Ponikarovsky’s debut to the Pens and Matt Cooke’s hit heard round the world
Mar 10th, 2010 | By shannybaby99 | Category: Penguins
(titles are still a work in progress! Suggestions? Shannon@puckdrop.ca)
Poni Up Pens fans!
I hope all you lovely hockey people had a great week, I apologize for the late post.. The Pittsburgh Penguins played the Dallas Stars and the Boston Bruins winning both games and on a more controversial note, Matt Cooke’s hit will also be briefly discussed.
Dallas Stars. The biggest news of the game was the debut of number 23 Alexi Ponikarovsky’s debut. The game was played in the Winter Classic baby blues and Billy Guerin was scratched. The game quickly started with a breakaway and goal from Jordan Staal, answered by Ribeiro of the Stars. At the end of the first the SOG were 8 for the Stars and 10 for the Pens.
Second period: Dallas is up 3-1 racking up goals from both Riberio and Eriksson for Dallas. Kunitz returns the favor scoring and closing the gap to 1. Letang sends a pass to Dupuis and scores a goal making it a tied game. No more than 6 minutes later Sidney Crosby scores his 43rd goal of the season. The period ends 4-3.
Third period: Sidney starts the period with a shorthanded goal from Jordan Staal tying Alex Ovechkin for the most goals in the NHL at 44. (let’s hope that number keeps climbing!) Noticeably Flower improved from the first period and by the third was making phenomenal saves. Around 15:15 Dallas went on the PK and Poni came out and scores his first goal as a Pittsburgh Penguin. The entire game he had meshed well with the team, looked strong and waited for his moment to shine. Welcome to Pittsburgh Ponikarovsky!
The game against Dallas was the Pens 3rd straight win, they are 39-22-4 and gave them 2 points totaling at 82 and 3 points ahead of the Devils.
Boston Bruins. After this game there are 8 regular season games left in the beloved Igloo. Not much to say about this game that wasn’t very different from last. The PP and PK of both teams were evenly matched Boston with 18.3% on the PP and are 86.1% on the PK while the Penguins are 17.4% and the PK is 83.3%.
Boston’s first goal was scored by Blake Wheeler, Pens Pascal Dupuis scored to tie it up and Evgeni Malkin scored his 23rd of the season and only goal of the third period from Alexi Ponikarovsky for the final score of 2-1.
Honestly that is not what you’re all reading for. The biggest talk around the league and between fans of all teams is the hit that Matt Cooke took on Marc Savard.
I don’t have much to say on the hit other than it was clean, it looked like Cooke was lining up for the hit as Savard got the puck, lead with his shoulder and happened to hit Savard’s head. The NHL also deemed it a clean hit, considering Cooke; who was expected to receive a 5-10 day suspension didn’t get anything. The rumor is that he didn’t get anything because Richards didn’t get punished for his hit on Booth earlier in the season.
Word is that there is talk about any hits to the head will receive strong punishment, it will be a rule in writing in the rulebook starting next year. So the verdict? It is what it is. The hit depending on who you talk to was clean. He didn’t get the 5-10 day suspension we we’re all expecting and anticipating. I personally think that hits to the head are punishable considering how dangerous it is and how severe the injuries are.
Time to move on.
After this game the Penguins have 4 consecutive wins are 40-22-4 with 84 points continuing to hold the lead in the Atlantic 3 points above the NJ Devils. Tomorrow’s game is against the Carolina Hurricanes who lost to the Washington Capitals in OT 4-3. The Canes are 27-31-7.
LET’S GO PENS!
Comments? Questions? Wanna be friends? Shannon@puckdrop.ca
Tweet me! @Shannybaby99