The Pens fielded a lineup without the big name stars such as Brad Thiessen, Eric Tangradi and Simon Despres (among others) but the effort was still there. Adam Payerl broke a 2-2 tie with 1:52 to play to give the Pens the win and Brian Gibbons added an empty net goal with :44 to play to put the icing on the cake. The Amerks would score as time expired so Gibbons goal proved to be the actual game winner.
The Pens got out to a 2-0 lead on goals from Paul Thompson and Jayson Megna but the Amerks tied it with back-to-back power play goals in the second period.
Jeff Zatkoff made his WBS debut and looked impressive. He gave up two goals through two periods. Patrick Killeen came on in relief in the third and gave up the goal as the game ended.
First impressions I got tonight watching the young defensemen is that mistakes will be made but the potential guys like Joe Morrow and Brian Dumoulin have makes them exciting to watch. I thought both played well. Reid McNeill played with a physical edge and looked good too.
Up front, I really liked the hustle and forechecking by guys like Holzapfel, Payerl, Megna and Dominik Uher. Beau Bennett created some offense and had some nice plays as well. Thompson and Gibbons look to be improving from last season also.
The Penguins lineup tonight:
Thompson - Holzapfel - Bennett
Gibbons - Megna - Kuhnhackl
Payerl - Chupp - Uher
Neal - Manderson - Zurevinski
Sneep - Dumoulin
Morrow - Samuelsson
Grant - McNeill
Zatkoff - Killeen
Expect the big guns to play Friday night in front of the home crowd.
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