The Penguins and Blue Jackets met for a Sunday matinee. Stories of the game:
1. Mark Letestu's return to Pittsburgh.
2. Malkamania.
3. Disallowed goals.
4. Brad Thiessen's first NHL start.
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Photos after the jump.
Warm-up:
Brad Thiessen takes the ice for what would be his first NHL game.
Today's featured player: Jordan Staal
Iceburgh once again took the ice wearing the scarf knitted by the
Knitting Lady.
Anthem:
I spotted
Jersey Guy over to our right. Interesting choice for his first period jersey.
Former Penguin Mark Letestu would get the start in his first trip back to Pittsburgh since the November trade that sent him to Columbus.
LET'S GET IT ON!!!
The first period was pretty much all Penguins as they outshot the Blue Jackets 15-5 but couldn't put one past Columbus goaltender Curtis Sanford.
Jersey Guy goes with the Malkin white jersey for the second period. Very nice choice.
Dropping the puck to start the second.
Columbus picked things up a bit in the second. Letestu looked eager to show his former team what they were missing.
Distractions...
RJ Umberger goes off for slashing and the Pens head to the power play.
Rick Nash pounced on a loose puck, moved in all alone on Thiessen and put the Jackets up 1-0.
Enter the Geno.
Unreal. Whenever we need a big goal, Geno is there to get it.
The second period ends all even at 1-1.
Letang for the third. Another great call from Jersey Guy.
The Penguins got back to putting serious pressure on Sanford.
An apparent go-ahead goal from Kunitz was waved off after the referee determined the puck was kicked in.
No worries. Dupuis got it back. 2-1 Pens.
Another Pens goal is disallowed, this time a power play marker from Kris Letang. It was ruled that Kunitz had made incidental contact with the Columbus netminder.
From now on, this move will be called "the Kunitz".
Geno imagines shooting the referee through the glass.
In what has become a bit of a habit for the Pens, they made up for the missing goal as Letang went on to score later on the same power play.
Then Joe Vitale took over the game.
Vitale's goal provided good insurance as the Jackets would go on to score with just under five minutes remaining. Time for the Pens to buckle down defensively and secure the win.
Pensblog Charlie was there to fire up the crowd.
Geno had a late try at the empty net. From our vantage point, it sure looked like it was going in.
No dice. Time expired and the Pens headed down the ice to congratulate Thiessen on his first NHL win.
Kunitz did it with a hug...
...and the former WBS guys have their own customs...
Fleury teaching Thiessen the secret goalie headshake.
Any doubt about who would be first star of the game?
Another nice win, boys. Keep it up.
On our way out of the arena, we spotted Rob King and Jay Caufield doing the postgame show behind section 107. We watched for a bit. When they went to break, Jay waved and we said hi. We asked if we could get a photo, thinking it would be after the show was over, but they said sure and told us to come on over.
Another truly epic sock pic.
We have a little break now. Next trip to Pittsburgh will be March 7th for the unveiling of the Mario Lemieux statue. Of course we'll post some pics from that and we're also sticking around for a few games that week.
In the meantime, look out for a big post full of sock pics and autograph signings. Hopefully that will be coming out sometime in the next week.
Go Pens!
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