2010 Compuware NHL Premiere Series – Pittsburgh Penguins win 3-1 against the New Jersey Devils
The 2009 Stanley Cup champions Pittsburgh Penguins were up against the New Jersey Devils this past Monday when they played in the 27th match of the 2010 Compuware NHL Premiere Series. The match was attended by 13,000 fans that came to the Prudential
Centre to watch their home team New Jersey Devils play.
1st Period
When the game started, the Pittsburgh Penguins took charge of the game and dominated. They gave the home team no chance of scoring as the defence was jam packed. Rarely was there a mistake in defence.
The Pittsburgh Penguins showed that why they were a reckoning force this season. They dominated in every department despite playing away from their home. With the constantly bombardment of shots on the New Jersey Devils goal, the Penguins scored in the 19th
minute of the 1st period to take the lead. The goal was scored by Alex Goligoski from a distance of 60 feet through a slap off. The period ended with the score 1-0 in favour of the Pittsburgh Penguins.
During the course of the period, the Pittsburgh Penguins made 15 goal attempts out of which 1 found the back of the net. The New Jersey Nets made 8 goal attempts but none found its way into the back of the net.
2nd Period
The New Jersey Devils came up with a few early shots that barely went past the goal. However, the New Jersey Devils were a strong team but they didn’t have the fire power to turn the table against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
On the contrary, the Pittsburgh Penguins didn’t let the Devils settle into the game. They put the pressure on the New Jersey Devils from the start that resulted in the New Jersey Devils remaining in their half for most of the period.
The Pittsburgh Penguins came up with many chances during the entire period and converted one of the early chances into a goal in the 3rd minute of the period. The goal was scored by Mark Letestu from 14 feet through a spectacular backhand.
The rest of the period didn’t see much happening as both teams were seen exchanging quick passes and ending the move with a strong shot at the opposing goal. Both teams had a very tight defence but the Pittsburgh Penguins were the team that worked their
way past the opposing defence. Coupled with this was the fact that they guarded their goal in an excellent manner and restricted the New Jersey Devils to just 5 goal attempts during the period.
Sorting out things and changing their strategy, the Pittsburgh Penguins managed to score once during the course of the period out of the 8 goal attempts. The goal attempts made by the Pittsburgh Penguins by no way shows the dominating performance that they
bagged during the period getting past the defence on almost each play that developed. The score at the end of the period was 2-0 in favour of the Pittsburgh Penguins.
3rd Period
The last period gave the choice to the New Jersey Devils to attack or sit back. It was as simple as this as they were trailing 2 goals.
The home took preferred fighting for the match and started to attack the Pittsburgh Penguins though they left open spaces while attacking. Fast breaks were a very strong part of the Pittsburgh Penguins game and they exploited it to the fullest but couldn’t
score.
In fact, the Pittsburgh Penguins were caught on a fast break and the New Jersey Devils scored in the 9th minute through Patrik Elias. With the score on 2-1 in favour of the Pittsburgh Penguins, the New Jersey Devils pushed in hope for another
goal.
This was not to be as the Pittsburgh Penguins scored in the last minute to seal the victory 3-1 with Paul Martin scoring. During the period, the New Jersey Devils scored once out of the 15 goal attempts. The Pittsburgh Penguins also scored 1 goal in the
period making 8 goal attempts.
"It was a weird feeling even coming up to today because I didn't know what to expect," Martin said. "I didn't know how the crowd would react. I had a lot of good memories here and it's always tough, but you put that behind you. I'm a Penguin
now, the guys have been great, we're having fun and it's good to get that first win."
"Yeah, that was really cool when Paul scored," Johnson said. "I was very excited. First off, I was just happy when we got the puck out of the zone, but when I saw the two-on-none the other way, I was even happier."
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