From: lli+@cs.cmu.edu (Lori Iannamico)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.hockey
Subject: Pens-7 Islanders-3
Keywords: Lemieux-5 points
Date: 9 Oct 92 15:27:12 GMT
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon

Mario Lemieux had 5 points and Tom Barrasso was solid in the net as the Pens
defeated the Islanders for their first win of the season.

Prior to the game, a banner raising ceremony was held. I'll describe it in
another post.  It was really something.

As usual, the lines were "Bowman lines" and are subject to change at any time.
But the lines that usually were together were:

                       Stevens-Lemieux-Tocchet
                       McEachern-Francis-Jagr

The next 2 lines were juggled a lot, between each other and occasionally the 
top 2 lines.
                       Loney-Tippet-Leach
(Though as the game wore on, Leach saw very little ice time.  Jeff Daniels 
played about 3 minutes near the end of the third.)
                       Daniels/Loney-Stapleton-Needham

The defensive pairings were also different from opening night.  The pair that
stayed together the most was:

                       U.Samuelsson-Stanton (This pair was the same in Game 1.)

The other pairs were: 

                       Paek-K. Samuelsson
                       Jennings-Murphy

The beginning of the first saw the Pens trying to force something to happen
offensively, and struggling defensively.  Ulf played very well, but the rest
of the defense seemed to be suffering from "Murphyitis".  Symptoms are erractic
play, and suffering from bouts of boneheadedness.

The Pens had more scoring attempts in the opening minutes, but it was the Isles
that went on the board first.  Grant Jennings (who sucks bigtime) was turned 
around at the blue line and lost the puck to Jeff Norton.  ? Berg and Scott
LaChance broke in on a 2-1.  Murphy was the lone defenseman back and couldn't
break up the play.  Berg fired the shot past Barrasso from a little left of the 
right faceoff circle.  I think it was the Isles first shot on goal, but I'm
not sure.  The shot clock facing my end of the arena was turned off the entie
firs period. 

The Pens still had the better opportunites as the period wore on, but really
couldn't make anything happen until late in the first while working on a power
play.  Stevens fed the puck to Tocchet, who was parked right in front of the 
goal.  Tocchet stuffed the puck past Fitzpatrick to tie the game.

Barrasso had a great save in the first.  I'm not sure who it was on, but the
puck was headed into a wide open net.  Barrasso reached back and deflected it
with the narrow shaft of the stick.  It was a nice save.  Barrasso had a good
game again, coming up big when needed.

Period 2 saw Beniot Hogue receive a 5 minute major and a game misconduct for
spearing.  I can't describe it because I didn't see it happen.  I was committing
that most mortal of sins, talking instead of watching the game.  The Isles were
on a power play at the time, so the sides played 4-4.  The teams kept racing
up and down the ice, but play remained even.  The Isles power play expired,
and the Pens were working 5-4 when the Isles were able to clear the puck.
Everyone went flying down to the Pens end.  Barrasso saw this and came out of
the net to clear the puck.  He went to bank it off the glass.  He always uses
the glass and boards in that way.  The puck kept going and sailed into the seats
and Barrasso was called for delay of game.  22 seconds later Jeff Norton was
wide open (Thanks to Lemieux) and fired the puck from the left faceoff circle
and beat Barrasso.(Thomas, Ferraro).  

The Pens evened things up a few seconds later when Larry Murphy got his own 
rebound back and shoveled it past Fitzpatrick(Jagr, Lemieux).  The Pens were
still working on the 5 minute major at the time.

About 4 minutes after that, the Isles and Pens were scrambling around in front
of the Pens net.  Pierre Turgeon knocked an errant puck out of the air and over
the head of a practically standing Barrasso.  The Pens argured that Hogue 
knocked it out of the air with a high stick, but to no avail.  I was on the
other end of the ice, so I really couldn't tell.  It was obvious Turgeon's stick
was high.  But it could have been because Ulf was holding it up there.  I think
what happened was that the puck just hit the stick and went in without anyone
really seeing how it happened. (Kruvers, Thomas).

But with about 35 seconds left in the period, the Pens tied the game.  I missed
the goal (Stanton:Stevens, Lemieux) because 2 rather large women in front of
me decided to stand up and debate about going to the bathroom.  Needless to 
say, I just had to tell them just how I felt about them and their bathroom
habits...

Period 3 was all Pittsburgh.  After taking the puck from Larry Murphy, Jagr did
his little dance though the defense and swooped in Fitzpatrick.  He kept 
switching from backhand to forehand and had Fitpartick confused.  He stepped
around Fitzpatrick and used the forehand to tap the puck into a practically
open net.

Next came Lemieux.  After taking a long pass from Ulf (The clari.sports.hockey
boxscore gave Kjell the assist.  That's wrong.), Lemieux carried the puck into
the Isles and carried it behind the net.  He basically set himself up, tossing
the puck ahead just a tiny bit, positioning his body, and using his long reach
swept a backhand around Fitzpatrick.  

About 2 minutes later game the goal of the night.  Lemieux(Jagr, Jennings) held
the puck near the right faceoff circle for what seemed to be an eternity, and
then snapped a shot between Fitzpatrick and the post.  There looked to be barely
enough space for the puck to get through.  I don't know how Lemieux did that.
Obviously, neither did Fitzpatrick.

Shawn McEachern (Who has got to be one of the fastest players in the league.)
finished up the Penguin scoring when he took a in front of the goal pass from
Ron Francis(U. Samuelsson) and beat Fitzpatrick.

Scratches: Joey Mullen(knee), Bob Errey(torn ligament-left foot), Martin Straka,
Jay Caufield, Bryan Fogarty, Jeff Chychrun


REPRINTED WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM CLARI.SPORTS.HOCKEY:

NY Islanders                     1 2 0--3
Pittsburgh                       1 2 4--7
        First period--1, NY Islanders, Berg 2 (LaChance, Norton), 2:53.
2, Pittsburgh, Tocchet 2 (Stevens, Lemieux), pp, 17:08. Penalties--Murphy,
Pit, 6:55; Kurvers, NYI, 15:39.
        Second period--3, NY Islanders, Norton 1 (Thomas, Ferraro),
5:44. 4, Pittsburgh, Murphy 1 (Jagr, Lemieux), 6:03. 5, NY Islanders,
Turgeon 1 (Kurvers, Thomas), pp, 10:13. 6, Pittsburgh, Stanton 1 (Lemieux,
Stevens), 19:24. Penalties--Jagr, Pit, 2:42; Hogue, NYI, major-misconduct
(spearing), 2:58; Barrasso, Pit, 5:22; K.Samuelsson, Pit, 8:39; LaChance,
NYI, 12:38; Stanton, Pit, 16:56.
        Third period--7, Pittsburgh, Jagr 1 (Murphy), 2:20. 8, Pittsburgh,
Lemieux 2 (K.Samuelsson), 8:38. 9, Pittsburgh, Lemieux 3 (Jagr, Jennings),
11:44. 10, Pittsburgh, McEachern 1 (Francis, U. Samuelsson), 14:34.
Penalties--Stanton, Pit, 3:22; Krupp, NYI, 4:37; Kasparaitis, NYI,
7:25; Loney, Pit, 7:25; Berg, NYI, 15:25; Jennings, Pit, 15:25; Jennings,
Pit, 15:25; Pilon, NYI, 18:47; Jagr, Pit, 18:47.
        Shots on goal--NY Islanders 6-10-12--28. Pittsburgh 15-9-11--35.
        Power-play conversions--NY Islanders 6-1. Pittsburgh 5-1.
        Goaltenders--NY Islanders, Fitzpatrick. Pittsburgh, Barrasso.
A--16,164.
        Referee--Mike McGeough.


Lori
Contact for the Penguins
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