Pens Continue Dominance at Mellon Arena

Over the last few weeks, the comparisons between the 1983 Edmonton Oilers and this year’s edition of the Pittsburgh Penguins have been incessant, and for good reason. The ‘83 Oilers possessed a youthful and exuberant core, led by two dynamic centers who were scarcely out of their adolescence: Wayne Gretzky, 21, and Mark Messier, 21. Similarly, the 2008 Penguins are being shown the way by a dynamic tandem down the middle of their own: Sidney Crosby, 20, and Evgeni Malkin, 21. In fact, Evgeni Malkin’s regular season total of 106 points was identical to that of Mark Messier in the ’83 regular season. And, while Sidney Crosby may never record 196 points in one season as “The Great One” did in ’83, he and the Pittsburgh Penguins have already done those legendary Oilers one up.

Sidney Crosby’s two goals in Pittsburgh’s 3-2 victory over the Detroit Red Wings in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals were two more than Gretzky scored in the entire ’83 championship series. Furthermore, after only three games of this year’s championship series, the Penguins have already won more games than the Oilers did in ’83, as the ‘Oil’ were defeated by the New York Islanders in four straight games.

Crosby opened the scoring at 17:25 of the first period, ending the Penguins’ scoring drought of 137:25, while at the same time ending Wings’ goaltender Chris Osgood’s shutout streak of 155:08. Marian Hossa and Sidney Crosby executed an inadvertent give-and-go as “Sid the Kid” snuck one through the five-hole of an unplanted Osgood.

Clearly riding the momentum from their late first period marker, the Pens came out firing on all cylinders in the second frame, and it only took Crosby 2:34 to notch his second goal of the match.