt. He even joined the rush and got in deep in the offensive zone. You know it’s a wide-open game when Gill is joining the rush. A turnover in the neutral zone led to a two-on-one for Atlanta. Kris Letang dropped his stick to eliminate the pass option, leaving former Penguin Erik Christensen alone with Sabourin. Sabourin got a pad on the shot to make the save. On the same sequence Eric Perrin sneaked behind Letang and Brooks Orpik and one-timed a pass from behind the net. Thanks to Sabourin, the game remained tied. |
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| GAME NOTES | |
| > Pittsburgh improved to 12-4-3 on the year, with a 6-3-1 mark on the road. It's the team's second-best start through 19 games, tying the 1992-93 team that also went 12-4-3. The Penguins are 7-0-1 in the month of November. > Vyacheslav Kozlov scored his 11th goal of the season on a power play at 4:41 of the first period. Miroslav Satan tied the game with his team-leading ninth goal of the season at 10:57 of the first. Sidney Crosby gave Pittsburgh a 2-1 lead with his seventh goal of the year at 12:24 of the second period. Jim Slater evened the game, 2-2, with a score 1:24 later. Petr Sykora re-directed a Crosby shot for the game-winning power-play goal at 17:20 of the third period. > Pittsburgh outshot the Thrashers, 31-23, including 16-6 in the second period. Pittsburgh has only been outshot once in its past eight games. > Evgeni Malkin registered an assist at Atlanta. He’s recorded at least one point in 17 of Pittsburgh’s 19 games this year. Malkin has recorded an assist in 14 of his last 15 games. Malkin recently had his 13-game scoring streak snapped. He notched 27 points (6G-21A) during that span. > Malkin’s assist at Atlanta gives him 31 points on seven goals and 24 assists this season to lead the NHL. His 24 assists are also a league best. Malkin is on pace to notch over 100 assists (104) on the season, a feat only accomplished by three players in NHL history (Gordie Howe, Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux). > Crosby recorded three points in the game at Atlanta on a goal and two assists. He now has 25 points on the season (7G-18A). Crosby has quietly climbed the rankings and is now third (tied) in the league in scoring. His 18 assists are the second most (tied) in the league behind only teammate Malkin. > Satan netted his team-leading ninth goal of the season. It was also his first goal in six games. > Matt Cooke was held off the scoresheet, ending his five-game point streak. In that streak he recorded two goals and four assists. Cooke still has points in six of his last eight games. |
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| THREE STARS | QUOTE OF THE NIGHT |
| 1. Sidney Crosby, PIT 2. Ondrej Pavelec, ATL 3. Eric Perrin, ATL |
“That doesn’t happen very often. I don’t break too many sticks with my shot. That helps the confidence.” - Sidney Crosby told FSN Pittsburgh |
Author: Sam Kasan
