The Great One

The Pens fell for the third straight time and second time in the West. This time it was to the Coyotes who are coached by The Great One Wayne Gretzky. Not only did the Pens lose the game, but in the third period they also lost the services of their captain and first line center Sidney Crosby.

In the first period both teams were held scoreless as Marc-Andre Fleury and Ilja Bryzgalov stood strong in their respective nets. However the Coyotes had ten more shots than the Pens at 12.

Former Florida Panther Olli Jokinen got his team on the board with a goal just seconds after Pens defenseman Brooks Orpik’s interference penalty ended. Shane Doan and Zbynek Michalek assisted at 7:53.

However less than a minute later Pens Miroslav Satan scored a spectacular goal while on the power play. Alex Goligoski and Evgeni Malkin who were at the point together for the short power play got the puck up to the slot where Satan batted it in behind the Coyotes goaltender. It was one of eighteen shots taken by the Penguins in the second period.

Two minutes remained in the second frame when Shane Doan notched his first of the game with help from Steven Reinprecht and Peter Meuller, the power play goal was scored while Jordan Staal was in the box for boarding.

The third period is where things really started to fall apart for the Pens. Failing to capitalize on a five on three and got a penalty of their own. While in the Coyotes zone Satan was called for hooking, and after arguing the call was given a ten minute misconduct; the penalty was called at 9:55.

Kevin Porter increased his teams lead to two when he scored an even strength goal at 14:49 with help from Steven Reinprecht and Mikkel Boedker.

Shane Doan scored his second of the night into an empty net with help from Viktor Tikonov and Zbynek Michalek at 19:01.

The three stars were 3. Steven Reinprecht, 2. Olli Jokienen, 1. Shane Doan.
Ryan Whitney (foot), Sergei Gonchar (shoulder), Pascal Dupuis (undisclosed) all missed the game along with healty scratch Paul Bissonnette. Hal Gill and Max Talbot returned to play along with Chris Minard who was called up from Wilkes-Barre Scranton.

The Pens take on the St. Louis Blues in St. Louis at 8:30pm Saturday night.