Buried Planet

Sidney Crosby had three assists, while Erik Christensen had two goals and an assist as the Penguins beat the Boston Bruins 4-2 at TD Banknorth Garden. The other two goals for were Colby Armstrong and Evgeni Malkin. Boston’s Phil Kessel had two assists as Marc Savard’s line was held scoreless. If not for the play of Boston’s Tim Thomas in net, the game would have been much more lopsided.

The win gives the Penguins 100 points on the season, and temporary hold on 1st place in the Atlantic Division and the 2nd seed in the Eastern Conference playoff race. NJ still holds a game in hand and controls their own destiny. The Devils play the Flyers on Friday. The Penguins play at Toronto on Saturday. The Maple Leafs currently hold down the 9th spot with 85 points, one point behind Tampa and Montreal, who are tied for 7th.

The Pens have won the three previous meetings against Toronto, including an 8-2 drubbing in Pittsburgh on January 20th.

Crosby extended his lead in the scoring race to 12 points over San Jose’s Joe Thornton, 116 to 104, although Thornton has 5 games left to Crosby’s 4.

The magic number for a playoff spot is no more, as the Pens have clinched a playoff berth with their 4-3 win over the Washington Capitals. In addition, the can be seeded no worse than 5th by virtue of the 6-7-8 teams all losing in regulation tonight. The Pens, along with Ottawa and New Jersey, each have 98 points, to Buffalo’s 103, all four of which are locked into the show.

The Devils did their part by losing 3-1 to Tampa, but the Pens could not capitalize on Long Island, falling 3-1 to the Islanders. The Pens Colby Armstrong scored first, but the Pens allowed two goals in the 2nd, and Evgeni Malkin had an unsuccessful penalty shot in the 2nd with a chance to tie. Viktor Koslov scored in the first minute of the third to make it 3-1.

In other news, Crosby’s Art Ross lead shrunk to 6 points tonight, as Joe Thornton of the Sharks had his 2nd straight 3-point night, coupled with Crosby going scoreless in two straight. Thornton had a strong close to the 05-06 season to win the Ross and the Hart (MVP). He appears to be doing the same again. The question is, will Crosby step it up against Atlanta, Boston and Washington the next three games?

The Pens loss leaves their magic number at 7 points to clinch a playoff spot. They fell 4 points back of Ottawa, who won tonight. It seems it may be easier for them to catch the Devils (only 2 points back even in games) than Ottawa (4 points with a game in hand and a head-to-head matchup). The Pens would lose a wins and head-to-head tiebreakers with the Devils if tied in points, while the Pens are 3 wins behind OTT, so winning the game in hand and the head to head would leave them tied in points, but short a win. Although the win against OTT would give the Pens the season series edge, that would only come into play if the two teams were even in wins. (it would take OTT losing 2 in OT combined with the Pens catching up on a win to come to that).

NJ & Pit have 8 games left; OTT has 7. Pens have three in four nights starting on saturday (with the first two back-to-back afternoon games at the Igloo), and have 4 in 6, and from there go every other day to end the season. ATL BOS was bos tor BUF ott NYR…

Lets go Pens.

The streak was bound to end, on a night where the Pens played their 5th game in 7 nights, having won the previous four, but not on earth did you think they would lose this way.

They did not play great tonight, save for Jocelyn Thibault in net, and yet were in the game, tied 1-1 with under a minute to go in the third period. The Rangers rush in, and on a seemingly harmless play, Jaromir Jagr throws the puck out in front from behind the net. It caroms off of Pens defenseman Rob Scuderi, and underneath Thibault. It was not over the line, and the ref (Massenhoven) could not see the puck, yet inexplicably did not blow the whistle. There is no on-ice ruling initially, the goal light was not on, and instead of going upstairs first, Massenhoven waits, waits, waits, until Thibault moved, but by that point the puck was over the line. There was no way of knowing where the puck was when the whistle did or did not blow - as there had been further contact by a Rangers player with Thibault after the initial stop.

In the end, they gave the Rangers a goal where it could not be proved it was over the line when the play was stopped. The ruling also keeps the Rangers alive in the playoff race, and kept the Pens from narrowing NJ’s division lead by at least a point. The Magic Number is still 7, and they still trail the Devils by 2 points, but now the Devils have the game in hand. The loss also dropped them from the 4th slot to the 5th slot by removing the game-in-hand advantage on Ottawa (also with 92 points overall), leaving Ottawa with the tiebreaker on wins (42 to 41).

The way the team (save Thibault) played, perhaps they deserved to lose. But they did not deserve to lose on the incompetence of the officials. It is unfortunate that the officiating has become just as much a part of the game as they players themselves, where no one is happy.

The Pens scored their 40th win of the season tonight, 6-3 over the Montreal Canadiens. Sidney Crosby and Erik Christensen each had two goals, with Gary Roberts and Michel Ouellet chipping in one each, all even-strength goals. The Pens gave up 3 PP goals to Montreal, the only stain on an otherwise good night.

The win, combined with Toronto’s 5-1 loss to Washington, reduces the Pens magic number to clinch a playoff spot to 10 points with 11 games remaining. They again leapfrog Ottawa for the 4th spot in the east (Ottawa won on Thursday), and are again just four points behind the Devils, even in games. (The Devils also won last night, over Carolina) Their magic number to clinch 5th seed or better is 13 on the loss by Tampa.