There was a pretty lousy Penguin game last night, unless 5-2 losses in Dallas are your thing.
Fortunately, we came away with one video clip for the archives, that of Sidney Crosby throwing down with Matt Niskanen at 12:33 of the second period, with the Pens firmly in a three-goal hole. It was one of four fights in the frisky game's first two periods, the main event of an undercard featuring Jamie Benn-Tyler Kennedy in the first period, Benn vs.Chris Kunitz in the second, and Brenden Morrow and Kris Letang later in the second. I never realized there was so much animosity between these two teams, but if it involves disliking Dallas for any reason, I'm on board.
The 6-6-1 Pens are back in action Friday night at 10 against 5-7-1 Anaheim.
A successful senior send-off: It was Senior Day at The Pete, and the Panthers sent their elder statesmen off in style with an 83-54 blowout of Rutgers. Pitt closes the regular season with records of 24-7 and 13-5 Big East, good enough for a #2 seed and a coveted double-bye in the upcoming conference tournament at Madison Square Garden. This one was never in doubt, as Pitt led by 24 at the half and had leads as big as 32 in the second half.
Gilbert Brown rebounded from his off night against Providence with 19 points, only two off my half-joking prediction of 17. Ashton Gibbs contributed 13 points, Brad Wanamaker had 12, and freshman Dante Taylor added 11 points and seven rebounds to the Panther cause. Jermaine Dixon, one of the team's two seniors, scored 10 points in 12 minutes and was lifted early in the second half with an ankle injury which he insists is not serious. Let's hope not.
Pitt will be off until Thursday, when they face the survivor from a pool of the 7, 10, and 15 seeds in the Big East Tournament, which looks to be Notre Dame, Seton Hall, or Providence. The bad news? Pitt was 1-2 against those teams, and the only win was courtesy of an Ashton Gibbs miracle against Providence on Thursday night. [ESPN]
The Comebacks: Quite an effort by the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday at the Igloo, digging their way out of a 3-1 second period hole to defeat the Dallas Stars 6-3.
With the Pens up one early in the third, they killed off a 5-on-3 Dallas power play and got a shorthanded goal from King Crosby to boot, extending their lead to two goals and basically ending the game for all intents and purposes. The Penguins would get one more score, from newly-acquired Alexei Ponikarovsky, to close out the day.
Crosby would score twice in the game, while Jordan Staal, Chris Kunitz and Pascal Dupuis also had goals for Pittsburgh. Marc-Andre Fleury bounced back from a poor performance against the Rangers, stopping 27 of 30 Dallas shots and clearly outplaying the rusty-looking Kari Lehtonen in goal.
It was a chippy affair between the teams, with two fights on the card: Krys Barch vs. Mike Rupp, and Steve Ott vs. Craig Adams:
Those bruises will have to heal soon, though, as the Pens are back in action on Sunday afternoon against Boston. [ESPN]
Your Daily Ben update: SPORTSbyBROOKS has some new photos from the night in question, including a shot of Willie Colon behind the bar. And TMZ has some photos of females flocking to Ben at the Capital City Club.
Regarding his current whereabouts, Roethlisberger has left Georgia, and investigators plan to talk to him at some point over the next few days. [SbB, TMZ, WPXI]
Pirates tie, Pirates tie: The Buccos and Phillies played to a 3-3 draw in a game that started with a National Anthem performed by Andrew McCutchen's mother, Petrina McCutchen. Andrew responded with two hits, and Ryan Church homered in the first inning as the Pirates touched up Joe Blanton for three runs. But as usual, the Pirate offense was limited beyond that, scoring no runs after the first inning. [By Gosh, It's Langosch]
