Pens cry “Uncle!” to Hawks’ Antti

What a lame, groan-inducing title.  Only slightly better than “Niemi, the Antti-dote to Pens’ attack” or “Hawks up the Antti with statement-making win over champs”.  The backup netminder for Chicago, Antti Niemi, was indeed the difference last night and a deserving first-star in a 2-1 overtime win over the Penguins.  Niemi made thirty-two often spectacular saves including seventeen in the second period alone, repeatedly turning away the relentless Pittsburgh attack.

The game lived up to its billing as a possible Stanley Cup Finals preview despite the absence of Pittsburgh superstar and captain Sidney Crosby who was scratched due to a recurring groin injury.  Although just three goals in total were scored, fans were treated to back-and-forth rushes, speed, skill and playmaking creativity that are hallmarks of both teams.  Both clubs attempted to impose their style of game on the opponent from the first drop of the puck.  Chicago, the third-ranked team in the NHL at winning faceoffs, won the first five draws of the game and nine of the first ten.  Early possession of the puck led to more scoring chances for the Blackhawks and when Marian Hossa scored on a rebound during a 4-on-4 situation at 7:37 of the first period, it was Chicago’s sixth shot of the game, to just two for the Penguins.

Conversely, Pittsburgh, the league leader in hits, came out banging and crashing attempting to force turnovers as a means to repossess the puck, outhitting Chicago 20-9 in the opening period.  For the game, the Pens outhit the ‘Hawks 44-31, with defencemen Brooks Orpik and Kris Letang combining to contribute a quarter of the team’s total.  While Pittsburgh ramped up their play in the middle period, Niemi was perfect between the pipes, quashing the Penguins’ hopes of scoring the tying goal.

It goes without saying that the Penguins missed Crosby, who had scored eleven points in his past three games, but also because of his ninth ranked 57.1 faceoff win percentage.  Chicago centre Jonathan Toews, the league’s fourth best faceoff man, led the Blackhawks to utter domination in the faceoff circle.  He won eighteen of twenty-eight faceoffs (64%) and Chicago as a team won 59% of draws, holding every player who took a faceoff on the Penguins at 50% or less except rookie Mark Letestu (56%).

What an interesting day it was for Letestu.  As late as noon yesterday, he was preparing to suit up for a home game for the AHL Wilkes-Barre Scanton Penguins versus the Hartford Wolf Pack, farm team of the New York Rangers.  Once Crosby was declared out for the game, Letestu was recalled and made the 280 mile journey west to play in his third career NHL game, all under the steel dome of Mellon Arena.  Surprisingly, Letestu was one of the better playmakers on the ice for Pittsburgh last night.  With a minute left in the second period, he twisted and weaved away from Chicago defenceman Niklas Hjalmarsson before firing a no-look backhand pass across the slot that was nearly one-timed into the net by Sergei Gonchar.  Early in the third, Letestu fired another backhander, this time from the slot and off the left post.

However, his biggest contribution came on a brilliant, diagrammed extra-attacker play created by assistant coach Mike Yeo with the Penguins inside the Chicago blue line following a time out with just ninety-nine seconds left in regulation.  Letestu was tabbed to take the faceoff against John Madden in the right circle while Jordan Staal stood at the far left point away from every other skater on the ice.  Letestu won the draw, setting off a seven-second sequence of events that saw Evgeni Malkin fire a shot on net from the right point that deflected off Chicago defender Brent Seabrook and Staal, drifting in from no-man’s-land, pounced on the puck and buried it into the net for the tying goal.

Thus the Penguins were able to salvage a point despite the loss largely due to the efforts of a rookie who woke up Saturday morning never dreaming that he would get a chance to contribute to the parent club that night.  With forward Chris Bourque waived and subsequently reclaimed by Washington, and left wing Chris Kunitz still on the shelf, it will be interesting to see how coach Dan Bylsma slots the sharp-looking Letestu among the forward lines before and after Crosby returns to the lineup.