Pens Beat Flyers for 5th Consecutive Time...

Sidney Crosby posted the first 6 point game of his career and led the Penguins to their 5th consecutive win against the Philadelphia Flyers. The Penguins have dominated the Flyers this season, and I cannot remember anything comparable.

The game seemed like it could potentially be a boring one at the start, but that changed quickly when Chris Thorburn beat Antero Niittymaki with a laser from the high slot. Crosby quickly added another for his first point of the night. The rout looked to be on, but Philadelphia quickly answered to tie the game at 2.

Sergei Gonchar, who also had a monster game, finished the first period scoring with a power play goal through traffic. The Russian d-man was firing on all cylinders tonight and was letting the puck fly anytime he could.

The second period could have been dubbed the Crosby Show as he set up 3 more goals in less than 5 minutes. It was magical, if Sidney Crosby touched a puck; it ended up in the net. "We were just having one of those nights where everything was going in," Crosby said. "It happened so fast, especially in the second."

The Flyers started to creep up on the Penguins a bit, but they were never really in the game. This was the penguins and Sidney Crosby's night, almost from the drop of the puck.

Michel Therrien was very pleased with his team, especially his young superstar. "What a night, tonight we saw a performance by a special player," Therrien said. "It was unbelievable...Sid was phenomenal tonight."

Evgeni Malkin was held off of the score sheet; though the team scored 8 goals. Therrien isn't that worried about him. "He had a rough night...we will evaluate the game and sit down with him, show him video," Therrien said. "He'll get better, he is a rookie...not bad for a rookie," Therrien said as he chuckled. Malkin was getting targeted by Philadelphia all night...he took some big hits.

Overall the Penguins played a very good game. There were a few breakdowns that the Flyers punished them for, but they don't matter as much when everything is going in for you. Let's hope that the Penguins ride this momentum into another big division match up against the New York Islanders on Friday night.

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The Penguins have always invited local mite teams to play on the Mellon Arena ice during intermissions, but they have recently revamped the whole scenario. They now show video of the kids in the locker room and allow them to talk on the jumbotron, calling the segment: Intermission Puck Pals. I think that it is great to allow the kids this opportunity. It has to be a thrill...even if they never go anywhere with the game; they will always treasure that moment in time.

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There were a couple of weird goaltending scenarios during the game tonight. First, Marc Andre Fleury did not come out to start the second period of play; Jocelyn Thibault was between the pipes. About 6 minutes in, Fleury replaced him and finished the game. Turned out that Fleury had the plastic covering come off of his skate boot and needed to have it repaired.

The Flyers replaced Antero Niittymaki with Martin Houle only to see him allow 2 goals on 3 shots in the span of 2 minutes 12 seconds. They tried to put Niitymaki back in the net, but quickly switched back to Houle, only to send Niittymaki back out on the next whistle. The reasoning for the play: The new rule mandating that you cannot change your players after an icing call. The Flyers had just iced the puck and had to stick with Houle until the next stop.

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The 3 Stars of the Game:

#3 Ryan Malone: 1 G 3 A
#2 Sergei Goncher: 2 G 3 A
#1 Sidney Crosby: 1 G 5 A