Shark Attack

The Pens took the ice for a late game Tuesday night against the San Jose Sharks. The Sharks being the top team in the West posed a challenge for the Penguins who were coming off a shoot-out loss to the Rangers Saturday night.

Michel Therrien decided to start his back up goalie Dany Sabourin who now stands 1-1 after two games. But that`s wasn`t the only change to the line-up, center Max Talbot missed the game with an undisclosed injury mixing up the lines. However five minutes into the first frame line combinations were being switched up ion hopes of creating offense.

Early on Eric Godard dropped the gloves with Jody Shelly. Godard received his first loss of the season as he was not able to get free after his jersey was pulled over his head.

The Guins got the first of only two power plays and failed to capitalize while the Sharks cashed in. An Alex Goligoski give-away lead to an odd man rush in the Pens zone, the initial shot was stopped by goaltender Dany Sabourin but the rebound ended up behind him. Joe Pavelski scored at 10:12 with help from Milan Michalek, a short-handed goal.

At the end of the firs the Pens only had three shots on the board and obviously weren`t creating much offense.

In the second spectacular saves were made by both Dany Sabourin and Evgeni Nabokov keeping the score at 1-0. However in that period the Pens only generated five shots bringing their total to eight on the night.

At the start of the third the top line was where it had been at the start of the game, but that didn`t last long.

The Sharks scored again increasing their lead to two goals, making it seem impossible for the Pens to come back. This however lit a spark under the Penguins. Ruslan Fedotenko was put on the top line with Malkin and Crosby and it finally looked like Pittsburgh was in the game. Fedotenko put it in at 14:27 with help from Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Compared to some of the saves Nabakov had made this one should have been easy to stop.

It looked as though the Pens could score again to tie it up but with just under two minutes remaining Matt Cooke was called for high-sticking while trying to avoid hitting the guy. This blew the Pens chances and they took their second straight loss and third regulation loss of the season.

The three stars were 3.Milan Michalek, 2. Joe Thorton, 1. Joe Pavelski.

Ryan Whitney (foot), Sergei Gonchar (shoulder), Hal Gill (undisclosed), and Max Talbot (undisclosed) all missed the game. There were no healthy scratches and Hal Gill is expected to return to play soon after skating in his first team practice since being injured and is listed as day to day.

The Coyotes welcome the Pens Thursday night as the nine day four game road trip continues, the puck drops at 10:08.