Feathers Fly for Penguins at the Joe

The Pittsburgh Penguins had some bad mojo at Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena in last night’s 5-0 thrashing at the hands of the Red Wings. The Penguins disintegrated in Game 5, taking 12 penalties including three 10-minute misconducts from Talbot, Craig Adams and mean ole Matt Cooke. Sidney Crosby took a completely undisciplined slash to Hank Zetterberg’s ankle in Period 2 that brought back memories of Tonya Harding trying to eliminate Nancy Kerrigan (though next time Sid, you may want to borrow Tonya’s bodyguard – that was a weak effort).

With Pavel Datsyuk (one of the most disciplined players in the game who's a finalist for yet another Lady Byng award for gentlemanly behavior), the Pens could ill-afford to self-destruct in the penalty department. Datsyuk had an incredible return after missing the first four games due to injury and kicked in assists on goals from Dan Cleary and Brian Rafalski. Marc-Andre Fleury was pulled for bench duty for the first time in these playoffs after letting in five goals on 21 shots. Backup goalie Mathieu Garon stopped the remaining eight shots he faced but the writing was on the wall for the self-destructing Pens. The ice birds face elimination but will be playing in front of their raucous home crowd when Game 6 returns ‘dawntawn to the Igloo’ on Tuesday night.

Meanwhile down on the farm, the Hershey Bears won another big one in the Calder Cup Finals last night, beating the Manitoba Moose 3-0 in the land of chocolate kisses. Graham Mink and Alexandre Giroux both lit the lamp for the Bears and once again, Quintin Laing topped it off with an empty-net tally. Goaltender Michal Neuvirth stonewalled all 28 of Manitoba’s attempts. The Bears lead the best of seven series two games to one and Game 4 takes place today Chocolate Town at 5 p.m. Let’s Go Bears!