Even though the Pens played in New Jersey, tonight was a hockey night in Pittsburgh.  They lost 4-1 last night to the Islanders, but met the Devils for a rematch of Saturday's blowout in which, if you watched the game, you witnessed the extremely rare occurrence of Martin Brodeur being pulled from goal after allowing 5 goals on the evening.  It's usually Brodeur who is the tough goalie, but the Pens got to him big time.  Kevin Weekes was brought in to replace him, and Weekes gave up 2 more goals.  On the other side of the ice, Marc-Andre Fleury was absolutely brilliant, allowing just one goal all night.  The Pens killed the Devils by the final score of 7-1.

Last night, as I said, Ty Conklin gave up 4 goals and the Pens just couldn't get anything to go right...it was just one of those nights.  Fleury was back in net for the game against New Jersey tonight.  He was amazing on Saturday night in Pittsburgh, but tonight he was even better.  As I said before, it's usually Brodeur who gets talked about all the time for such stellar performances, but Fleury outplayed Brodeur for the second straight game.  The Pens got to Brodeur early on a power play, but the score remained 1-0 for much of the game until Marian Hossa scored an empty net goal with less than 1 minute to go in regulation.  Fleury recorded his 4th shutout of the year and 11th of his young career.  The Pens pulled ahead of the Devils by 4 points, and put the fate of the Atlantic Division title in their own hands.  More importantly, the Pens became just the second Eastern Conference team to clinch a playoff spot.  There are 5 games remaining for both the Pens, and the Canadiens who hold a 1-point advantage over the Pens.

As Hossa scored goal #2, Mike Lang could be heard on the Pens' radio network uttering the phrase he made famous when the Pens were winning Stanley Cups, "ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has just left the building!"  That's his catch phrase for "it's all over," and it was for the Devils at that point.  So onward to the playoffs goes Engine #87 and company.  Congratulations, Pens, you've earned it!

BK over and out