Game 36: 12/23/07: Penguins 4 - Bruins 2

In their final game before the Christmas break the Penguins put together a victory, beating the Boston Bruins at home 4-2. It was a milestone night, as the Penguins sold out their record 31st straight game at the Mellon Arena, Sergei Gonchar picked up his 400th career assist, and Georges Laraque's 50th career goal turned out to be the game winner.

After a rough game against the Islanders on Friday night, giving up 4 goals on 20 shots, Dany Sabourin was given the night off and Ty Conklin got the call. It was Conklin's second start of the season since being called up following the Marc-Andre Fleury high ankle sprain.

The Bruins PJ Alexsson opened up the scoring, taking advantage of a Evgeni Malkin turnover and beating Conklin only minutes into the 1st period.

But it was the Penguins who came out flying in the 2nd. Erik Christensen feed Georges Laraque behind the net, who found Gary Roberts in the crease for the tying goal.

Later in the 2nd on the power-play, Evgeni Malkin's slapshot found it's way over the shoulder of newly acquired Bruins goalie Alex Auld, and giving the Penguins the lead.

30 seconds later Georges Laraque increased the lead to 2 goals, crashing the net and deflecting a Roberts pass Auld.

In the last minute of the 3rd, with Auld pulled for a 6th skater, the Bruins pulled within one on a Petteri Nokelainen goal.

But when Sidney Crosby's bad angle attempt at an empty net goal hit the post, Gary Roberts was there to pick up the puck and burry it into the net to put the game away.

Conklin stopped 28 of 30 shots, picking up his 2nd win on the season.

It was the play of the Penguins 3rd line of Laraque-Roberts-Christensen that made the difference. Collectively they had 3 goals and 4 assists.

Brooks Orpik found himself a healthy scratch again, the 3rd straight game. The Penguins have had one too many defensemen since the call up of Kris Letang, and lately it's been Orpik who has been the odd man out. As explained by Rob Russi in this mornings Pittsburgh Tribune, Orpik's been upset about the recent scratches, especially in Boston where he had purchased tickets for family and friends.

With the win the Penguins jump to the 3rd spot in the incredibly tight Altantic Division, which sees only 5 points separate the first place New Jersey Devils and last place Philadelphia Flyers.

After a Christmas break the Penguins will welcome the Washington Capitals to the Mellon Arena on Thursday evening. The two teams have played once this season, with the Penguins skating away with the 2-1 victory in Washington.

Game 20: 11/17/07: Penguins 3 - Rangers 4 OT

The Penguins squandered a 2-goal lead on home ice last night, eventually losing in overtime to the New York Rangers 3-4 in overtime.

Early in the first, with the Ranger's on the power play, Maxime Talbot blocked a shot from the blue line. The rebound bounced to Sidney Crosby, who lead the short-handed rush down the ice. Talbot recovered, joined the rush, and Crosby found him with a cross-crease pass that Tablot shuffled behind Ranger's goaltender Henrik Lundqvist.

Only recently has Crosby begun playing the penalty kill again, and the assist was Crosby's first shorthanded point since his rookie season.

Just minutes later, with a Ranger's penalty pending, the 6 Penguins skaters controlled the play, cycling the puck around the offensive zone. The puck bounced to Crosby who beat Lundqvist with a bad angle shot, bouncing the puck of the inside of Lundqvist's leg pad and into the net.

But after a decidedly Penguins 1st period, it was the New York Rangers who stormed out in the 2nd. Former Penguin Michal Rozsival scored 2 goals, one of which short-handed, in just over 3 minutes to knot the game all up at 2-2.

The Ranger's took the lead on Daniel Girardi's power play goal as the clock winded down in the 2nd. Ryan Whitney was unable to clear the rebound off a Fedor Tyutin shot, and Girardi picked it up and scored to give the Ranger's the lead.

In the 3rd, with the one goal lead, the Ranger's sat back defensively with aims on shutting down the Penguins attack. And they were successful until, with just over 5 minutes remaining in the game, Erik Christensen lead the rush, carrying the puck into the offensive zone. He beat the trap, throwing the puck behind the net just after crossing the blue line. After a fortunate bounce of the glass, Evgeni Malkin, with his stick tied up by the Ranger's defense, kicked the puck over to teammate Petr Sykora, who's back hand goal tied the game late in the 3rd.

In overtime the Ranger's Paul Mara found teammate Jason Strudwick for the game winner on a across the crease pass from an odd man rush.

Marc-Andre Fleury made some mistakes in this game, but none of them lead to goals. Rozsival's short handed tally and Strudwick's overtime winner both came off an odd man rush following a Penguins defenseman being caught too deep in the offensive zone. Whitney was guilty in the 2nd, Gonchar in OT.

The Penguins have yet to have the scoring breakout that they need to kick this November slump, though they did have a number of scoring opportunities which were thwarted by the stellar play of Lundqvist. Pittsburgh has scored more than 3 goals only once out of the 9 games this month. Of the 8 games in which they've scored 3 or less goals they have lost 7.

Again last night there were complaints about the poor ice surface at the Mellon Arena. It's to be expected from the oldest ice surface in the league, but it's just another reason why the Penguins will be looking ahead to that new arena that's on the way. For such a dynamic finesse squad, their game is hindered by the slow choppy home ice.

But they'll be back in the Mellon Arena on Wednesday night to finish off an incredibly difficult 8 straight Atlantic Division games, the Penguins (8-10-2) will face the New Jersey Devils.