The Pens And Crosby Both Continue Their Streaks With Win Over The Senators

Added on Dec 07, 2010 by J Merrill in

NHL

The Pitsburg Penguins brought their winning streak to double digits by winning their 10th in a row by beating the New Jersey Devils 2-1 at CONSOL Energy Center on Monday night. On the back of Marc-Andre Fleury who is 11-0-1 in his last 12 starts, and made 27 saves; The Penguins matched a 10-game winning streak from Jan. 28-Feb. 15, 1999. Their only longer streak was an NHL-record, 17-game run from March 9-April 10, 1993.

Penguins forward Sidney Crosby thought the game was a close one. He said “A game like tonight probably could have went either way. They did some good things. It’s nice to win a close one like this. They’re not always going to be big leads, but you’re going to have be forced to come back sometimes and play these type of games.”

Crosby is arguably the leagues best player this year, and it seems like he is impossible to stop these days. Crosby leads the NHL with 24 goals and 24 assists for 48 points, and has nine goals in the last five games, and six goals in the last three. He is on a 16 game scoring streak that is the longest in the NHL this season (18 goals, 15 assists) and ties for the second longest of his career. “I just tried to get off to the side of the net and hoped something bounced over,” Crosby said of the goal. “Chris tied up his guy in front and the rebound was able to come over there. It made it in there, and I was happy to see it go in.”

You won’t find New Jersey Goalie Johan Hedberg denying how hard it is to goal tend facing Sidney Crosby, “I don’t know if you get to appreciate how really quick he is. He was behind both of their goals and probably was the difference in the game.”

They have now won six straight at home, and Fleury said of the atmosphere of the Pens lately,”It feels a little more relaxed. Everyone is enjoying it. It was tough at the beginning, so it’s nice to get some wins.”

New Jersey lost its fourth in five games despite a strong performance by Hedberg with 32 saves. “We have to think about getting wins. We know where we are,” coach John MacLean said. “You have to get one, and then two, and go from there.” He felt like they took some penalties, and still held strong, but it was risky. He Continued, “It’s dangerous to take that many penalties against this team. But when called upon, they did a nice job. We got one on the power play early and then just weren’t able to generate another one. It would have been nice to get another one.”

The Pittsburgh Penguins (19-8-2, 40 pts) now 1st in Atlantic Division, will face the Toronto Maple Leafs (10-12-4, 24pts) Wednesday at home, and The New Jersey Devils (8-17-2, 18pts) will face the Ottawa Senators (12-14-2, 26pts) Friday in Ottawa.