Pork hock ‘n’ hockey: LIVE! Dinnertime 3rd period blog

The work day is over.  Just enough time to catch the end of the game.  It’s 4-3 Penguins at Philadelphia as play begins in what should be a rousing third period.  Yes, I’m eating a pork hock at almost nine p.m. Eastern Daylight time.

19:09 Ray Emery and Marc-Andre Fleury trade great saves in the first minute.  Emery stopped Jordan Staal after Fleury stopped Jeff Carter.

16:41 Philadelphia has controlled play early in the third period, outshooting Pittsburgh 5-1.

11:23 Tyler Kennedy scores for the Penguins off a centring pass from Matt Cooke.  Penguins 5, Flyers 3

10:59 Matt Carle of Philadelphia just went to the penalty box for tripping.  The Pens are 1/2 on PPs tonight.

9:51 Braydon Coburn goes off for tripping giving the Penguins nearly a minute of 5-on-3.  Pens’ coach Dan Bylsma wisely calls time out.  What a horrible night for Coburn.  Although he has registered an assist, he is also -2 and scored on his own net in the second period to make it 4-2 Pittsburgh.

8:59 Carle comes back onto the ice and Jeff Carter gets a great chance short-handed, slipping behind Pittsburgh’s defence.

6:59 Pittsburgh defender Brooks Orpik impedes Danny Briere and takes two minutes for interference.

4:59 Orpik jumps out of the box and right into the play, almost springing Matt Cooke with a scoring chance, but his pass was too far.

2:28 Emery stops Bill Guerin on a 2-on-1 with Sidney Crosby.

0:41 With Emery pulled, the Flyers apply great pressure against the Penguins and Carter shoots high over Fleury to pull the home side within one goal.  Penguins 5, Flyers 4.

0:12 Craig Adams just missed the empty net on a backhand.

0:02 A wild scrum ensues in front of the Pittsburgh net as Mike Richards crashes into Fleury.  Predictably, much jostling, pushing and shoving after the whistle between the teams including recent former Anaheim teammates Chris Pronger and Chris Kunitz.

0:02 After a prolonged delay, the referees hand out twenty-six total penalty minutes, including misconducts to Pronger and Kunitz, resulting in a moot Pittsburgh power-play.

0:00 The horn sounds and the Penguins prevail on the road!  FINAL SCORE: Penguins 5, Flyers 4. Third period shots were 11-9 in favour of Philadelphia and 34-25 also in favour of Philadelphia for the game.

Of note, Penguins’ captain Crosby was 21/24 (88%) on faceoffs, mostly built on a 10-1 romp head-to-head against his Flyers’ counterpart, Mike Richards.

Three stars: #3: Carter (2 G, 2 A), #2: Fleury (30 saves), #1: Malkin (1 G, 1 A)