Pre-season game recap – Pittsburgh 2 at Toronto 3 (SO)

Penguins centre Jordan Staal battles Toronto's Rickard Wallin on an overtime faceoff at Air Canada Centre, September 22, 2009. The Maple Leafs won in a shootout 3-2.

The Penguins played their fourth pre-season game tonight, losing to the Maple Leafs 3-2 in a shootout before a sold-out Air Canada Centre crowd in Toronto. Maple Leafs’ 2009 first-round draft choice Nazem Kadri scored the game-tying goal with just 1:08 remaining in regulation and Toronto goaltender Vesa Toskala pulled for the extra attacker. Kadri later added a goal in the shootout to earn first-star honours.

The author had a chance to sit in the upper tier of seats at Air Canada Centre this evening to scrutinize a lineup of virtually all Penguins prospects.  Of note, defenceman Alex Goligoski stood out, logging a game-high 30:15 of ice time with one assist, a +2 rating and four shots on goal.  He looked confident handling and distributing the puck in power-play situations, a task that I think he will be expected to become more responsible for, as Pittsburgh grooms a possible successor to incumbent power-play quarterback Sergei Gonchar.

Goligoski is entering his third professional season and by no means should anyone consider him a “prospect”.  Earlier in the summer, the Penguins signed Goligoski to a three-year $5.5-million (US) contract – certainly not on the basis of career NHL totals of twenty-two points in forty-eight games, but because of the flashes of maturity and talent he has already shown and the tantalizing potential of what he can become.

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In his half-season with the parent club last year, he was entrusted with power-play minutes and responded – four of his six goals were with the man advantage.  Also, when Gonchar was injured early in the playoffs by the morally questionable knee-on-knee hit delivered by Washington star Alex Ovechkin, remember who the Penguins immediately called up?

Yes, Goligoski.

During tonight’s game, it was clear that Penguins defencemen were making a concerted effort to practice moving opponents to the outside to create an inferior angle for the puck carrier to shoot or pass.  Obviously, textbook skills are easier said than done, but Mark Eaton and, yes, Alex Goligoski, the game’s number three star, were able to shunt Leaf forwards towards the boards successfully.   Newcomer Nate Guenin (+1) also contributed on defense with several big hits and a takeaway in the defensive zone midway through the second period.

Unsurprisingly, with centres Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin resting, Jordan Staal logged a heavy workload – 21:17 of ice time to lead all forwards, and recorded five shots on goal.  He nearly ended the game in overtime, but Toronto netminder Vesa Toskala made a good save on a Staal backhand shot.  (During the shootout, Staal tried again to go from forehand to backhand, only to be stopped again as Toskala got his left pad out quickly).  Staal also fought Leaf defender Mike Komisarek and gave Penguins management and fans a scare when Staal’s helmet popped off during the scrap as the two jostled in the corner to the right of the Leafs’ net.

Chris Conner continues to impress with his quickness.  The ex-Dallas Star burst past everyone, scooping up the puck just past centre ice and backhanded it in to give the Penguins a 2-0 lead at 12:48 of the first period.  He was also the second man to skate in on Toskala in the shootout.

Brent Johnson tended the Pens’ goal for the first two periods, stopping fourteen out of fifteen shots, then John Curry took over for the remainder of the game, facing seventeen shots.  Incredibly, on three separate occasions, Toronto rang a shot off the post past Curry, including twice in overtime.  Overall, Curry’s positioning and decision-making was acceptable.  He squared himself to the shooter, disallowed egregiously fat rebounds, knew when to play the puck to a defenceman or when to cover up, and held his ground even with traffic in his crease.  He will be a capable fill-in on the Penguins roster should either of Marc-Andre Fleury or Johnson suffer a long-term injury during the year.

Finally, as an item of interest, I recorded twenty seconds of pre-game shooting warmups by Penguins forwards on John Curry tonight as viewed from the rafters of the Air Canada Centre.

Sources: pittsburghpenguins.com, nhl.com, nhlnumbers.com

Photo and video: PenguinsMarch personal collection