Rollercoaster

The Pittsburgh Penguins gave up six goals in the third period on Tuesday . . . and still won

If you hopped on the internet this morning and checked the score of Penguins-Devils on Tuesday night, you probably thought “wow, a barnburner.” And at 7-6 Penguins, it absolutely was. That final score, however, is only a fraction the story. Dig a little deeper and you’ll see that not only was this the rollercoaster of the NHL season, but a historic one at that. Check it out.

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Yep, you’re reading that right. The Penguins were up 4-0 at the end of the first period and 6-0 at the end of two. They then proceeded to give up six (SIX!) goals in the third period alone, setting a ignomius piece of NHL history in the process.

Never before in the history of sport has a win felt more like a loss. This isn’t limping over the finish like. It’s crawling there gutshot and bleeding, reaching over by a fingernail before passing out. In fact, Sidney Crosby, fresh off last week’s heroics that earned him the title of Super Sid, had to save his flightless friends yet again, notching the eventual game-winner with 8:42 remaining in the final frame. At the time the goal put the Penguins up 7-3—icing on the cake which proved to actually be the entire cake.

So congrats to the Penguins on another hard-fought, nearly pissed-away victory. As it stands right now, Pittsburgh sit third in the Eastern Conference. The Stanley Cup Playoffs almost surely await, but if they’re blowing six-goal leads in April, we shudder to think what they’ll be doing with three-game leads come May.