Tying the Canes at two games each in the season series last year the Pens hoped to take a series lead this season. The headline for the game was Staal vs. Staal, where Penguins second line center would be taking on his older brother Canes center Eric Staal.
Early in the first period Pens fourth liner Paul Bissonnette dropped the gloves with former Penguin Dan Lacouture in hopes of lighting a spark under his team. That however is not what ended up happening. At the end of the first the Pens did lead in shots 10-9, but the score board showed them trailing by one. Brandon Sutter scored when he was alone in the offensive zone after a Brooks Orpik give away. Sutter scored his first of the season unassisted at 13:07.
The score remained the same as Eric Staal and the rest of the Canes were robbed multiple times both in front of the net and in the neutral zone. Eric Godard refreshed memories that he's the fighter in town by dropping the gloves off a face-off with Wade Brookbank at 9:20 of the second period.
The third however is when things started to get going. Just over eight minutes in the Pens were doing a lot of cycling in the offensive zone while on the power play. Evgeni Malkin took a shot from the point and it deflected past Michael Leighton off of Sidney Crosby.
A mere thirty-two seconds passed before Ruslan Fedotenko slipped the puck behind Leighton. Fedotenko's first goal in a Penguins' uniform came with help from Jordan Staal and Petr Sykora at 8:47.
Three minutes later Max Talbot was in on a break-away when he some how managed to wedge the biscuit under the Carolina goalies' pads to make it 3-1. Tyler Kennedy assisted on the Penguins third goal in three minutes and thirty-six seconds.
The scoring wasn`t over however; with just less than two minutes left the Canes pulled their goalie for the extra attacker. Marc-Andre Fleury took a shot from his crease and the puck went just wide, but it was a terrific attempt on his part. However with less than one minute remaining Rob Scuderi connected with Sidney Crosby, Crosby made a crisp pass to Malkin, and Malkin got the Penguins their fourth goal of the game and the third period.
Marc-Andre Fleury stopped all 25 shots he faced, as the Penguins out-shoot the Canes 35-25.
The three stars were 3. Max Talbot, 2. Evgeni Malkin, 1. Sidney Crosby.
Ryan Whitney (foot), Sergei Gonchar (shoulder), Matt Cooke (rib), & Hal Gill (undisclosed injury) all missed the game along with healthy scratch Bill Thomas. Thomas was sent to the minors today (Friday), where he will now play with the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins.
The battle of the Staals continues as Jordan Staal and the Pittsburgh Penguins take on Marc Staal & the New York Rangers Saturday at 7:08.
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