In what was quite possibly the longest game of the season, the Pens beat the Sabres 2-1 in a shootout during the Winter Classic in Buffalo, played before 70,000+ fans in Ralph Wilson Stadium during a winter squall...
Colby Armstrong scored 20 seconds into the game, making it look like the Pens would plow their way through the snow and sleet to an easy victory...not so fast boys...that'd be the end of our regulation scoring...
The game was fun to watch, but was more of a spectacle then an actual game...The ice had to be cleared every ten minutes to take the snow off, and there had to be 10 stoppages for some guy to come on the ice with a bucket and what looked like a hockey stick to fill in holes...plus there were interviews with players during the game and, let's face it, a hockey game played in the driving snow and freezing rain before 70,000 people has to be considered a spectacle more then a real 2 point game...
During the first, the action was a little slow as everyone was trying to feel each other and the conditions out...the second brought on some better play in every aspect except shooting for the Pens. We finished checks, played OK defense and had good goaltending (except for the Brian Campbell goal, which I think was a mix of bad D/Goaltending, but I'm staying positive in this post), and the pace of the game definitely picked up...
The third was an exciting, if uneventful period, bringing on the overtime period...It didn't help that we started the OT out shorthanded due to what I percieved as a phantom hooking call on Colby (how the hell can you make a call like that at the end of the third when you've only called FOUR PENALTIES all game?...it's beyond me), but what I think sucked even worse was the game being stopped halfway through the third and OT to switch ends...I understand that it was a fairness issue, but how can you have this be a real game when there have to be rule modifications? I think it should have been an exibition, but once again, that's a post for another day...
The real action came in the shootout, where things didn't start off too well with Ty Conklin giving up a goal on the first shot he faced and Christensen missed his attempt...Then Conklin stonewalled the next two Sabres to go against him, and Kris Letang and Sid the Kid sealed the deal for the Pens by scoring on their attempts...
Like I said, it was a fun game and I'm glad we got the two points, but in the future it should be just that - a fun game that doesn't affect the standings...
3 Stars
Star 3 - Ryan Miller
Star 2 - Ty Conklin
Star 1 - Sidney Crosby
Until lata...
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