Staal Explodes VS Red Wings

Tonight’s (11/11) game between the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins was billed as a rematch of last year’s Stanley Cup Finals. And the Penguins 7-6 come-from-behind win in overtime certainly made a statement that the Penguins aren’t still ailing from last year’s Cup Finals loss. But the big story took a backseat to an incredible side-story that developed for one Jordan Staal. Entering the evening the promising young forward had been struggling to score goals and although his penalty killing continued to be top-notch many fans were growing restless of his goal-scoring woes; that is, until late in the third period. With the Penguins down 5-3 Staal gave them hope by scoring a brilliant goal in front of Osgood to cut the lead to one at 5-4. Detroit later answered to re-establish their two goal lead but Staal was just warming up. Staal scored the next two goals for the Penguins to force overtime and also drew a penalty toward the end of regulation setting up a golden opportunity for Pittsburgh heading into overtime. The ensuing power play was killed by the Wings, perhaps all that did was irritate Staal for as the game approached a shootout he pick-pocketed Pavel Datsyuk setting up Ruslan Fedetanko who buried the game-winning goal. Staal had 5 points before tonight, and left the ice with 4 in this game alone. So for all those who were worried, it won’t be like this every night, but it looks like he’s coming along just fine.