Rough night tonight as Pittsburgh fell 4-1 at the Carolina Hurricanes.
Carolina is a team that lost their first game, so they were itching to come out the gate strong against a team in Pittsburgh making their season debut. Carolina won more faceoffs, moved their legs better and won more battles in the first two periods. They also got some luck along the way, scoring goals getting knocked in against Brooks Orpik and Darryl Sydor. But all and all Carolina carried the play and jumped up 4-0 after two periods.
Marc-Andre Fleury was spared at the start of the third and Dany Sabourin did decent enough in the final period. The Penguins did a lot better in the 3rd period, but one has to wonder if that was just the result of the Hurricanes inherentely shutting it down in the 3rd period with a 4 goal lead.
Game notes:
--Georges Laraque looked great, he cycled well, drove to the net and made a few nifty passes.
--Fellow 4th liner Jarrko Ruutu had a tough night, taking two penalties and being ineffective in general. With as well as Adam Hall played in the preseason, I would expect to see Ruutu in the pressbox tomorrow night.
--Fleury wasn't as terrible as 4 goals in 2 periods might suggest. As mentioned, 2 goals went in directly off his defensemen. No goal was particularly his fault, he was just saved the deceny of the 3rd period. Hopefully the team in front of him will come out a little stronger tomorrow night in the home opener.
--Kudos to Mark Recchi who scored the garbage goal to mess up the shutout, his 138th goal as a Penguin, which ties Joey Mullen on the team's all-time list.
Better luck tommorow, boys. Get it together and come out with a little more authority and things should be ok.
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