sloppy first

what was hyped beyond belief, turned into a game of miss chances and tons of mistakes. The lip got us goin in the first, Craps came back with goals by Steckel and The Lady making 2-1 after 1. Pens were dominate in the first 13 mins of the game only to muster Lippy's goal. Little less than midway through the first the Pens ran into the dumbness zone and the result turned into a 5 on 3 PP goal by The Lady. 2-1 Craps

Second period had a lot of action, big saves and a few goal posts by Marc-Andre or The Lady would have a few more goals. For most of the period the Pens were blowing some great opportunities on odd man rushes. Craps rookie Gman Varlamov and MAF was playing well, not to mention the save Varlamov made on The Lip keeping it 2-1. Then a harmless shot and a flat out gift of a goal by our new offensive Juggernaut(2 goals in his last 2 games) defensemen Mark Eaton, new hockey game now, feeling pretty good about our chances, with a now shaky goalie I figured we would own the Craps in the third. 2-2 after 2.

Then a early 3rd period goal by Craps Tom Fleischman was all she wrote for game one. Pens worked in spurts in the 3rd. Final and game 1 to the Craps.

No shows for the Pens today were....

Ugly Malkin(he did have a few descent shifts)....

PP, has been down right horrid(0-5 and had the last 4 in a row)

Wingers once again, W(here are)TF(ing) are the wingers on this team.

Nice game for The Lip, Eaton(has raised his game during the playoffs) and Fleury

Come one guys, Valarmov was giving some big time rebounds that we did nothing with...

Bring up Janne....

Vince's Thoughts: So from my stand point there were both good and bad things about this game. First off, the good is that we kept this game close, and showed that we can play with these guys, i was kind of afraid they would come out and blow us out of the water... Winning 3-2 is nothing near to a decisive win, and they will have to remain on their toes the rest of the series. The bad part about this, which i feel outweighs the good, is we did the one thing that I knew we couldn't afford to do... We gave Valarmov the confidence to know that he can win the game... Though i'm sure there is some bad taste in his mouth about the Eaton goal, overall he faired quite well, and hands down won the crapitals this game... In game 2 we need to come out and make him pay for his mistakes, if we get him doubting himself this series is ours...

k, We'll Wait...

After a dominate first period in which the Pens peppered F..L..A goalie Vokoun with 19 shots. The pens looked better than I was hoping for. A  Hal Gill miss play lead to FLA 1-0 lead. Hands of Stone made a nice play to tie the game for the Pens. Look like they were ready to roll, the Panthers looked lack luster so far in such an important game for them.  Then it happened, they play that changed this game dramatically. F..L..A D-man Keith Ballard send Ugly to moon with a hip check.

Ugly was just a little stunned, but his counterpart Sid"The LIP" Crosby comes to stick-up for his fallen Rusky buddy. Result...a powerplay goal for F..L..A with 20 secs left in the period...That was all she wrote.

F..L..A dominated the Pens until midway through the 3rd when the Pens Silk takes a stick to the face..wala..4 min PP...2 mins go by nothing..zilch..natta...Then PP specialist M.Eaton unleshes a shot from the point..GOAL!!!..Dam..do we have a game or not?....Yes, for about little more than a minute

THEN................................................................

F..L..A's Ville Peltonen(sounds like Pesonen) swoons from the corner with like 100 Pens players 

looking around to see if Ugly has landed landed yet for his flight. GOAL!!GAME!!  and another loss.

Oh well... a win and we are in..no panic here.. it will come...perhaps as soon as Tuesday at Tampa.

hopefully maybe the Stars( 4 goals scored by: Captain Close,Pigman,Stone Hands and Specialist) will show up...the grinders tried for 2 games now to get us in...

 

Great defensive play...

Janne did show a very good defensive play on the penalty kill against Crosby first unit power play. While the power play unit had been controlling the puck and working the blue line Pessi intercepted a pass from Sid to Geno with very nice anticipation. Janne received alot of atta boy from staff and players.

Finally the practice is over. For Janne is was very solid effort. Hopefully he can carry this effort over to the Lightning game. Janne ends today's practice with sticks in hand contemplating whether to you two or one tonight.