Pittsburgh Penguins extend winning streak to six games
Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins netted his sixth regular season hat trick on Saturday 27 November, helping his team to a 4-1 victory over the visiting Calgary Flames.
The win, in front of a sell-out crowd of 18,317 at Pittsburgh’s Consol Energy Center was the Penguins' sixth victory in a row, their longest winning streak since they won seven consecutive
games in October of 2009.
Neither team scored in the first period. However Calgary goaltender Mikka Kiprusoff was much busier in the period than his Pittsburgh counterpart, Brent Johnson. Kiprusoff faced 24 shots
in the period while the Flames only put six shots on the Penguins net.
Arron Asham opened the scoring at the 6:26 mark of the second period. The play started when the Penguins’ Kris Letang fired a shot toward the net that bounced off a Penguins player. The
rebound landed in front of Asham, who blasted a slap shot into the Flames net, giving the Penguins a 1-0 lead.
Crosby, the Penguins captain, would score the next two goals of the game. His first goal came when he put the rebound from a Chris Kunitz shot past an out of position Kiprusoff. The goal
came at 12:20 of the second period.
Crosby’s second goal of the game came on the power play. He was able to get his stick on a Paul Martin shot and tip it past Kiprusoff to make the score 3-0 in favour of the Pens.
Calgary would get on the board when Jay Bouwmeester blocked a Pittsburgh clearing attempt. Bouwmeester got the puck to Alex Tanguay who then passed it to Rene Bourque who was breaking
to the net. After accepting the pass, Bourque was able to get Johnson out of position and chip a wrist shot into the Pittsburgh net, making the score 3-1.
Pittsburgh’s Letang took a holding penalty with under two minutes remaining in the game to give the Flames a power play. As the time ticked down, Kiprusoff headed to the Calgary bench
to give the Flames a six-on-four manpower advantage. With 37 seconds remaining in the game, Crosby launched the puck from inside the Penguins' zone into the empty Calgary net, netting his hat trick with a short-handed goal.
Crosby’s hat trick moved him into first place in the NHL in scoring with 40 points. He is one point ahead of Steven Stamkos of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Penguins head coach Dan Bylsma noted that the team has played better at home as of late. Saturday’s victory was their fourth straight on home ice, "We've done a good job on the road, but
early on we didn't get the results at home," Bylsma told NHL.com. "But now, with putting the wins together and getting the results here, I think it's starting to feel like home. Our fans are starting to make it feel like home as well with the atmosphere in
the building. We'd like to keep that string going."
With the win, the Penguins are now two points behind the Atlantic Division leading Philadelphia Flyers.
The loss puts the Flames record at 9-12-1, putting them in 14th place out of 15 teams in the Western Conference.
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