The Pittsburgh Penguins finally got their top two stars to score in this lockout-shortened season. Unfortunately, the Toronto Maple Leafs exited the game with a win.
James van Riemsdyk scored two goals and the Leafs spoiled the Penguins’ home opener 4-2 in front of 18,641 fans, the largest crowd for a hockey game in Consol Energy Center’s three year history.
The Penguins came off a successful two game road trip where they dismantled the New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers; top contenders in the Eastern Conference. But the Leafs didn’t care, nor did they back down when the lights came on after Jeff Jimerson’s renditions of “O Canada” and “The Star Spangled Banner”.
The Leafs came out strong and seemed to control play for most of the opening period. The aggressive forecheck and strong defense of Toronto was apparent early on to Deryk Engelland, who decided to drop the gloves with Colton Orr 5:58 into the first. The fight lasted well over a minute and reenergized the crowd.
Evgeni Malkin got the Penguins on the board late in the first period with a power play goal. Kris Letang passed the puck to Sidney Crosby who quickly moved it to the goal line where Evgeni Malkin shot it towards goaltender James Reimer. The puck squirted past Reimer for Malkin’s first goal of the season.
The Leafs tied the score three minutes into the second period on a goal from Clark MacArthur. Simon Despres’s turnover in the Toronto zone led to a 3 on 2 rush for the Leafs. Phil Kessel fed Tyler Bozak on a cross-ice pass. Bozak skated towards the middle of the attacking zone and shot a puck that was redirected by MacArthur between the face-off circles. At the same time, Engelland was pushed into Marc-Andre Fleury, leaving a wide open net.
Three minutes later, the Leafs took the lead. Nikolai Kulemin took the puck wide then drove towards the net where James van Riemsdyk buried the shot past Marc-Andre Fleury.
The Leafs didn’t celebrate for long as Sidney Crosby scored his first goal of the season 29 seconds later. Crosby took a pass at the blue line from Pascal Dupuis and beat Reimer five-hole, sending the Penguins faithful to their feet.
After Kris Letang moved the puck up the boards, Evgeni Malkin turned the puck over to van Reimsdyk in the middle of the defensive zone where he elevated a snap shot past the glove hand of Marc-Andre Fleury. In one period, the Leafs scored three goals and never looked back.
The Leafs would add two more goals in the third period to bury the Penguins and a home crowd that badly wanted to see its team win their first home game since last April. Mikael Grabovski and Tyler Bozak each added a goal to make the final 5-2.
Three Stars
James van Reimsdyk
Nikolai Kulemin
Sidney Crosby
