Hurricanes at Penguins - Second Period - 03-20-10
SECOND PERIOD
17:56: Orpik dishes out some free candy to Boychuck on the left wall.
17:48: McBain whips a wrister on net from the right point. Fleury gloves it.
16:53: Attendance is announced as 17,090. It is a standing-room only sell out. It is the 153rd consecutive sell-out for the team.
16:17: Gonchar snaps a puck up ice from behind his blue line to Kennedy at the Carolina blue line. Kennedy gets loose on a breakaway. He snaps off a wrister from just near th erigh circle. Legace traps it behind his legs.Just as the whistle blows, Kennedy goes snooping around and jabs the puck in to the net. The red light goes off. Officials immediately wave off the goal. Kennedy and Pitkanen start scrumming. While that's going on, Ruutu and Rupp begin their own scrum behind the cage.
15:56: Letang chops a slapper from the right point.
13:37: Kennedy gets another chance from the slot and rips it high of the cage.
13:17: Gonchar sneaks up the right wing and tries to tuck a puck in by Legace's left foot. Legace holds it out. A scrum ensue. Kennedy comes barging in and the pile falls over Legace and dislodges the net. Play is halted. Legace rolls over in discomfort. He takes off his gloves and starts to clutch is leg. A trainer comes to attend to Legace. Eventually, Legace recovers. He stays in the game. Kennedy is called for goaltenders interference. Jordan Staal, Pascal Dupuis, Orpik and Letant take the ice.
13:09: Penguin killer Ray Whitney chops a one-timer from the left half wall. Miraculously, Fleury makes the save. Generally, anything Whitney puts on net against the Penguins goes in.
12:28: Legace's ailment forces him from the game. He is replaced by Justin Peters.
11:23: Eric Staal has a chance in front but can't cleanly get a handle on the puck and pushes it juuuust wide.
10:51: LaRose is farming out by the Penguins blue line and gets a torpedo pass from a teammate in the Hurricanes' zone. He moves in on net, makes few dekes and eventually loses the puck and crashes into Fleury. Play is halted. Fleury appears to discuss the South American economic crisis of 2002 with LaRose. We think.
9:42: Fedotenko draws a penalty again. This time he's held up by Pothier along the boards. Fedotenko drew two penalties in Boston Thursday. Letang, Crosby, Gonchar, Malkin and Ponikarovsky take the ice.
9:16: Jay Harrison blocks a shot. McBain chses it down and whisp it down ice.
8:57: Gonchar blasts a one-time from the right point. It misses on the near side and deflects to the other side of the cage. Crosby collects it and tries to lift a backhander by Peters. Peters is able to glove the shot.
7:42: The Pothier penalty is killed. The Penguins didn't really do much with that two minutes.
7:35: Fedotenko grips and rips a wrister from the slot. It misses high.
5:36: Crosby makes a neat move in tight to get by McBain and dishes a sick backhanded pass through the crease to Kunitz who punches the shot wide on the near side. Argh.
3:11: Manny Legace has been diagnosed with a "lower-body" injury and is not expected to return.
2:39: Patrick Dwyer rushes up the right wing and chucks a wrister on net. Fleury boots it out.
1:15: Pothier is sent off for holding up Kennedy. Rough time to take a penalty. Kennedy has been creating chances for the Penguins. Ponikarovsky, Letang, Gonchar, Crosby and Jordan Staal take the ice. Hmm.. no Malkin?
0:29: Eric Staal pushes the puck up ice one-on-one with Gonchar. He initally beats Gonchar in the right circle, but Gonchar is able to lunge out and poke the puck away from Staal. What a play.
0:17: Crosby gains the blue line, pulls up at the right point and deals to Ponikarovsky streaks in up the slot. Ponikarovsky moves in with a clear lane to shoot. Instead of shooting he deals a pass to Jordan Staal deep on the right wing. Just as you're about to swear at Ponikarovsky, Staal lifts a wrister from a tough angle which beats Peters on the glove side. What a heads up play by Ponikarovsky. Ponikarovsky and Crosby get assists. The "Hey Song" is always heads up. Hurricanes 1, Penguins 1.
0:00: End of period. Hurricanes 1, Penguins 1.
SECOND INTERMISSION
Well, it got pretty darn exciting at the end, but that was another boring period. Neither team really has been pressing the issue offensively.
-Tyler Kennedy is playing a heck of a game. He's going to the net, getting shots off and he drew the second Pothier penalty through sheer work.
-Ponikarovsky continues to baffle and entice. He did nothing for roughly 39 minutes then BOOM! He makes that brilliant pass to set up Staal.
-We don't want to be that guy, but the power play did look pretty good without Malkin.
-The Penguins have a 13-11 lead in shots.
-Malkin leads the game with three.
-Pothier, Boychuk and Sergei Samsonov each lead Carolina with two.
-Pitkanen leads the game with 18:51 of ice time.
-Gonchar leads the Penguins with 15:17.
-The Penguins have an 18-16 edge in faceoffs (53 percent).
-Crosby is 8 for 13 (62 percent).
-Sutter is 7 for 12 (58 percent).
-Alex Goligoski, Leopold, Gonchar, Pothier, Pitkanen and Harrison each lead the game with two blocked shots.