Staal's ugly goal gives Penguins 2-1 win

Ryan Malone, left, and Mark Recchi converge on Jordan Staal, right, after he scored the winning goal in the third period against the Atlanta Thrashers Saturday.

Sunday, March 25, 2007

By Dave Molinari, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


Michel Therrien made all the normal moves, said all the usual things, while trying to jump-start the Penguins' offense the past few days.

He tore up his line combinations. Encouraged his players to put the puck on goal as much as possible. Prodded them to go hard to the net.

All pretty standard stuff.

Never once did Therrien say anything to his players about working to shake someone loose for a soft backhander from a hopeless angle behind the goal line.

That's an oversight he might want to address in the future.

For while the Penguins had very little luck getting conventional shots past Atlanta goalie Kari Lehtonen at Mellon Arena yesterday, they were 1 for 1 on blind centering attempts from the end boards, and that provided the difference in their 2-1 victory against the Thrashers.

Rookie center Jordan Staal broke a 1-1 tie at 10:19 of the third period when he flipped a backhander that bounced on its way toward the front of the net, then hopped over Lehtonen's right skate -- which was against the post, precisely where it belonged -- and bounced off his leg pad before dropping into the net.

"I was asking [Ryan Malone] after that, 'Was that a set play?' " right winger Michel Ouellet said, smiling.

Staal's goal could be called a lot of things, but "set play" is not on the list. He found it almost as tough to describe as it would be to duplicate.

"I don't know what to say about that," Staal said, "but I'll take it."

Thrashers coach Bob Hartley is not often at a loss for words -- he shared enough of them with the referees during the second intermission to be assessed a bench minor for abuse of officials -- and had a few to characterize the deciding sequence.

All quite civil, which presumably was not the case with his unsolicited critique of the officiating.

"It just goes to show you that any puck that is going toward the net has a chance to go in," Hartley said. "It's like pinball. It hits two or three places, then, bang, it's in the back of the net."

Well, not quite. Staal's puck never got anywhere near the back of the net, dying of natural causes -- friction and gravity, for starters -- about six inches past the goal line.

No matter. That was far enough to give Staal his 29th goal, break the Penguins' two-game losing streak and keep them two points behind first-place New Jersey in the Atlantic Division.

The Penguins (42-23-10) have 94 points, while the Devils raised their total to 96 with a 4-3 shootout victory at Florida last night. The Penguins remained four points behind Ottawa, which is fourth in the Eastern Conference, after the Senators' 7-2 win last night in Tampa.

Getting two goals against the Thrashers meant the Penguins doubled their production from either of the previous two games, but it hardly fits the working definition of an offensive rampage.

Part of the problem has been their power play, which is in an 0-for-16 rut after failing on six tries against Atlanta.

"If we can get that going, we'll probably get some more goals," defenseman Ryan Whitney said.

Then again, if the Penguins get the kind of goaltending Jocelyn Thibault provided while turning aside 25 of 26 Thrashers shots, anything more than a couple of goals might seem wasteful.

"If we win, 2-1, every night, we won't be worried about scoring goals," Ouellet said.

Thibault has stopped 90 of 93 shots in his past three starts and has been poised and technically sound.

"He's playing with a lot of confidence," Therrien said. "I'm very happy with the way Thibault is playing."

Even so, he made it clear that Marc-Andre Fleury remains the Penguins' go-to goalie, although he cautioned that it's premature to conclusively identify a playoff starter.

"I like Marc-Andre," he said. "He's been our No. 1 guy, and he's got our confidence. He's playing well. We're not in a position to [make] those decisions right now."

Goaltending will, of course, be hyper-critical for the Penguins in the postseason. The lack of NHL playoff experience among many of their players could be an issue, too, although playing 40 one-goal games already this season -- the Penguins are 22-18 in them -- might help in that regard.

"We're learning how to play those tight games," Therrien said.

And finding out that even the ugliest goals can look awfully nice in the standings, too.


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(Dave Molinari can be reached at DWMolinari@Yahoo.com. )