Big Lead Sports Bar

4/08/2009

CLINCHED

Lost in the excitement of the Pirates' scintillating start and Jamie Dixon winning an award is the little fact that the Pittsburgh Penguins clinched a playoff spot last night in Tampa Bay.

After building a 4-0 lead, the Pens briefly took their eyes off the prize in the third period and let the Lightning back in the game, allowing three consecutive goals in a five-minute span. Pittsburgh was bailed out by Petr Sykora's insurance goal at 11:43 of the third, locking up a coveted slot in the postseason, where tickets are already at a premium after going on sale this week. The teams exchanged goals once more before the clock hit zero, with Jordan Staal officially ending it on an empty-netter with 13 seconds left. 6-4 Pens, and the Eastern Conference can officially start shaking in their boots.

Mr. Crosby led the way last night with two goals, and Evgeni Malkin added two assists in his quest for the scoring title, which currently looks like this:
There was also a little throwdown between Eric Godard and David Koci, which you can enjoy right here:

The Pens conclude the home portion of their regular season schedule on Thursday against the Islanders, then play game #82 Saturday at Montreal. They can finish as high as fourth in the Eastern Conference with a little help. Empty Netters presents the scenarios quite nicely.

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3 comments:

Broke But Still Drinking said...

When is Succo season over? I think they should pay me for taking up air time on my radio stations.

godohoky said...

I live in Florida and took the drive to see my beloved former hometown team play in Tampa. It was my first Pens game I attended outside of Pittsburgh and Detroit. It was quite a different atmosphere. I never believed what I've always heard about the warm climate fans that go to the games and don't even watch them. But its true, amazingly. Nobody shows up til after the puck drops, there are no rules about getting out of your seat in the middle of action. It was a free for all, one guy stood with his back to the ice talkin to the guy behind him through the whole second period. I was the only person in my section actually watching the game besides a 5 year old that made a habit of screaming "Go home penguins!" When the lightning finally scored it took a good five seconds before the fans knew what happened. for the short period of time when the game was 4-3 in the middle of the 3rd period. about a 1/4 of the lightning fans got up and left I guess to beat traffic. I realize the team is terrible but why pay to go to the game if you don't even watch it or care about the outcome. However I don't have all bad things to say about Tampa Bay the St Pete Times Forum is a really nice arena. Then again the only other 2 hockey arenas I've been to were built in the late 60's. But it did make me pretty excited to see what the Pens new arena will look like when I get back home.

Steve said...

Wow, and this was a team that won the cup not too long ago? No offense, but from my experience visting Florida, I've found all the heat and humidity bakes the brains of people who've lived there too long, so the blasé reaction from the crowd sounds normal. Just another reason why NASCAR is so big down south. They need a sport that is repetitive and monotonous enough to wrap their sun stroked brains around and usually by the 40th lap they've got their beers, smokes and pork rinds situated enough to start paying attention.