The Penguins and Maple Leafs squared off Saturday night in Pittsburgh in front of another sellout crowd at Mellon Arena.  Penguins fans were treated to a spectacular performance from the big guns who finally made things happen tonight.  A possibility of some career milestones were also possible tonight.  Coming into tonight's game, Sidney Crosby was sitting on 99 goals, 199 assists, and 298 points for his short NHL career.  Evgeni Malkin played on the wing along with Crosby for this game, and prior to tonight, Malkin had 197 career points. 

2 nights ago, the Pittsburgh Penguins appeared to be in complete control of the game at home against the Washington Capitals, but they played sit on the lead and complete blew a 3-goal lead, losing 4-3.  Tonight, they fell behind 1-0 on a power play goal that came on the 3rd power play of the first period for Toronto.  The Pens finally ran out of gas killing all those penalties in a row which included a double minor to Alex Goligoski and a stupid penalty for too many men on the ice.  The goal came at 14:25 for Nik Antropov, his first of the season, but that's all she wrote for the Maple Leafs, as the Pens stiffled the Leafs for the rest of the game.

Less than 1 minute after Antropov's power play goal, Pascal Dupuis tied the game for the Pens on an even strength goal, something they didn't have at all against the Caps on Thursday night.  The play worked to perfection with Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby earning the assists.  Keep an eye on who scores these goals and assists.  The teams headed to the locker room tied after one period.  There's the first milestone for the Penguins' 2 biggest stars, career assist #200 for Sidney Crosby.

In the second period, the Penguins got their second power play chance and they cashed in, taking the lead.  This time Malkin and Crosby again got an assist as they worked the power play to perfection, getting the puck to the front of the net where Miroslav Satan poked it in for his 3rd goal of the season, all on the power play.  That's another career milestone for Sid the Kid, this time it's career point #300, but he's still sitting on 99 career goals and looking for his first of the year.  The Pens went to the locker room after 2 periods with a 2-1 lead.

In the 3rd period at the 12:15 mark, Kris Letang passed it to Malkin who shot it to Crosby who banked it into the goal with the help of a Toronto defender who fell into the goal with the puck, and there it is.  In one night, Sidney Crosby earns his 100th career goal, 200th career assist, and 300th career point.  Also, don't forget I said to keep track of who got the goals and assists.  That was Malkin's 3rd assist of the night, which now gives him 200 career points as well.  Just over a minute later, the Pens earned another power play.  This time it was Malkin and Crosby again who got the puck to the net, and Petr Sykora poked it in for his first goal of the season, and with that, as radio play-by-play announcer Mike Lange says, "ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has just left the building."

People were wondering if the Pens power play was going to click after the first couple games over in Sweden, but it's finally starting to come around.  Tonight they had everything except the shorthanded goal, which nearly came in the second period, but an illegal hand pass was called.  Had Maxime Talbot allowed Dupuis to touch the puck first, they would have had an easy goal.  Both Talbot and Dupuis were alone with no Toronto defender in sight to race back and help his goalie.  Curtis Joseph was dead on that play, but was saved by the hand pass.  As a Pens fan, how can I complain about that though?  Everything else worked to perfection tonight.  It was a matter of time before the big guns got going, and tonight, it was all about Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.  Congratulations are in order for these two, who were a part of all 4 goals scored by the Penguins tonight.

Until next time, this is The Blitzburgh Pit Stop stealing a line from Mike Lange and saying "The Penguins left Cujo on 279 goin' to the airport!"

BK over and out