Woof! Petersen, Veilleux Lead Pens Past Crunch 5-3

Brad Thiessen set a franchise record today with his 34th win of the season.

It was "Pucks and Paws" day and fans were allowed to bring their dogs inside the arena. Weird I know. Those who brought their canines to the OnCenter were seated behind the visitors net.

Today was Nick Petersen's day and he set a franchise record with five assists in the 5-3 win. Good things seemed to happen whenever he was on the ice. I've said it weeks ago that once Petersen was taken off the fourth line and placed on a line with some skill players (no offense to Jesse Boulerice) that he would catch fire.




The game started off with a rather fluky goal by the Crunch. There was a delayed penalty to be called and Penguins goalie Brad Thiessen thought that the call was going against the Crunch. He started to head to the bench when the Crunch's Nick Bolino grabbed the puck and flung it down the ice into an empty net.

Fortunately for Thiessen, he was able to recover and play pretty well the rest of the way. Thiessen also broke John Curry's franchise record for wins in a season, picking up his 34th of the season. That's two more than the Crunch have had this year.

Keven Veilleux (2G, 0A) and Geoff Walker (1G,1A) continue to produce offensively and Paul Thompson picked up his first pro goal and now has three points in his first three games with the Pens.

Basically Nick Petersen set up all of the Penguins goals today and was clearly the best player on the ice. The only bad news from today's game is that Zach Sill hurt his leg in the second period and didn't return. With the Penguins off tomorrow there probably won't be an update on his status until the team practices on Tuesday. If I hear anything on Sill I will let everyone know.

With no games until Friday now for the team, the injured guys get some time to rest up. The AHL's outstanding goaltender award will be announced tomorrow so I will probably write up something for that as most people are assuming that Thiessen will receive the award.

With the long layoff between games I might break down the Pens and look at who will be in the lineup for the playoffs, which start on April 15th. I'll also look to get some exclusive interviews with some of the new guys if possible. Be sure to check back for tomorrow's AHL best goalie award post.