Hurricanes 6, Penguins 2

The Penguins slump as stretched to 5 games with another loss this time to the Hurricanes. It what was being billed as Orpik's first game in Carolina since he hit Erik Cole into the boards was largely uneventful of that front but don't tell the refs that. The Refs must have been fearing the worst and been waiting to blow the whistle during warm-ups. The Refs were able to get their whistle's replaced in between period while they were handing out 19 Power Plays in which 13 of them were for the Hurricanes. They were then able to use 2 of those to take a 3 - 0 lead. The Pens were then able to use the "old" guys to get back in the game when LeClair was able to shoot a puck so slow that Ward got board and let it between his legs for LeClair's first of the season. Recchi was then able to hit the top left corner over Ward after a Power Play had just expired for his second this season.

Then the people in Toronto took back control from the Penguins after it clearly looked like Ekman was able to get a puck just over the goal line on the Power Play. All the Pens cheered and Ward hung his head as he also believed that the puck was in but the Ref waived it off and the people in Toronto didn't have the guts to call it and said there was anything to overturn it so the score stayed 3 - 2. Belanger was then able to beat a cheating Thibault to basically seal the game. The Pens then gave up the first 2 shorthanded goals this season on an empty net goal and another that they didn't even really try on. Thibault played a pretty good game over all and was the only reason that the score didn't hit triple figures.

Next up is Philly on Monday so the Pens should be able to get back on track...