Her dress was atrocious. It was like something out of The Beatles 'Yellow Submarine' video. We think Ringo wore the same pattern for the cover of the album.
There was a pre-game video that was quick but focused on the good parts of the play offs, which were numerous. Petr's goal against Biron, when he put it in on the backhand and The Shift and Fleury's Game Five save.
First Period:
Henrik wanted a picture of the opening face-off because it was Sidney Crosby against Steve Stamkos. But it was over that quick. And according to the NHL.com Overnight, Stamkos won it. We don't remember that.
Line 1A was good, Crosby was everywhere like he always is.
But Line 1B came out. And in the confusion of a line change, Malkin passed the puck to Staal who somehow found where the net was this season. He rifled it past Ramo like last season never happened.
Then Gonchar was hit by David 'Bloodied by Chara' Koci along the boards in front of us. And he was really slow to get up. That was it for him the rest of the game. The defense looked lost without him. We heard Ryan Whitney yell from the press box, "NOT AGAIN!"
Godard takes exception to the hit and starts raging. He and 'Bloodied by Chara' Koci have a pretty awesome fight, highlighted by Godard faking out Koci with his fist then really punching him.
First intermission started with a 1-0 lead for the Penguins. And we all know how they play with the lead.
Second Period:
Pretty much everything is a blur to us at this point. We were having too good of a time watching a game at the Mellon. Like we said, you live and you learn.
Evgeny Artyukhin was running around like he was a man possessed....and not in a good way. Some of his hits were borderline illegal. Brooks Orpik wanted to kill him, we could see it in his crazy eyes.
The Lightning tie it up at 1 with a goal by Niskala right after the Penguins had to kill off a penalty by Ben Lovejoy. It was definitely a "Oh Marc, why?" goal.
There was another fight. This time it was Ryan Stone and Zenon Konopka. We've heard that he got his ass soundly kicked but others say it wasn't that bad. We're not George Foreman so we really don't know.
And then it was as if it was 2007/2008 again. Second period meltdown.
The other Smith scored for Tampa. Tampa in the lead, 2-1. We don't even remember this goal cause we're lame like that. And then the Lightning sneak into the offensive zone and Bochenski runs Fleury and scores. 3-1 now.
It looked illegal but without a video replay and Bob Errey freaking out, we couldn't tell what really happened. Still, it looked illegal to us. Maybe Orpik pushed Bochenski in?
But the Lightning couldn't keep their hands to themselves. And penalities caught up to them.
Jason Ward went to the box for roughing. And about a minute into the powerplay, Vladmir MIhalik took a hooking penalty.
The power play was sick. They passed a lot which really pissed off the guy next to us. And on the five-on-three, Yeo had the cajones to put 5 forwards on the ice.
What is this? The Carolina Hurricanes?
It was Petr Sykora who directed traffic, telling bitches where to be.
Malkin and Crosby were on the point with Satan on the half-boards, Sykora to the left of Ramo and Staal doing his best "Tomas Holmstrom".
Crosby shot the puck, Satan batted at it and then Staal did. And it drifted out towards Sykora who calmly lifted the puck over a face-down Ramo. Thank Gary for his whippy stick.
Something else happened in the second period, we are sure. But, eh.
Second intermission started with a 3-2 lead for Tampa Gay. Oops, we meant Bay, we swear.
Third Period:
There was some fumbling and shooting but nothing really happened until the Lightning decided to go to the box.
And the top power play unit came out. They were also ineffective, with Malkin passing it back to the other pointman behind his back like he usually does with Gonchar and Goligoski freaking out because he didn't know the pass was coming.
Then the second power play unit jumped over the boards. Petr Sykora scored from Janne Pesonen and Alex Gologoski. Tied, 3-3. It was a thing of beauty like all of Sykora's goals are.
Two minutes later, Kris Beech decided to seal his fate in the minors by boarding a mini-Lightning player. He got a major penalty and a game-misconduct.
There were seven minutes left to play and the Penguins had to kill off a 5-minute penalty with only 5 defensemen and tired forwards.
But Sidney Crosby came to the rescue. He and Malkin were killing penalties all night.
Crosby and Bill Thomas had a two-on-one and he used Thomas as a decoy. It was the patented Crsoby shot and Ramo had no idea what hit him until we were cheering. First short-handed goal, 4-3.
The 5-minute major was killed off but there was a little confusion and the puck ended up behind Marc-Andre Fleury. The entire arena groaned. What a cheap goal.
End of Regulation everything was tied 4-4.
Overtime:
Nothing happened.
Shootout:
Pittsburgh elected to shoot first.
Miroslav Satan went first. Ramo laughed in his face, glove save.
Jussi Jokinen was up for Tampa. He made Fleury look like a rookie.
Second was Malkin. "I stole your goal and left you with a clank."
Up next was Stamkos. Fleury was lying on his side when the puck went in.
Final: Lightning 5, Penguins 4 Shootout.
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Musings:
1. Darryl Sydor ate the Wheaties.
2. Five forwards on the power play was insane. And it actually worked.
3. Are they gonna keep Crosby killing penalties? We hope so, he's amazing.
4. So dependable, so Brooks Orpik.
5. Where was Ryan Whitney when we needed him to play 50+ minutes? Oh, snap.
6. Gonchar better be okay or we'll bloody Koci again.
7. Where was Stamkos? We're not bitter cause we have no reason to be, but we didn't notice him until the shootout. Just saying.
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