Pens Beat Sabres 5-4 in Shootout: In one of the best hockey games I have seen all year, the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Buffalo Sabres tonight in a game that went to overtime and ended in a shootout. From start to finish, this was high speed, high intensity, playoff style hockey between two of the best teams in the Eastern Conference. The Sabres led the East with 93 points going into tonight’s game, with Pittsburgh 1 point out of 4th place with 84 points. In the game, Buffalo scored first, at the end of the first period, but Pittsburgh answered with a goal of their own by Ryan Malone just 41 seconds later. In the second, Pittsburgh picked up a second goal off of Maxime Talbot, but Buffalo answered back with a goal just 1:14 later. In the 3rd, Pittsburgh picked up two goals…one by Sidney Crosby and one by Sergei Gonchar, but then gave up two goals to Buffalo, with the tying goal coming with just 7 second left in the game! That sent the game to a 5-minute sudden death overtime which ended with no goals, forcing the shootout.Â
In the shootout, Christensen and Crosby scored goals to win the shootout and claim the game..their 4th win in 6 games. Sidney Crosby picked up 3 more points (1G, 2A), to bring his league leading point total to 103. If he wins the scoring title this season (which he is very likely to do), he will be the youngest player in NHL history to do so. A few games ago, he became the youngest player to hit the 200 career point total.Â
As far as the standings go heading into the playoffs, the Penguins now have 86 points and are still 1 point out of 4th place in the East behind Ottawa who also won tonight. Pittsburgh has 13 games left in the regular season, and Ottawa has 12. The Penguins continue to drive to be in the top 8 in the East to make the playoffs, and are hoping to overtake 4th place to get teh home ice advantage. They play another big game tomorrow night when they take on #2 New Jersey Devils.Â
LeClair to Play Again? In what may be shaping up to be a real class move by a class organization, the rumor mill has it that former Philadelphia Flyer and native Vermonter John LeClair will be suiting up with the Flyers for a few of their last games this season. LeClair who was traded from Philly to Pittsburgh after a long and productive career on left wing, has been a free agent since before Christmas when the Penguins and LeClair dissolved his contract. It is rumored that LeClair has taken a physical to rejoin the Flyers (who are out of playoff contention) for the last few games of the season, and could retire at the end of the season in a Flyers uniform. If this is indeed true, it will be one class act by the Flyers’ organization to show some respect to one of the most prolific goal scorers in Flyers history.Â