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Penguins vs. Senators recap: Goals aplenty including Crosby's hatty. Pens win

The Pittsburgh Penguins set their season high in goals with 6 and win against the Ottawa Senators. See all the highlights, read the analysis and chime in with your comments on the game here!

By Hooks Orpik
Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

The Pittsburgh Penguins are back from the break to take on the Ottawa Senators. Plenty of goals so let's jump right in.

The Goals

The Pens came out flying taking the first 6 shots of the game, totally controlling the puck and pace of play. Matt Cullen would strike by following up on his own shot to slam the puck past 5-hole by Craig Anderson for the first goal of the game.

Pittsburgh would score their second goal 11 minutes into the game (still before Ottawa got their first shot on goal) when Chris Kunitz took a shot on a breakaway that was saved. Sidney Crosby got to the puck first and centered for Kris Letang to backhand into an empty net. No goalie interference since Patric Hornqvist was bumped into the goalie.

Ottawa wouldn't go quietly in the night, scoring on just their 3rd shot after Marc-Andre Fleury mis-played the puck behind the net and couldn't recover in time, with Mark Stone right there to jump on it and pull the Sens back into the game.

The Pens would keep the first period goals coming fast and furious, this time courtesy of Kunitz this time, collecting an errant clearing attempt and throwing a shot that juuuuust trickled by Anderson. 3-1 Pens.

One more goal before the end of the 1st period, this time for Ottawa by Chris Wideman for his 5th goal of the season  through some traffic. 3-2 Pens after 20 minutes.

In the second period, on an early 4-on-4 Erik Karlsson found some open room and used it to his advantage to blow a shot right by Fleury. 3-3.

Just 24 seconds after that, Ottawa would score again for their first lead of the game with Cody Ceci pickle-stabbing in a goal. 4-3 Ottawa.

Luckily the Pens would battle back and tie the game with Crosby scoring a power play goal, assists to Letang and Evgeni Malkin and a nice old screen by Hornqvist on Anderson.

5-4 Pittsburgh thanks to Crosby's second goal of the game from right in front, slamming one home on the power play.

Crosby finishes his hat-trick to make it 6-4. Funny how the puck just seems to follow the great ones around, huh?

In the 3rd period with 4 minutes left, Ottawa refuses to go away and Dave Dzursomething took a shot that went through Ceci's legs, Fleury never picked up on it and it somehow went in the net to make it 6-5 Pens.

Mike Hoffman hits the cross-bar at roughly the same spot, from shooting at the same spot twice in the last minute of the game. Crazy, crazy game. Thank goodness his sights where just a hair off.

Some Thoughts

  • The first period was about the polar opposite of the season for the Pens so far. The offense was high-scoring, Fleury (3 saves on 5 shots) couldn't keep the puck out of the net. In the big picture, a shame the Pens only came out of the period up 1 goal with the way they dominated the game, as the 16-5 shot advantage illustrated.
  • The Pens and Sens went power vs. power with 1st line (Crosby) vs 1st line (Mika Zibanejad) and it was advantage Pittsburgh, who saw their top-line strike twice and concede no goals in the first period.
  • With no penalties in the first period, the ice-time breakout was amazingly even. The lowest forward (Scott Wilson) got 4:12, the highest (Crosby) had 5:56. The lowest defenseman (Ben Lovejoy) was 5:43, the highest (Letang) was at 7:40. With a big lead for most the period and a lot of domination, the Pens were content to keep the lines very even and keep them rollin'.
  • After a season high 5 shots on goal last game for Cullen, he followed it up with 5 SOG again tonight.
  • Eric Fehr left the game mid-way through the 2nd period favoring a leg after a collision and wouldn't return. Already down Nick Bonino (hand) that's a big loss for the Pens. We'll wait to see how bad it could be, but certainly did not look good.
  • The Senators have the worst PK in the league and that was evident tonight. They looked passive and #bad giving up goals on the first 2 Penguin power plays.
  • 4 point night for Sid. The world just feels right when he's on his game and he totally is now.
  • Wise move by the Pens to drop their normal power play personnel of the 4F+1D and go down to the normal alignment of 2 defensemen in the latter moments of the game, considering all the SH goals that Ottawa can score.

A wild game, the Fehr injury could loom large if a lot of damage is revealed, but for a night it was nice to see the Pens offense flex some muscle and play well.

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