Huge win for Pens

When Malkin wasn't scoring goals tonight, he was spraying ice in the face of Henrik Lundqvist.

Coming into this evening, the Penguins had a record of 25-19 (3), good enough for 53 points, 4th in the Eastern Conference and only 2 behind the division leading Devils. The real oddity with this has been their play in the Atlantic Division (which they reside in) compared to the rest of the league. Against the Devils, Flyers, Rangers, and Islanders, the Pens were 4-11 (1); against the rest of the league they are 21-8 (2). That's why despite the hot streak they've been on recently (9 wins out of their last 10, the one loss in a shootout), tonight's game against the Rangers was huge to build their confidence for the many intradivision games left on the schedule.

And they came through in a big way. Evgeni Malkin picked up his second hat trick in 2008 and Ty Conklin (the Conkblocker) was incredible again in goal, stopping 43 of 44 shots to propel the Pens to a 4-1 victory. They jumped on the Rangers early, with 3 goals in the first period, and then were dominated in the second and early third periods, but that was deemed irrelevant by the mastery of Conklin, who has been incredible in relief of Marc Andre Fleury. His record in net of 10-1 says it all, only giving up more than 2 goals once in that span.

Next game for the Pens is Friday against the Lightning, next divisional game is 1/24 against the Flyers, against whom we are 0-3 this year. Hopefully tonight's win will start to turn around our luck against the division.