The Penguins are finishing up their three-game road trip with a 10:00 p.m. start in Vancouver against the Canucks this evening.
TONIGHT’S OPPONENT: The Canucks are finishing up a six-game home stand. They’ve gone 2-3 in the first five games, including a 5-1 loss to San Jose on Thursday.
Through 50 games, Swedish twins Daniel and Henrik Sedin each share the team lead with 42 points. Czech winger Radim Vrbata has 20 goals and was the team’s lone all-star representative.
Ryan Miller is the Canucks’ starting goaltender. His career numbers against the Penguins are nothing short of abysmal. In 25 career games in his career with the Canucks and Buffalo, he is 7-13-3 with a .889 save percentage and a 3.28 goals-against average against Pittsburgh.
LATE, LATE NIGHT: In the last nine games the Penguins have played in Vancouver, six of them have gone into overtime. They have two straight and three of the last four games at Rogers Centre in a shootout.
GREISS IS THE WORD: With the Penguins playing on back-to-back nights, the Penguins coaching staff decided to play Marc-Andre Fleury last night in Calgary against the third-place Flames and Thomas Greiss tonight in Vancouver against the fourth-place Canucks.
They also took advantage of Fleury’s stellar career numbers against the Flames. He was 6-1 in seven career games against Calgary coming into last night’s contest.
MINOR MATTERS: After a rare Friday night off, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (25-18-4, 2nd in AHL East) is at first-place Hershey tonight at 7:00 p.m. The Penguins are four points behind the Bears and currently sit in the seventh spot in the Eastern Conference. Eight teams will qualify for the playoffs.
The Wheeling Nailers (21-22, 5th in ECHL North) beat the first-place Toledo Walleye 4-1 at home on Friday. Chaz Johnson scored the game-winner and Riley Brace added a pair of insurance goals. Franky Palazzese made 27 saves to earn the victory. The Nailers host fourth-place Cincinnati tonight at 8:05 p.m. at WesBanco Arena.
#CAWLIDGEHAWKEY: Robert Morris (20-5-4, 1st in AHC) beat second place Canisius 2-1 in overtime on Friday on Greg Gibson’s goal. The Colonials have now clinched a first-round bye in the Atlantic Hockey tournament and will clinch at least a share of the regular season title with a win tonight. The Colonials and Golden Griffins will again faceoff at 7:05 at 84 Lumber Arena.
Penn State (14-7-4, 2nd in Big Ten) dispatched last-place Wisconsin by a score of 5-2 on Friday. Forward Casey Bailey had a goal and two assists and PJ Musico earned his second straight win in goal. The Lions are now only two points behind first-place Michigan in the Big Ten conference. Penn State and Wisconsin play again this afternoon at 2:00 p.m.
