HOCKEY TONIGHT! Pens vs Jackets Pre-Season 7:30 at the Igloo

[RuthlessBurgher]

http://penguins.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=498629&navid=pit-home-dl


The Penguins Lineup for Pre-Season Showdown with Columbus
Tuesday, 09.15.2009 / 1:34 PM / News By Sam Kasan

The Penguins have released their lineup for Tuesday's pre-season showdown with the Columbus Blue Jackets at Mellon Arena at 7:30 p.m.

Notable players that will play are captain Sidney Crosby, prospect Eric Tangradi, center Jordan Staal, defenseman Sergei Gonchar, 2009 first-round pick Simon Despres and goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.

Below is the full lineup for this evening's game and the line combinations:

Forwards
Kunitz-Crosby-Tangradi
Dupuis-Staal-Fedotenko
Conner-Jeffrey-Bayda
Sill-Vitale-Godard

Defensemen
Despres-Gonchar
Eaton-Engelland
McKee-Bortuzzo

Goaltenders
Fleury
Thiessen

[RuthlessBurgher]

Crosby rallies Penguins to 5-4 OT win over Columbus
Tuesday, 09.15.2009 / 11:41 PM
By John Kreiser - NHL.com Columnist

Pittsburgh fans finally got a chance to salute their Stanley Cup champions on Tuesday night. Sidney Crosby made sure they went home happy.

Crosby scored twice as Pittsburgh had four third-period goals to overcome a 3-0 deficit, then set up Chris Kunitz for the winner 44 seconds into overtime as the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins rallied for a 5-4 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets.

It was the Penguins' first game at Mellon Arena since they won Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final last June – three nights before taking Game 7 in Detroit to win the Cup.

But it was the Jackets who appeared to be cruising to victory after Jakub Voracek's first-period tip-in and two late second-period goals by Maxim Mayorov made it 3-0 after 40 minutes.

However, Crosby wouldn't let the Penguins go down without a fight. He scored twice in a three-minute span early in the third period to cut the deficit to one, and Chris Conner tied it with 5:16 left in regulation.

Alexandre Picard put Columbus back in front with 2:02 left in regulation, but the lead lasted just 17 seconds until Kunitz scored to force overtime.

Crosby then set up the game-winner by stealing the puck behind the net and feeding Kunitz alone in the slot for a shot past Dan LaCosta, who allowed five goals after ex-Penguin Mathieu Garon was perfect through two periods.

The Penguins' captain normally uses an all-wood stick, but he opted for a composite model for the first time in his career. A few more games like this one and the wood sticks will be history.

"It's one game in," he joked to the media about using the new stick. "It's a little early right now."

The game was originally scheduled for Sept. 25 but was moved up back because Pittsburgh is hosting the G-20 summit of world leaders that day and traffic is heavily restricted around the city. The Penguins just reported to camp Saturday -- two days after being honored at the White House by President Barack Obama. They went through only their third practice of training camp earlier in the day Tuesday.

Pens coach Dan Bylsma realized a sloppy performance was possible because of the team's quick start to the exhibition season.

"You're trying to, in a very short period of time, institute how we want to play, the philosophy we want to play, the details and the habits we want to play," he said. "Two practices is not a lot of time to do that."