Hot Hiller, Crafty Selanne push Ducks past Penguins 2-1
by Stephen Catanese on Feb 15, 2012 9:52 PM EST
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PrintLet us take a step back and soak in the circumstances of how the Penguins fell to the Ducks 2-1 at the CONSOL Energy Center on Wednesday night.
A fast, fluid pace employed by two hot teams could've produced a fair share offense on a normal night, but two hot goaltenders ended all thoughts of a replay of recent Penguins games. Marc-Andre Fleury made 27 saves on 29 shots for the Penguins, only to be topped by the slightly hotter Jonas Hiller, who made 25 saves on 26 shots.
Both teams played clean. Three penalties for the Penguins, one for the Ducks, all of the innocuous variety. Officiating may have been here and there, especially calling Chris Kunitz for a slash very late in the third period, but the teams themselves played the right type of game.
Really, the thing will always stand out in this one was the game winner.
The Penguins, piling on pressure for what seemed like an eternity, are finally cracked by the visitors. Ducks winger Matt Belskey, transitioning through the neutral zone, finds the puck on his stick as he skates towards the Penguins' blue line. Belsekey is a fighter, a grinder, not a playmaker. He's played 49 games this year and has 13 points, compared with 52 penalty minutes.
Somehow, Beleskey finds it in his power to deliver an unreal backhand saucer pass from wing to wing, finding none other than Teemu Selanne.
Teemu. The name just gets you excited.
He bears down on Fleury, reaches into his bag of tricks, and finds one to excite even the most stone-hearted of cynics. There's your game winner.
Selanne is 41-years-old. He may retire after this year. So it goes with NHL careers.
The Penguins lost, and it was a shame that such a solid performance was all for naught. But at least we got to see the magician pull off one more master illusion before he hanging his cape up.
The loss snaps a six-game home winning streak for the Penguins, and Evgeni Malkin's five-game scoring streak came to a halt. Don't worry, he's too good right now for that to last very long.
On the bright side, Jordan Staal scored his 17th of the season, and second in three games since returning from injury. A Pascal Dupuis chip up the boards, a Staal to receive it, and a slick wrist shot to finish it. A fine goal.
A point could've pulled the Penguins past the Flyers. One wasn't to be found.
Don't worry, the flightless birds will face their cross-state rivals in the City of Brotherly Love on Saturday, with everything still very much on the line.
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I thought it was a poor effort.
Too bad the Penguins didn’t draw Anaheim sometime in 2011, seen a lot of those guys and they (their defense especially) was God awful. As per typical Anaheim, they wake up and everyone starts saying “shit those guys are pretty good”… In any case, I found the Pens effort tonight to be lazy at best. Give Anaheim credit where it’s due but a team that played a hard fought game last night in Minnesota arriving at 2AM in Pittsburgh should not have more jump than the Home team that’s had a couple days off.
Fact was, Anaheim dominated P2, Penguins missed a LOT of passes and when they had chances they didn’t cash them in. Hiller was good, MAF was a lot better actually. One PP for the Pens and it’s Anaheim getting 2 glorious scoring opps?
Selanne’s goal was a thing of beauty, even if he was offsides. Fact is, the Ducks were absolutely gassed and the Pens got too cute and ended up paying for it. Lot of TOs, and missed passes, even the face off circle was poor. Anaheim has been bad all year at faceoffs and they won a lot of them tonight.
Good win for the Ducks, Bad loss for the Penguins. Hope the jump and the effort is 10-fold on Saturday, really need to beat Philly, if for no other reason than to prove they can!
Go Pens!
Well in the regular season anyways :)
by jedmiller71 on Feb 16, 2012 8:06 AM EST via mobile up reply actions
Disco Dan forgot to leave three pints of Haagan-Dazs in the visitor’s locker room to distract him.
Let's grind these bitches down!
by lostprophetRJX on Feb 16, 2012 9:51 AM EST up reply actions
Somehow, Beleskey finds it in his power to deliver an unreal backhand saucer pass from wing to wing, finding none other than Teemu Selanne.
Teemu. The name just gets you excited.
Any truth to the rumor that they grandfathered in the off-sides rule for Selanne?
"You come at the King, you best not miss."
Bollocks.
Dude was on. The best replays were inconclusive. Fact of the matter is, he could’ve been ten feet onside and there was still no far-side presence to deter his path to Fleury.
by Stephen Catanese on Feb 17, 2012 3:24 PM EST up reply actions
Poorly officiated
If the Quacks announcers (very homer btw) ask each other if the Selanne play was offsides or not and don’t spend time reviewing it, you know he was offsides… Still a great goal that never should have happened in the first place.
MAF was excellent or this game could have been embarrassing. The Pens missed a few good chances but by in large the Ducks controlled action from P2 onwards and given the circumstances that’s pretty lame.
As for the officiating, if you’re going to go the entire game and not call anything, you can’t call a slash with 2:43 left in a one goal game. Brian Heyward suggested it was for a missed slash on Corey Perry with about 10 minutes left, that wouldn’t surprise me, but it would make the call all the more pathetic. Could a slash have been called? Of course, (they did) but after all the shit they let play on, it was a soft call at a very inopportune time.
Poor job by the zebras.
Hot Hiller, Crafty Selanne push Ducks past Penguins 2-1
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by nimkasnimkas@gmail.com on Mar 3, 2012 11:16 PM EST reply actions
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