Round Two Game Five: Penguins/ Capitals

Monster Mash – Bobby “Boris” Pickett

Penguins lead the series 3-2

By Jan Snyder

“Monster Mash” has a good beat and is easy to dance to! Even though Halloween is far away, the song fits the show that unfolded before our eyes tonight because it’s about a monster.

If you watch the Penguin broadcasts, you know that the announcers, Paul Steigerwald and Bob Errey, love to refer to Malkin and Crosby as the “two-headed monster” when they are on the ice together. Thanks to that monster, the Pens won another monster game in overtime!


Yes, the Red got Rocked – by the Black and Gold – in their own building. There is no denying this has been a monster series, filled with monster hits and monster individual efforts as well.

The game had such a frenetic pace that it was hard to believe that these same guys had played another intense game just the night before. From the drop of the puck, both teams gave their all, trying to get their team ahead. In the first period, the Caps and Pens traded power plays, but neither team was able to score. Both goalies, too, made some great stops. The first ended with a bit of a melee and the result took two Caps and two Pens to the box, including Malkin and Ovechkin.

So period two began without the two Russians, who had to wait for a whistle to get back into the action. That didn’t come until three minutes into the second. Before five minutes elapsed, Jordan Staal, who must be watching his big brother, Eric, handling the Bruins, decided he deserved some ESPN face time and scored his first goal of the season with a little help from Satan and Orpik.

But that lead was short-lived as Ovechkin evened things up just about a minute later. But when Gill jumped onto the ice too soon, the Caps got a power play and Backstrom took advantage and put the Caps ahead with just five minutes left in the second period.

The Pens played seven defensemen in this game – that’s right, it takes two others to take the place of Gonchar! Gogligoski and Bucher both acquitted themselves well.

As the hits kept coming and the pace stayed frantic, Ruslan Fedotenko scored another goal, on one of his 10 shots on goal in the game, less than a minute in. The third line of Staal, Kennedy and Cooke were monsters tonight too and after hard work by their line, Cooke deposited a puck in the net. Everything was status quo for the rest of the third – or so it would seem. Again, with just four minutes left, Ovechkin scored and tied things up.

Off to overtime again! Well, at least it was Saturday. Not too many people would have to get up for work tomorrow. Put on a pot of coffee and get ready to dig in for a long night of hockey! But that didn’t happen because the two-headed monster took matters into “its” own hands. After the Caps came close to scoring on Fleury, the ref called a penalty that gave the Pens a power play. No Gonchar? No matter tonight because Malkin and Crosby worked it and when Malkin swooped in on net, the puck bounced off the stick of the Caps d-man and trickled into the net! WOOHOO! Another exciting overtime win – and it only took four minutes! Malkin is a hero again!

Even though Crosby had no points, his play was outstanding and he handed out a few big hits. Geno added an assist as well as his great game winning goal and attempted six shots on goal. All told, the Caps handed out 39 hits and the Pens 30. Let’s get physical, indeed.

This was another team game, with everyone on the Pens chipping in and doing their thing. Each team had only two power plays and each converted on one.

In this monster series, filled with monster efforts, the two-headed monster proved more powerful as a tandem than Ovechkin by himself (although Backstrom sure had his back.)

Back to the ‘burg. Are you ready for yet another monster game? Be loud, Pens fans.



Let’s Go, Pens!!