No One Said It'd Be Easy: Pens Beat Coyotes in 4-3 Shootout Win

Coyotes Blog: Five for Howling

It sure didn't look good after the first period of play, but by the end of the three-goal second period the Penguins showed enough life to convince even the most cynical of fans that they could very well pull off a win after all was said and done.  After some extra time and the shootout, the Penguins did just that.

I don't like to say who's to blame on one goal or the other, but the defense left Fleury out to dry on that first goal scored by Eric Belanger.  Given the position of the defense and the even-man rush, there's no excuse as to why he was able to sneak behind Deryk Engelland to score that goal. 

Engelland's play was exploited once again on the Coyotes' second goal of the game when Radim Vrbata got the edge on him and scored what posed as a questionable call at the time.  Upon further review the refs ruled it a goal and the Yotes took a 2-0 lead, although I have to admit I'm still raising an eyebrow over that one.  One could even argue that Engelland's play attributed to Fleury getting pulled after that second goal but that's up for interpretation.

The first period closed out with the Yotes holding that lead as the momentum of the game was eerily similar to that of the Dallas Stars game from earlier in the week.  But the second period belonged to the Pens as Sidney Crosby scored one on a turnover, Evgeni Malkin somehow squeezed one past Bryzgalov and Chris Kunitz notched one following one by Phoenix's Wojtek Wolski to end the period with the scored tied at three.

Then the third came and went.

And so did overtime.

Until finally the Pens found themselves entering their first shootout of the season.  Thankfully for Johnson, he was perfect in the shutout and sealed the win thanks in part to Mark Letestu scoring on the third and final attempt before it headed into "extra innings."

And so the four-game road trip ends at .500, as the Pens went 2-2 over the span of eight days.  The Pens return to action against the Bruins back home at Consol Energy Center on Wednesday.

Comment of the night goes to everyone for topping 1,000 comments for maybe only the second or third time in a single-game thread.  Nicely done.