Too Much?

In the last two years the Pens have taken on the Sens twenty times, and while the Penguins may have turned their season around against the Senators last season the Sens may have turned their season around against the Pens Saturday afternoon.

The first twenty minutes, were hard hitting, and pretty defensive for both teams as no goals were scored and not a single penalty was called.

That changed early in the second period as Jason Spezza went in on Dany Sabourin. Sabourin who went out to poke-check was out too far and left the net empty for Spezza's first goal of the afternoon. The goal was unassisted and was scored at 4:01.

Spezza scored again this time with a shot from in front of the net at 8:52, Dany Heatley and Daniel Alfredsson assisted.

Not much later Eric Godard and Chris Neil dropped the gloves. The fight was pretty even matched and after closed to two minutes both combatants gave up calling it a draw.

Jordan Staal was lucky again as he tipped in his ninth of the year with help from Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin on the power play. Jason Spezza was in the box for hooking when Staal scored at 16:17, brining his team within one.

However the Sens had other plans as Spezza completed his hat-trick with a weird goal from behind the net. His shot bounced off of Kris Letang`s skate and went in between Sabourin's leg and the post. Filip Kuba and Dany Heatley assisted at 19:21.

Malkin brought his team within one and put himself three points of the second place Sidney Crosby in the NHL scoring race. Jordan Staal picked up a loss puck and was off with Malkin into the Sens zone. The short-handed goal was scored at 9:12.

But the Sens managed to hold the Pens off for the rest of the game coming away with two more points.

The three stars were 3. Dany Heatley, 2. Daniel Alfredsson, 1. Jason Spezza.

Ryan Whitney (foot), Sergei Gonchar (shoulder), Marc-Andre Fleury (undisclosed), Philippe Boucher (undisclosed), Tyler Kennedy (knee), and Mike Zigomanis (undisclosed) all missed the game.

Monday night the Pens are at home to take on the Buffalo Sabers at 7:38.