Pens Winning Streak Comes To An End

The Pittsburgh Penguins winning streak came to an end Wednesday night in Toronto on the second night of a home and home.      It was a strong effort by the Penguins backup goalie only giving up 1 goal for the entire night.     His teammates were frustrated because they were not able to help out their struggling net minder as the Toronto Maple Leafs won the game just 1-0.

Johnson had gone into last nights game starting 2 games in the last 25, but not finishing either game.      So he rebounded well against a team that can score as they had proved the night before.     The problem was, the Toronto Defense was able to keep the Pens at bay, and the Pens helped them out by ringing it off the post and the crossbar more than a few times last night.      They just could not bury the puck.

The only score of the game happened in the 3rd period at the 13:55 mark of the period on a Clarke MacArthur goal to make it 1-0.    That would be all they would need and all they would get.    Both Reimer from the Maple Leafs and Johnson from the Pens both stopped 24 shots, the problem for the Pens was  that Johnson faced 25 shots which was the difference in the game.

The Maple Leafs did a great job against the Malkin and Neal line and if a team figures out how to slow them down, the Penguins are proving that without Staal on the second line, they just do not get enough second and third line scoring.      They have done well without Staal for the past couple of weeks,  so expect this team to respond well when he returns by the 3rd week of February.

The Penguins are off till Saturday when they take on the Boston Bruins, then New Jersey on Sunday.     Expect Marc Andre Fleury to be back in net for at least 1 of these games if not both of them.

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