PENGUINS 101

 

It was a crisp, cold winter afternoon and the sun was shining brightly as my daughter and I rose to the top of the escalator and exited the Steel City “T” Plaza to begin the trek up Center Avenue towards Consol Energy Center on Saturday, Feb. 11, 2012.

 

The excitement quickened as we rounded the corner and my daughter could see the open roof on the Mellon Arena. It was the first time she saw the old Mellon Arena’s roof open and gazed inside the Igloo from Center Avenue.

 

The demolition of the old building appears to be well along and the old building was wide open with the inside clearly visible. To both of us, it appeared to be peeled somewhat like an orange. As we passed the Marriott and the large red brick church on the nearby corner, fans were now streaming towards the sparkling new arena.

 

Seeing the new Consol Energy Center only heightened our excitement for an afternoon matchup between our beloved hometown Pittsburgh Penguins and the Winnipeg Jets.

 

My daughter is seven years old and Saturday afternoon games are somewhat limited on the NHL schedule. Early Saturday afternoon hockey games in the middle of winter are great for children and this was my daughter’s first opportunity to attend a regular season game in 2012.

 

As we settled into our seats in the 200 level, we had a bird’s eye view over the goalie at the end of the ice where the Penguins shoot twice. I told my daughter that this game was a rare opportunity to see the NHL team from Winnipeg as the Jets were traditionally in the Western Conference and that the city of Winnipeg had lost their team to relocation to Phoenix and had not played in Pittsburgh for many, many years.

 

In fact, this was the first time that the Jets had played the Pens in Pittsburgh since March 6, 1996. For a seven-year-old, that seemed like ages ago.

 

The game had all the excitement that you could ask for. The groans when the Pens fell behind the Jets 2-0 in the first period could be heard all around, but although the Pens got off to a slow start, the noise level in the sold-out building quickly came back into play at 12:11 of the first period when Dustin Jeffrey rifled a quick shot from the wing that alluded Winnipeg goalie Ondrej Pavelcec. 

 

Jeffrey skated down the right wing on the play and ripped a wrist shot to the far side and off the post right into the net. Just a little over four minutes later, at 16:42 of the first period, Penguins center Evgeni Malkin cleanly won the face-off directly back to James Neal, who quickly buried a high shot past the surprised Pavelcec.

 

Just like that the Pens and Jets were tied at 2-2. Game On. The soon-to-be high scoring affair was just beginning to heat up.

 

The second and third period’s resembled an old fashioned shoot-out from the 1980s — sort of a Mario Lemieux-Wayne Gretsky ice show for those of you who can remember the days of wide-open hockey. Not much defense but a lot of open, fire-drill skating up and down the ice. Lots of 2-on-1 odd-man rushes from end to end.

 

At 3:12 of the second period, Malkin found a wide open Chris Kunitz skating down the right wing. Kunitz shot a quick shot that beat Pavlec for a power play goal.

 

My daughter told me just before the Pens made it 3-2 that the Pens would surely score as they were on the "POWER BALL POWER PLAY." I guess she was right.

 

At 9:53 of the second period, the Pens increased their lead to 4-2 on a pretty 2-on-1 play where Malkin again skated in and made a pretty pass to Kris Letang, who chipped a beautiful goal just under the cross bar.

 

This was a play that showed all the speed and magnificent skating Letang has within his ability. His smooth skating from end to end is the type of skating that most defensemen in the NHL can only dream about.

 

The firehouse hockey continued in the second period as the Jets scored at 14:19 on a goal by right wing Tim Stapleton to make it 4-3 and the Pens follow it up with another goal at 17:08 by Malkin to make the score 5-3 Pens at the close of the second period. This was Malkin’s 30th goal of the season on assists from Kunitz and Neal.

 

The third period scoring onslaught continued, much to the delight of the fans. For my daughter and me, we had the fortunate opportunity to see three third-period goals in our end of the ice.

 

At 4:54 of the period, Penguins fourth-line center Richard Park scored a goal off the left post past Pavelec and at 7:48, center Jordan Staal scored his 16th goal of the season on assists from Pascal Dupuis and Matt Cooke.

 

The building was really buzzing on the goal scored by Staal as this was his first game back in a Penguins uniform since the injury that he sustain in the Jan. 6 game vs. the NY Rangers.

 

Although Winnipeg cut the Pens lead to 7-5, Pittsburgh put the game away at the 17:16 mark on a power play goal by Letang.

 

Pens win! Pens win 8-5 — much to my daughter's delight.

 

 

This was a very interesting game with many highlights such as watching the Pens go 2-for-3 on the power play, seeing Malkin score his 30th goal and his rare five-point afternoon. An interesting note is that Malkin had now scored in seven straight home games.

 

Another memorable highlight was watching Letang scoring his 6th and 7th goals of the season with a skating style reminiscent of a former Penguins great, Paul Coffey.

 

Games such as this made my daughter say to me as we left the building:

That's what Saturday afternoon games are all about!