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The Penguins face the Senators for the third time this season.
Sidney Crosby tries to extend his point-scoring streak to 24 games as the Penguins face off against the Ottawa Senators Sunday night. The Ottawa Citizen notes that Crosby will be "a handful" for the Senators, who are coming off a 2-1 win over the Predators but who lost their two previous games to the Capitals (3-2) and Avalanche (6-5 in overtime). Only seven teams have allowed more goals per game than the Senators, and goalie Pascal Leclaire is currently struggling with a lower-body injury. It isn't yet clear whether he'll play against the Pens, but if not, it'll be Brian Elliott, who has faced criticism from fans this season but played well against Nashville.
Ottawa's goal-prevention issues might get you to thinking about former Pens defenseman Sergei Gonchar, who left for the Senators this offseason. SB Nation's Senators blog Silver Seven's take on Gonchar so far isn't especially flattering:
Holy crap, he is slow. Sllllooooowww. I think Erik Karlsson could outrace him skating backwards. It's not a surprise that our defense struggles with speed, and I am suddenly less pleased with knowing he's on our team for two more years. Still, his vision on the power play is frightening. He really, really, REALLY needs to shoot more.
The Senators haven't scored terribly many goals this season either, and they're probably a worse team than you might think from the fact that they're on the fringes of the playoff hunt - they've allowed 24 more goals than they've scored this year. The Penguins are 2-0 against the Senators this season.
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Penguins Vs. Senators: Sidney Crosby Continues Streak, But Brian Elliott Dominates Pens In 3-1 Ottawa Win
Sidney Crosby increased his points streak to 24 games by scoring with three and a half minutes to play, but Ottawa Senators goalie Brian Elliott dominated the Penguins, who lost 3-1.
Mike Fisher scored a power-play goal in the first to give the Senators an early lead, and Erik Karlsson added goals in the first period and early in the second period to give the Senators a 3-1 lead. The Penguins kept the Senators on the defensive throughout the rest of the second period, but Elliott was tremendous, stopping all of the Pens’ 22 shots on goal.
The third period wasn’t as oriented around the Penguins’ offense, but the Senators’ offense was largely confined to a couple of breakaways, one of which could have easily been called a goal, as the puck came about as close as possible to going over the goal line without actually doing so. (Nick Foligno took a penalty shot after Brooks Orpik was whistled on the play, but Marc-Andre Fleury made a nifty glove save.) Overall, the Pens got 17 shots on goal in the third period but weren’t able to score until Crosby took a shot that bounced off the Senators’ Matt Carkner and into the net.
Elliott registered 44 saves overall and was clearly the key player of the game, however – both teams played a physical game and the Pens were very persistent and got a ton of opportunities, but Elliott wouldn’t let them convert any of them until Crosby’s goal when the game was nearly over.
The Penguins’ next game is on Tuesday at home against the Atlanta Thrashers.
Dec 26 10:30p by Charlie Wilmoth - 0 comments