Pens Swept Away in New Jersey

Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers – they’ll kill you, and not just in football. Four Pens’ turnovers resulted in New Jersey goals as the Devils swept the season series with a 5-2 win Wednesday. Guess the old red-and-green throwback jerseys (which actually looked good; better than the Pens’ powder blue) brought the home team some good luck.

The talk after this one will no doubt be the fact New Jersey won all six meetings this season, and rightfully so. (The “you can’t beat us” chant was a nice touch from the home crowd, by the way.) It’s hard to believe, even more so when you consider the teams are tied with 87 points in the standings. If Pittsburgh wins just two of those games, they’re up 8 points.

Malkin didn’t play, and that certainly didn’t help the Pens cause. But I highly doubt #71′s presence would have altered the outcome. Pittsburgh started off very strong early in the game and took a 1-0 on a goal from Kunitz four minutes in. The Pens couldn’t get another one on the board, however, and bad things started happening about midway through the first.

Letang turned it over in the neutral zone, and Dainius Zubrus scored. Guerin turned it over (awful cross-ice pass), and Paul Martin scored with under two minutes left to give the Devils a 2-1 lead.

The Pens got their first power-play opportunity early in the second, but a Jordan Leopold turnover (horrific backhand pass at the point) led to a Patrik Elias breakaway goal. Another turnover led to Zach Parise’s goal, Fleury was pulled and it was 4-1 Jersey midway through the second. The Devils were efficient, scoring four goals on 15 shots through the first two periods.

Fedotenko scored 5:23 into the third to make it a two-goal game, but that was it. The Devils added an empty-netter shortly after the Pens failed to score on a three-minute PP after Rod Pelley got a major for boarding Goligoski. It was an ugly hit, but we’re getting used to seeing them. Fortunately, Goligoski was OK.

No mas, New Jersey. No mas. Pens travel to Boston tonight for what many are expecting to be a “physical” contest. How will the Bruins exact revenge on Matt Cooke? Will Cooke drop the gloves and answer for his sins? It’s an interesting subplot to be sure, but the Pens need a win badly to keep pace with NJ, who has a game in hand.