The Penguins went on a short “West Coast Swing” this past week and played the San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings and took three out of the four possible points presented to them. Game one was played at the Shark Tank and the Pens were without Jordan Staal, Zybenik Michalek, and Sidney Crosby. Staal has been on fire and is a yearly Selke Award candidate (Top defensive forward). So that was tough for us defensively. Michalek has a broken finger but is expected back within the next three weeks.
The Penguins scored two goals with the first two minutes to take a commanding lead. Deryk Engelland and Evgeni Malkin put the pens up early. The Penguins played a dominant first period with a lot of shots and not giving up many to their opponent. The Sharks fought back to start the second period when Patrick Marleau scored on a slight break away. Later in the period Malkin scored again in what should have been a game-clinching goal, but the Sharks fought back again. The pens got way too defensive and the Sharks closed the gap by scoring two goals late and forcing overtime. The Sharks controlled the puck but no one scored and a shootout ensued. Greiss and Fleury were on top of their game until Ryan Clowe scored for the Sharks and Dupuis couldn’t match the Sharks and stole one from the pens. Sharks 3 Pens 2.
Two days later the Penguins were in L.A. and played a rather ugly game. But all that matters is a victory, not how bad you may have looked for some periods. Steve Sullivan scored his first goal of the year. The Pens were down 2-1 late in the third period but continued to grind it out on the boards and were rewarded when Jordan Staal won a battle and dished it behind the net to Chris Kunitz who backhanded it into the net with a few minutes to play in the game. This game also went to a shootout and Letang scored first with a filthy deke that left Jonathan Quick sprawling on the ice. Fleury gave up a shootout goal to Anze Kopitar, who scored earlier in the contest, but it was up to Chris Kunitz and he finished it off with a shot through the 5 hole. Pens 3 Kings 2.
This upcoming week the Penguins return home to play the Dallas Stars on Friday night, and travel to Carolina the following night to take on the Hurricanes.
There has been much speculation that Sidney Crosby would make his return on Friday night at home, but Crosby didn’t give any hints away and continued to say he is still progressing and there is no set date for a return.
