Penguins/NHL
Three wins in four games, including a 2-1 shootout win against the league’s top team Wednesday night had the Penguins talking about how they were turning corner. All of that talk about turning the corner won’t be heard around the Penguins locker room tomorrow morning after the Penguins surrendered a 2-0 lead Saturday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs (21-25-10) and were thumbed by the lowly Leafs 6-2 at the Air Canada Center. The 6-2 loss is the Penguins third loss of the season against Toronto and the Penguins have been outscored 18-9 in those three losses.
The Penguins (27-25-5) are 1-6-1 in their last 8 road games and are five points behind the Florida Panthers (64 points) and Buffalo Sabres (64 points) who are the 7th & 8th seeds in the Eastern Conference
Bill Thomas (2) and Matt Cooke (8) scored for the Penguins
Marc Andre Fleury made 35 saves in the loss
Sidney Crosby was held scoreless for 19th time this season. The Penguins have lost 14 of those games.
Leafs forward Jason Blake who has 24 career goals against the Penguins had two third period goals for the Leafs. Blake has 20 points in 13 games and if it wasn’t for his contract would be a hot commodity at the trade deadline.
Penguins defenseman Sergei Gonchar returned to the lineup for the first time this season. Gonchar recorded four shots on goal and had 20:01 of ice time
Forward Ruslan Fedotenko also returned to the lineup after being sidelined with a broken hand for 5 weeks. Fedotenko played with Sidney Crosby and Tyler Kennedy for the majority of the time.
Defenseman Ryan Whitney led the Penguins in ice time (23:22)
Hal Gill and Chris Minard were healthy scratches
Photo courtesy of Dan4th
