Last night the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Anaheim Ducks played 45 minutes of mind numbing scoreless hockey. New comer Brian Gibbons, in his NHL debut with the Pittsburgh Penguins, joined the scoring club as he opened up scoring between the teams. Gibbons joins other hockey legends like Mario Lemieux who also scored their first NHL goal in their NHL debut. The four minutes and four seconds that followed saw a combination of 4 goals between the teams. For anyone who took a short bathroom break or maybe gave up on the game, came back to a 3-1 game with the Penguins in the lead.
As the Penguins struggled to register any shots on goal during the first period a Wayne Gretzky quote came to mind, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” It really appeared that the Penguins would be scoreless and shotless in the first period. The Penguins did not have a shot on goal during the first 17 minutes of this game but they ended the period with 3 shots to the Ducks 12 shots, things did not look promising.
The mind numbing game continued into the second period where the most exciting thing was the subway commercial. Fellow hockey writer Kelsey Douglas @LateShiftKelsey said it best: “..That Subway commercial spiced things up for a little bit.”
For anyone who gave up on the game and called it a night, you missed a great 3rd period. After Gibbons opened up scoring during his NHL debut Sutter tipped one in, for 2 goals and 2 shots in 1:02. The game really turned around, there was no way it could have drug on any longer in the doldrums of scorelessness. Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf rockets the puck past Fleury, then Penguins captain Sidney “sweet hands” Crosby comes back to put the Duck back in the 3-1 hole.
After a long scoreless gridlock, this game got off the ground in a matter of four minutes. Gibbons and Fleury lead the Penguins to victory against the Ducks. The Pittsburgh Penguins, finally able to shake off that bad luck the Philadelphia Flyers left in Pittsburgh last week, advanced to 26 points, still leading the Metropolitan Division, the Washington Capitals trailing them with 25 points. The Anaheim Ducks who were leading the league overall in points now are tied with the 2013 Stanley Cup champs, Chicago Blackhawks, at 32 points.
The Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals will face off tomorrow as they fight to claim the lead in the Metropolitan division and the Anaheim Ducks will demolish the New Jersey Devils.
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