Sabres at Penguins - First Period - 03-02-10
FIRST PERIOD
18:41: Jordan Leopold take the ice for the first time as a Penguin alongside Alex Goligoski.
18:26: Dupuis takes a pass off the left wing, sneaks in and chips a puck into Lalime who hangs on for the save.
18:17: Lalime boots out a tough wrister by Malkin from the slot.
16:22: Kris Letang whips a loose puck from the right circle wide to the far side.
15:15: Johnson kicks out a heavy wrister by Paul Gaustad from the slot.
13:54: Letang chops a slapper from the right point wide on the near side.
12:30: The Penguins have Crosby on a line with Ruslan Fedotenko and Evgeni Malkin.
10:48: Patrick Kaleta runs over Craig Adams in the corner on the left wing in Buffalo's zone.
9:39: Crosby dishes a pass to Chris Kunitz on the left wing. Kunitz gains the blue line and releases a slapper which is a bit off the mark on the near side.
9:25: Lalime covers a puck. Both teams go to their benches in a seemingy peaceful manner then BLAM! All you see is Kunitz and Craig Rivet swinging away like mad men. Nothing really comes of it as an official steps in. Crosby and Rivet ends up with minor penalties. Crosby for slashing. Rivet for roughing. Four-on-four.
8:57: Malkin drives the puck up the right wing and dishes a backhanded pass to Letang in the slot. Letang cranks a one-timer which totally misses the net.
8:50: Makin picks the puck and whips a backhander on net from the right circle. Lalime eats it up.
7:25: The penaties to Crosby and Rivet expire.
6:39: Talbot is on his knees in the corner. Tim Kennedy just goes right ahead and checks him from behind into the boards face-first. What a stupid play. Kennedy gets two minutes for boarding. Talbot is a little slow to recover but eventually returns to the bench. Crosby, Malkin, Bill Guerin, Alex Goligoski and Sergei Gonchar get assists.
6:25: Crosby strikes a one-timer from the left point that clunks off some iron.
6:01: Malkin chops a bouncing puck to the right of the cage on net. Lalime keeps it out somehouw.
5:02: Goligoski controsl the puck on the right half wall, He dishes to Gonchar at the top of the slot. Gonchar windes up and zips a slapper which gets through traffic and beats Lalime by the glove hand. Crosby was in front and took a stab at the puck but it appeared to go in without a deflection. Lalime appeared to lose that in traffic as he was terribly out of place. The goal is the 200th of Gonchar's career. And we totally forgot to mention that after doing so for roughly a month in our game previews. Argh. Goligoski and Crosby get assists. The "Hey Song" is never forgettable. Penguins 1-0.
3:37: Letang chops a slapper on net from the right point. Lalime makes the save with his shoulder but has trouble with the rebound. Mike Rupp and Adams storm the crease but the puck is cleared out of danger.
1:25: Mark Eaton snaps off a wrister from the left point. Lalime makes the save but gives up another rebound. Talbot and other scrum for possession but can't get a handle on it.
1:07: Jason Pominville moves up the left wing and whips a wrister at the cage. Johnson eats it up with ease.
0:54: Tough time to take a penalty. Letang is nabbed for holding. It looked like he tripped up Drew Stafford. Either way, it's worth two minutes. Jordan Staa, Matt COoke, Brook Orpiks and Gonchar take the ice.
0:08: Off some nifty tic-tac-toe passing, Thomas Vanek booms a one-timer from the slot. Johnson fights it off. Tough save.
0:00: End of period. Penguins 1, Sabres 0.
FIRST INTERMISSION
-Nice first period for the Penguins. They were aggressive, the attacked the zone and pressured Lalime.
-So far so good for the Jordan Leopold era. He looks very comfortable with the puck in all three zone and he is a very good skater. He has a burst you don't see in every defenseman.
-He had 5:48 of ice time on seven shots, one takeaway and one blocked shot.
-In case you're wondering, his predecessors with No. 4:
| Noel Price | 1968-1969 |
| Bob Blackburn | 1970-1970 |
| Dave Burrows | 1972-1978 |
| Dale Tallon | 1979-1980 |
| Paul Baxter | 1981-1983 |
| Marty McSorley | 1984-1985 |
| Greg Fox | 1985-1985 |
| Phil Bourque | 1986-1986 |
| Dwight Schofield | 1987-1987 |
| Chris Dahlquist | 1988-1991 |
| Gord Dineen | 1992-1992 |
| Greg Andrusak | 1994-1994 |
| Greg Hawgood | 1994-1994 |
| Kevin Hatcher | 1999-1999 |
| Bobby Dollas | 2001-2001 |
| Jeff Norton | 2001-2001 |
| Mike Wilson | 2002-2002 |
| Jamie Pushor | 2002-2002 |
| Dan Focht | 2003-2004 |
| Cory Cross | 2006-2006 |
| Noah Welch | 2006-2007 |
| Rob Scuderi | 2008-2009 |
-Makin seems to have a little bit more jump tonight. Perhaps he's motivated by the rough outing in the Olympics.
-Letang has been pretty aggressive with his shot. But he's missed more than a few.
-Lalime looks shaky. He's giving up some bad rebound and he was in a bad position for the Gonchar goal.
-Speaking of Gonchar, his abiity to get a crisph, hard and accurate shot through traffic never ceases to amaze us.
-The Penguins have a 14-9 lead in shots.
-Malkin leads the game with three shots.
-Toni Lydman leads Buffalo with two.
-Gonchar leads the game with 8:59 of ice time.
-Myers leads Buffalo with 8:17.
-Buffalo has a 7-6 edge in faceoffs (54 percent).
-Roy is 4 for 4 (100 percent).
-Malkin is 2 for 3 (67 percent).
-Gonchar, Andrej Sekera and Chris Butler each lead the game with three blocked shots.