Sylvester Scores & Farnham Fights, Pens Fall 4-1 in Rookie Tournament Opener

The Penguins fall 4-1 to the Senators this afternoon in London, Ontario as the annual rookie tournament began among the Pittsburgh Penguins, Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs and Chicago Blackhawks.

Derek Grant, who scored 19 goals in 63 games with the Binghamton (AHL) Senators last season, broke open a 2-1 game, scoring two rebound goals past Tristan Jarry in the second and third periods to preserve the win for the Senators.

Cody Sylvester, a free agent forward tryout with the Penguins coming out of the Western Hockey League (WHL), scored the lone Penguins goal today with 3.4 seconds on assists from former London Knights defensive partners Scott Harrington and Olli Maatta.

Bobby Farnham wasted no time letting everyone at Budweiser Gardens Stadium know he was playing today, dropping the gloves with Darren Kramer early in the first period. Farnham was assessed an extra minor penalty on that fight and was later ejected after a second altercation with Shane Prince in the third period. Farnham again was given seven minutes in penalties in addition to the game misconduct, bringing his PIM total to 24 for the afternoon. Just another day at the office for  Farnham, whose style of play hasn't changed one bit from last season.   

Philip Samuelsson was given the captain's "C" this afternoon for the Penguins. Forward Jayson Megna, who I spoke with yesterday, was wearing the alternate captain "A" today as well.

Eric Hartzell got the start in goal and allowed two goals in the first 30 plus minutes he played. Tristan Jarry came on midway through the second period and was also victimized twice.

Here's the lines from today's game:

Kuhnhackl-Megna-Brace
Sylvester-Dea-Nejezchleb
Farnham-Marcantuoni-O’Brien
Simmonds-Rankin-Rowney

Pouliot-Samuelsson
Maatta-Harrington
D’Agostino-Seymour

Hartzell (18-20 in 34 minutes) - Jarry

Scratches: forwards Adam Payerl and Dominik Uher, defensemen Harrison Ruopp, Brian Dumoulin and Reid McNeill and goaltender Matt Murray