Teammates Evgeni Malkin, top, and Ryan Whitney jump on Jordan Staal after Staal's winning goal in overtime last night in Toronto. The goal completed a hat trick for Staal in the Penguins' 6-5 win.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
By Dave Molinari, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
TORONTO -- This can be an awfully intimidating stage, and it was Jordan Staal's first time on it.
He grew up watching Hockey Night in Canada games. Last night, he played one in his home province. In front of a record crowd that included friends and fans who watched him play junior hockey up the road in Peterborough.
It's easy to see how an 18-year-old would be a bit overwhelmed by all of that.
And perhaps Staal was. Which might explain why he wasn't able to complete his first NHL hat trick until 3:54 of overtime in the Penguins' 6-5 victory against Toronto at the Air Canada Centre.
"You can't ask for a better night for him," coach Michel Therrien said.
Staal allowed that he was "a little nervous coming into the game" because "it's a dream come true to even play in this rink," although only a handful of his pals were on hand and his parents opted to stay home.
"They've been traveling a lot lately," he said. "So they just decided to boycott this one."
The Staals undoubtedly watched it on Hockey Night in Canada, since that's what a healthy percentage of folks in this country do on Saturday nights. Staal used to be one of them, which is why being invited to appear on the postgame show meant so much to him.
"I've been watching it my whole life," he said. "To get on there is a dream come true."
The victory pushed the Penguins' current run to 11-0-2 and allowed them to hold onto a share of fourth place in the Eastern Conference playoff race with Ottawa.
Sidney Crosby, whose first appearance of the season in this city had generated the kind of media attention generally reserved for a papal visit, had one assist to raise his league-leading point total to 87.
While Staal dominated the spotlight last night, a bit reflected on Penguins right winger Ronald Petrovicky after he dropped Toronto's Kris Newbury with a series of wicked rights during a fight at 13:53 of the third period.
The game was delayed for several minutes while Newbury received medical attention and was removed from the ice on a stretcher with his head immobilized. Toronto coach Paul Maurice said after the game that he was alert and conscious and will undergo tests today to determine the severity of his injuries.
"He fell on his head pretty bad," Petrovicky said. "I'm sorry. But that's part of the game. Hopefully, he'll be OK."
Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik did not play because of illness. His spot as Ryan Whitney's partner was taken by Josef Melichar, who missed the previous 12 games with a sprained left knee.
The game attracted a crowd of 19,620, a regular-season record in Toronto.
Staal opened the scoring off a give-and-go with Michel Ouellet with 37.2 seconds left in the opening period, then picked up his second of the night at 3:32 of the second, as he took a drop pass from Evgeni Malkin and whipped a shot over goalie Andrew Raycroft's glove from the top of the left circle.
Malkin made it 3-0 during a power play at 8:44 when he got a feed from Crosby and wired a wrist shot past Raycroft from the left dot, a goal that seemed to put the Penguins in complete control.
But Maple Leafs defenseman Hal Gill (6 foot 7, 250 pounds) tried to invigorate his teammates by initiating a fight with Colby Armstrong (6 foot 2, 188 pounds) at 10:54, and it worked.
While the Penguins seemed baffled that Gill and Armstrong received offsetting penalties -- "I don't understand the call on Gill and Armstrong," Therrien said. "You don't often see those things" -- there was no mystery about the impact their scuffle had on the game.
Nik Antropov sliced the Penguins' lead to 3-1 by scoring from the front lip of the crease at 8:25, one second after a tripping minor to Whitney expired.
Mats Sundin, whose assist on Antropov's goal was his 700th in the NHL, made it a one-goal game at 16:44 and Bates Battaglia completed Toronto's comeback by scoring from the inner edge of the right circle 54.4 seconds before the period ended.
"We lost our focus," Therrien said.
The Penguins had a chance to regain it during the intermission, but Bryan McCabe beat Marc-Andre Fleury from just inside the blueline 65 seconds into the third to give Toronto a lead.
Rather than unravel, the Penguins rebounded, and 54 seconds later, Ryan Malone scored from in front to tie the game again. And after Boyd Devereaux put Toronto on top again at 11:44, Maxime Talbot countered for the Penguins at 13:49 to put the game into overtime.
"We were resilient again," Therrien said. "I was really impressed with the way we battled back."
And especially with the 18-year-old who eventually won the game.
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(Dave Molinari can be reached at DWMolinari@Yahoo.com. )
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