The Two-Line Pass

The Lead

Jordan Staal had five points in 14 games coming into tonight’s tilt with the Stanley Cup Champion Red Wings.

But tonight, Staal nearly doubled his season output by recording a third-period hat trick and assisting on the game-winner to help the Penguins to an improbable, wild 7-6 overtime win in Detroit. His three goals came within a space of 11:28, sandwiching a Jiri Hudler tally, to first cut the Detroit lead to 5-4, then cut it to 6-5 and level with just 23 seconds on the clock.

It was cuh-razy and it’s sweet redemption for Staal, if only for just tonight. After his stellar rookie season in which he scored 29 goals and a league-leading seven shorties, he was just terrible last year. Pittsburgh fans hated him, as much for getting their hopes up that they had three franchise centers (who can be content with just two?) as the actual poor play.

The goals came in a game, too, for which I had already chalked up a Detroit win. Even though Sid Crosby opened the scoring at just 4:34 of the first period, the Pens then went from 5:17 to 19:04 without a shot on goal, and meanwhile Detroit was buzzing around the offensive zone, attempting 17 shots in that span (three were blocked, two went wide) with Darren McCarty and Tomas Holmstrom scoring on two. That the Penguins escaped the period with only a one-goal deficit was a small miracle. Once Johan Franzen and Pavel Datsyuk scored in the second period, the game seemed all but academic despite Max Talbot’s goal to at least keep Pittsburgh within two.

Then Detroit just melted down completely, taking penalty after penalty and allowing the opponent free reign along the perimeter of the attacking zone. Henrik Zetterberg increased the lead to three early in the period but Evgeni Malkin and Staal brought their team back within one. Malkin’s was on a 5-on-3 power play, and Staal’s was immediately following it.

Once Staal squared away his hat trick and ensured overtime, Brian Rafalski took a foolish hooking penalty with four seconds left that effectively neutralized the Wings’ chance to attack for a good 40 percent of the extra period. Smart move, that.

Staal created the winning goal by picking Pavel Datsyuk’s pocket in the neutral zone (no small feat) and feeding the puck to Ruslan Fedotenko, who sent the pathetic Detroit crowd home unhappy. Well, unhappier. The opposition on-ice at the time of the Fedo goal? Datsyuk, Rafalski, Nicklas Lidstrom and Hossa. Not a bad group of guys to torch.

The win wasn’t all good for the Pens though, who saw Rob Scuderi, one of their few remaining defensemen who is both healthy and competent (sorry Kris Letang), take a slapper off the outside of the skate and head to the locker room around seven minutes into the game. Shots like that hurt and he could be out awhile unless things went perfectly for him.

As for Hossa’s performance against his former team? He didn’t do too, too badly. Two assists but he was a -2 for the night. Even after a night like this, I bet he isn’t questioning Detroit’s still-fantastic chances to win the Cup OR the move.

Neither are the Penguins. Who needs Hossa when you Jordan Freaking Staal?

Elsewhere…

Philadelphia 3, New York Islanders 1

The good news for Dany Briere: he scored a goal in the first period today. The bad news: he left the game after the goal because he got the dreaded “lower body injury”. Oops. Further bad news for the Flyers: Scott Hartnell got benched for the entire third period and Joffrey Lupul only played four shifts in the first period because John Stevens didn’t like their efforts of late. Lupul’s icetime only increased out of necessity. But at least Stevens is holding his guys accountable for once. They’ve played like crap for a month and despite snapping a three-game losing streak today, needed a message sent their way.

Montreal 4, Ottawa 0

Chris Higgins had a hat trick in this one, and Jarkko Ruutu pissed off a lot of people at Scotiabank Place the Bell Centre. He did so by first lifting his stick to salute the crowd as they booed him, getting a misconduct for mouthing off to the Ottawa bench, and then waving to the fans as he walked down the tunnel, which was as hilarious as you’d imagine. He also elbowed Maxim Lapierre in the face Dusty Rhodes style, which is not so hilarious.

Calgary 4, Toronto 3

Calgary led this game 4-1 with five minutes to go and nearly gave it away. Dustin Boyd scored twice for Calgary, earning his first career multiple-point game and picking up his fourth and fifth goal in eight games and sixth overall. Dion Phaneuf had a goal and an assist and Jarome Iginla scored his 10th of the year. Matt Stajan scored late for the Leafs to cut the lead to one. Well, “scored.” He just happened to be standing across from Craig Conroy when Connie won a d-zone faceoff straight back into his own net. Easiest goal Stajan will ever score, and for sure the most disappointing faceoff win in Conroy’s illustrious career.

Nashville 4, San Jose 3 (OT)

Ville Koistinen scored 2:28 into overtime and the Predators rallied to win a game in which they never led. The Sharks led 2-0 and 3-2 thanks to two goals from Devin Setoguchi and another from Rob Blake but blew each of those leads before Koistinen’s slap shot beat Brian Boucher. The overtime loss was the first time the Sharks did anything but win at the HP Pavillion this year. Dan Ellis made FIFTY-TWO saves in this one, including a game-saver with two seconds left.

Los Angeles 3, Dallas 2 (SO)

Alex Frolov scored the decisive shootout goal and Erik Ersberg stopped Mike Modano to give the talented young kings their third win in a row. Jere Lehtinen, fresh off an injury, and Modano scored in regulation for the Stars, and Jarret Stoll and Dustin Brown took care of the Los Angeles goals. Ersberg didn’t have to stay too busy to get the win, making 19 saves in regulation. Marty Turco was surprisingly not-awful despite the loss. Also, look at the goal Mike Ribeiro scored in the shootout. Wow.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 12th, 2008 at 2:21 am and is filed under Good night. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.