- Ohlund destroys Talbot and the puck gets by the Pen’s defense…Daniel to Demitra and this game is over. Big big props to Sanford and his magical mask for coming in for Luongo and we’ll probably be seeing a lot more of the Sandman for some time to come. Another strong game from the Sedins/Demitra line.

Crosby finishes up with no points and a -2. Malkin got no points and a -1.

Now, everyone starting praying for superior ACL and MCL news for the Captain. Or go drink more and wake up tomorrow in the gutter to find out the rest. Whichever.

- 90 seconds and its all Pittsburgh. Sabourin should be off shortly…

- This period flew; a frantic five minutes remain.

- It’s all Pens five minutes into the third. Someone needs to inform these guys it’s Sanford back there. You know, a mere mortal? Can’t play the same game as they’re used to.

- Told ya: third starts and some dude with a Z last name on their fourth line scores. And away it goes. 2-1 Canucks.

- Pittsburgh is going to finish this period on the man advantage and it’s a miracle that the Pens haven’t taken advantage of a tired team without their linchpin in net. Expect a nasty third because the Pens are far better then this. All things considered, Vancouver has done a great job in keeping this game in their favor.

- The Pens just got their first shot on goal in the period and it’s over ten minutes old. Give the Canucks credit: they aren’t rolling over despite the bad first period.

- Daniel swoops in and no Pen flattens him. The result is a second goal giving our new goalie Sanford (Sanfuongo?) with a 2-0 lead.

- Second starts and Luongo appears to have a “serious groin injury“. Feel free to debate when a groin injury is minor and irrelevant (h/t Alanah). It’s officially Sanford time in B.C.

- First is over. Luongo, Cooke and Hansen are all out of the game. Latest is Lui is being “evaluated”…interesting. Don’t they shoot horses that are being “evaluated”? Not good but they have the 1-0 lead.

- Demo scores after multiple Sabourin whacks. This Slovak-French hate has got to stop. But seriously…can Luongo stand up please?

- Brodeur, Luongo…I’m thinking Miller is the next netminder going down at this rate. Watch your back chief.

- I hope Mr. Miyagi is in Pittsburgh this weekend. Canucks to the power play but who cares I want to know what’s up with the captain.

- Ha! Sanford goes down…Wellwood will be suiting up shortly in net. Stay tuned.

- You hear that collective moan? That was British Columbia. Sanford is in, Luongo is out out out, Daniel Sedin is in the box…and have I mentioned our goalie has one leg? Oy.

- Hmm Luongo appears to be down in great pain. This is akin to looking at the entire Canucks season going down with that knee. This is certainly no good.

- Talbot and O’Brien go to the box for literally no reason. Sounds the refs are determined to not let this game become fun. Typical. Good hate between these teams though. Malkin is wrecking everything in white out there.

- Haha right out of the gate Kesler, Burrows and Hansen don’t get along with the Pen’s Cooke-enforced third line. I think Cooke and Hansen both got tossed. And the Pens go to the PP.

Yup Cooke got a misconduct so he’s gone. That’s unfortunate. But hysterical. All at once. This game is great and it’s not even 30 seconds old.

*********************

I am still coming down from the complete jubilation that was watching my guys chase Lundqvist and destroy the Rangers from the drop of the puck in the first. As luck would have it, I sat in a second chock full of Vancouver fans; our section was loud as hell for both the Wellwood and Burrows goals. Listening to people get angry over Luongo’s play was a gift too. I couldn’t have asked for a better evening; a sad Ranger fan is something we can all rejoice in.

So, before I forget, well done once again Pudge:

And last night’s game was another beauty (hell anytime you beat the Wild is well worth the boredom of actually watching them). Sanford was solid in goal, Mitchell fought off the flu to help stack the defense in front of him and Demitra had a goal and assist, the latter being a quick pass to an on-his-knees (don’t read into that) Daniel Sedin who notched his 8th goal of the year.

Maybe the Minny media got the last laugh: they selected Cal Clutterbuck as the third star. He played nine minutes and had a bunch of hits…soooo…like their team, the Minny media is weak and delusional.

Whatever. The win pads the Canucks divisional lead to three over the Wild and Flames. As if by some joke by the NHL schedule kids, Vancouver now gets to play the Stanley Cup teams back to back: the Pens tomorrow and the Wings on Monday.

That brings us to the point of this post: a big hello to the Pen’s Matt Cooke. Matt Cooke was the pest Vancouver trusted enough to jettison Ruutu back in the day, so it seems fair that both Cooke and Ruutu have had brighter horizons with the Pens squad than being dispatched to Florida or Europe or the New York Rangers.

In fact, I think Cooke may be the only player who has gotten to ride shotgun with both Ovechkin and Crosby; try to ignore the irony that he wasn’t wanted on a Vancouver team that had no offense and, instead, got to suit up with the likes of them. Fate likes cookies.

You’ll hear not a single bad word about Cooke from me. I loved him on this team and, though you’ll hear the exact opposite from fans of other Northwest teams (and Lecavalier), he’s a good guy on top of it. As a Canuck he was active in charities and bleed for this team on numerous occasions. You can’t ask for much more.

Though I may raise the ire of the Pensblog guys, their team is going to lose but they’ll get the last laugh in Photoshop form I’m sure. Expect some good ones of Lui and the Sedins by the end of the weekend.

But the Canucks are on a roll and, unless the travel final catches up with them, Cooke, Crosby, Malkin, SATAN and Sabourin ain’t stopping them.