Senators visit Crosby and Penguins

[Madferret]

Senators visit Crosby and Penguins
The Sports Network

(Sports Network) - Two high-scoring teams which may be seeing a lot of each other over the coming weeks will battle tonight in Pittsburgh, where the surging Penguins shoot for their fifth consecutive victory when they host the Ottawa Senators.

The Penguins and Senators appear to be on a collision course towards a first- round matchup in next month's Eastern Conference playoffs. Ottawa sits in fourth place in the East with 91 points, while Pittsburgh resides in the No. 5 spot with 90 points.

These teams will also meet once more during the regular-season, an April 5th encounter in Ottawa.

The Senators moved ahead of Pittsburgh in the standings with Saturday's 3-2 victory over Philadelphia at Scotiabank Place. Mike Comrie led the offense with a goal and an assist, while Martin Gerber stopped 28-of-30 shots between the pipes for Ottawa.

Tom Preissing and Peter Schaefer also scored in the win, the Senators' third in a row and fourth in five games.

Dany Heatley did not record a point for Ottawa, however, which ended the All- Star forward's scoring streak at 16 straight games.

Tonight's showdown starts up a four-game road trip for the Senators, who are a solid 18-12-4 as the visitor but have dropped three of their last four away from home.

Pittsburgh comes in off a 6-3 triumph over Montreal on Friday, the Penguins' sixth win in its seven most recent outings. League scoring leader Sidney Crosby and Erik Christensen each notched a pair of goals to spark the rout.

Michel Ouellet added a goal and an assist for the Penguins, while Mark Recchi and Evgeni Malkin each finished with two helpers on the evening.

Crosby has now registered a point in five consecutive games. The second-year phenom has four goals and four assists over that stretch.

Pittsburgh has won three in a row at Mellon Arena and brings a 22-9-5 home mark into tonight's tilt.

Ottawa has come away with a victory in four straight visits to the Steel City, however, as well as seven of its last eight as the visitor in this series.

[Madferret]

Penguins edge Senators in a shootout
Associated Press

PITTSBURGH (AP) - Jarkko Ruutu is the Pittsburgh Penguins' fourth-line winger, a player with 30 career goals in parts of seven seasons.

But now he has become a go-to guy in the shootout.

Ruutu's backhand move got the puck past goalie Ray Emery and Pittsburgh tied the Ottawa Senators for fourth place in the Eastern Conference playoff race with a 4-3 win Sunday night.

"He'll get another shot, that's for sure," said Penguins coach Michel Therrien of Ruutu, who is 3-for-6 in his career in the shootout. "I asked him before how he felt, and he said, `I feel pretty good about it."'

Pittsburgh's victory gives each team 92 points, with Ottawa having one more victory and the Penguins holding a game in hand.

Sidney Crosby and Ryan Whitney had a goal and an assist for the Penguins, who have won five in a row, are 7-0-1 in their past eight and moved within two points of the New Jersey Devils for the Atlantic Division lead.

Daniel Alfredsson and Antoine Vermette also scored for the Senators, who are 4-0-4 in their past eight and 12-1-5 in their past 18.

Ruutu was used in the shootout for only the second time this season since replacing Evgeni Malkin in that role last week. Malkin is the team's leading goal scorer who has more goals in his rookie season, then Ruutu does in his career.

"I'm confident in (shootouts), and it's great when the coach trusts you," said Ruutu.

Five of the past eight Penguins games have been decided in a shootout - including a 5-4 Pittsburgh win in Ottawa 12 days ago.

This game was decided by a move so slow and calculated by Ruutu that Therrien was compelled to say with a smile, "He took his time, let's put it that way.

"It was weird, man," said Emery. "He came down really slow, a guy like that who doesn't get many minutes coming down in the shootout, you know he's got something coming up. It was a funny move. I didn't know what to expect."

Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury stopped Mike Comrie, Dean McAmmond and Vermette to improve to 9-5 in shootouts this season.

"We would've obviously liked to come out with a win in regulation but it happens and these are tight games, it's just the way it's been going," Crosby said. "You try to avoid going to overtime or shootouts by winning in regulation but it's pretty hard to avoid at this time of the year."

Pittsburgh was on its way to its fifth win in a row, holding a 3-2 lead with a two-man advantage with seven minutes left.

But after killing off 56 seconds of a Pittsburgh 5-on-3, the Senators got a holding the stick penalty called on Malkin.

After playing 65 seconds 4-on-4, Wade Redden scored his seventh goal of the season moments after the power play began.

Fleury did not see Redden's shot from the point until it went between his legs.

"I know whenever we get a 5-on-3, if you don't make good on it, it usually comes back to burn you," Redden said. "So that was a big kill for us not to give anything up and... it got us a goal."

Pittsburgh's Maxime Talbot scored the game's first goal 10:44 into the first period off a short-handed rush that featured precise passing by Colby Armstrong and Sergei Gonchar to feed Talbot for his 11th goal of the season.

The Senators tied the game 26 seconds later when Vermette scored his 18th on assists from Chris Kelly and Chris Neil.

Crosby had a power-play goal four minutes into the second when he corralled a pass from Ray Whitney that may have been intended for Mark Recchi, turned it over to his backhand and beat Emery for his 32nd of the season.

Ottawa tied it again. Alfredsson deflected a Joe Corvo shot from the point past Fleury. Alfredsson's 26th came 61 seconds after Crosby's goal.

Whitney gave Pittsburgh its third lead with 2:55 to play in the second. His 11th goal came partially as a result of Crosby holding onto the puck and working the far boards while on the power play.

"The power play nowadays is a big part of the game and if you're not scoring on power plays, it's real hard to win games," said Gonchar, who had two assists. "Today we scored two goals (on the power play) and it really helped us."

Crosby, who extended his league scoring lead to 12 points, has five goals and five assists in his past six games.

The Senators had a 35-19 advantage in shots and generally controlled the play when both teams skated at full strength.

"That was one of our better games in a while," Alfredsson said. "We came out really strong. We outplayed them 5-on-5 most of the game, worked hard. Getting them power plays was the only way to stay in the game, and they sure did get some."

Notes: Recchi has gone 13 games without a goal - the longest stretch of his career while in a Penguins' uniform. ... Corvo has four points in his past three games. ... The Penguins will play their fifth game in seven days Monday night in New York against the Rangers.

[Max Power]

From what I've heard we need to start making our DIVE SID DIVE posters for the playoffs based on his play last night

[Madferret]

Is Crosby playing Mr. Dressup?
March 20, 2007

A war of words is brewing between Senators coach Byran Murray and his Penguins counterpart, Michel Therrien over the on-ice antics, and language, of Sidney Crosby.

In today's Ottawa Sun, Senators coach Bryan Murray accuses Crosby of swearing at him during the first period of Ottawa's 4-3 shootout loss on Sunday.

Murray said that's conduct unbecoming of an NHL superstar.

"He's one of those young people, and rightly so, that the league is really promoting as the example of the new NHL," said Murray. "When he turns, and I'm sure he's on camera quite often, using the language he does, I don't think that's something he should do. That's all."

Crosby was reacting because Murray had told referee Don Koharski that the young star took a dive in what resulted in an interference call on Mike Comrie in the first period.

"Mike Comrie put his stick on Crosby and we know full well he's one of the more powerful skaters in the league.
said Murray. "I thought it was a very incidental call and Crosby kind of dressed it up a little bit."