Monday, 23 January 2017

NHL - Penguins - Round Up January 08-12, 2017


Tampa Bay Lightning @ Penguins 2-6 - Sunday, January 08, 2017

Six different players scored and Marc-Andre Fleury made 28 saves to help the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 6-2 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning at PPG Paints Arena. Fleury is 13-5-4 after winning five straight and seven of his past eight decisions (7-0-1). In their first game since Dec. 31, the Penguins (26-8-5) extended their winning streak to five games. Pittsburgh is 18-2-2 at home, where they have not lost in regulation since a 5-2 loss to the New York Rangers on Nov. 21. With the Penguins trailing 1-0 in the second period, Conor Sheary tied it at 6:44 before Eric Fehr scored to give the Penguins a 2-1 lead at 11:14. Chris Kunitz made it 3-1 at 2:33 of the third period and Scott Wilson extended the lead to 4-1 at 3:28. Tampa Bay forward Vladislav Namestnikov made it 4-2 with a power-play goal 5:40, but Phil Kessel restored Pittsburgh's three-goal lead at 7:50. Kris Letang scored the Penguins' fourth goal of the third period to make it 6-2 with 2:40 remaining. The goal was Letang's third of the season and first since Nov. 18.
* Cullen skated into the offensive zone before passing between Hedman and Nikita Kucherov. Fehr received the pass and one-timed a shot for a go-ahead goal midway through the second period.
* Lightning forward J.T. Brown did not play after being hit in the head by Philadelphia Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds on Saturday. … Tampa Bay recalled forwards Michael Bournival and Erik Condra from Syracuse on Sunday. … Penguins defenseman Chad Ruhwedel was a healthy scratch. Steve Oleksy replaced him to play alongside defenseman Trevor Daley. … Kunitz's goal was his 164th with Pittsburgh, which tied Ron Francis for 10th in Penguins history.
Pens Quotes
"You want to be good at home, obviously. … I think when we're here, we try to use that advantage as best we can and we've played really good hockey here. I think it has to do with the energy we get." Sidney Crosby

"This league has a way of challenging every team in a particular moment in the season, and I think those guys are going through it. … They're facing a little bit of adversity, but certainly they're a very, very good team."
"I think our team enjoys playing in front of our fans. I know they give us a boost, but it's not like we draw up a game plan for home and a game plan for away. We're trying to play the same game." Mike Sullivan said.

Penguins @ Washington Capitals 2-5 - Wednesday, January 11, 2017
Alex Ovechkin reached 1,000 NHL points with his first of two goals, starting the Washington Capitals on their way to a 5-2 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Verizon Center. Ovechkin scored 35 seconds into the first period and 8:06 into the second to give Washington a 2-0 lead. Justin Williams, Nicklas Backstrom and Lars Eller scored for the Capitals (27-9-5), who have won seven in a row. Braden Holtby made 30 saves. Ovechkin, who has 35 points this season, is the 84th player in NHL history to reach 1,000 points and the 37th player to score that many with one franchise. He played his 880th NHL game.
After Ovechkin scored, Williams asked the referee if they could have a minute to let the milestone sink in. Behind Ovechkin on the bench, Backstrom, who assisted on the goal, nudged him to stand up.
Evgeni Malkin and Patric Hornqvist scored, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 25 saves for the Penguins (26-9-5), who had won five in a row. Williams made it 3-0 at 4:31 of the third period. He redirected Evgeny Kuznetsov's behind-the-net pass past Fleury. Malkin scored a power-play goal from the right circle to make it 3-1 at 7:46 of the third. Backstrom made it 4-1 at 13:11. Hornqvist's power-play goal with 2:36 remaining made it 4-2. Eller scored an empty-net goal with 18 seconds left.
"Everybody was happy. I mean, it didn't take him very long to get it done. That was a great start for him and for us. He sort of had that look in his eye once he touched the puck that something good was going to happen. So real happy for him. I know the guys were thrilled for him and a little history. I said to him in Montreal, I said that, 'It was really sort of cool that [you] tied Maurice Richard in Montreal, but I think it's only fitting that you get the 1,000th point here for our fans.' So he did it, and he didn't take much time." Capitals coach Barry Trotz on Alex Ovechkin

"Every night he plays hard, so nothing new. He wants to score goals and he wants to help the team as much as he can. It wasn't really any surprises there, but the only thing that was a little surprising was maybe 35 seconds. That's all it took. But that's typical [of] a guy like him though." Capitals forward Nicklas Backstrom on Alex Ovechkin

"We had our chances to get back into it. Their goalie made some saves and we weren't able to capitalize." Sidney Crosby said.


"It was probably the difference in the game. We were climbing back in it. We had momentum, we had energy. Our power play gave us a boost in the third. We were right there. That was a big turning point for me." Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said of hitting a crossbar before Nicklas Backstrom's power-play goal
Penguins @ Ottawa Senators 1-4 - Thursday, January 12, 2017
Mike Condon made 29 saves, and Erik Karlsson had two assists to help the Ottawa Senators to a 4-1 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Canadian Tire Centre. The Penguins (26-10-5) lost back-to-back games in regulation for the first time since Dec. 14-19, 2015, when they lost their first four games after Mike Sullivan took over as coach. Pittsburgh lost 5-2 to the Washington Capitals on Wednesday. The Penguins went 90 consecutive regular-season games without back-to-back regulation losses. Bobby Ryan and Mike Hoffman scored power-play goals, and Tom Pyatt and Mark Stone scored for the Senators (22-14-4). Condon, who started his eighth consecutive game, was acquired in a trade with the Penguins for a fifth-round pick in the 2017 NHL Draft on Nov. 2, 2016. Conor Sheary scored for the Penguins, and goaltender Matt Murray, playing his first game since sustaining a lower-body injury Dec. 28 against the Carolina Hurricanes, made 29 saves. The win ended a four-game losing streak for the Senators against the Penguins. Ottawa led 3-1 after Sheary scored with 6.4 seconds left in the second period when he deflected a shot by Evgeni Malkin from the left-wing circle. Ottawa scored two power-play goals in the first period when Ryan scored his first goal in five games at 5:29 and Hoffman scored his 12th of the season at 9:26. Pyatt scored for the second game in a row when he deflected a shot by Karlsson to make it 3-0 at 12:50 of the second. Stone scored at 8:59 of the third period to make it 4-1 when he got his stick on a pass by Derick Brassard and deflected it past Murray.
* With the Senators on the power play in the first period, Hoffman got his stick on a hard pass by Karlsson in the slot and deflected it into the top corner on Murray's stick side.


"We put ourselves in a bad spot when you fall down 3-0. It's a tough hill to climb there."
"We would have like to see that streak continue, but I think that sometimes you need to lose a couple in order to play better. I think we haven't deserved to win the last couple of games. Sometimes when you're playing well you get some bounces. Good teams find ways to win when they're not at their best. We didn't deserve to win the last couple, so we've got to find a way to get back on track here a bit and maybe this will be something that will make us realize that we've got to have better." Sidney Crosby said.

"I felt a little rusty early. I felt really good as the game went on. I felt pretty much to where I wanted to be in the third period. They got that one, but that's [a] tough play and the guy kind of fanned on it and it rolled on him and it went short side instead of far side. I felt better and better as the game went on, but definitely a little bit of rust, but that's going to happen. It's been a little while since I was in there." Matt Murray

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