March of the Penguins

It's been a good March for Pens fans. Since the start of the month, the Pens have played 8 games. They've gone 6-1-1 during that stretch, claiming 13 of the 16 possible points and only once failing to earn a point. Barring some catastrophe, the Pens are a lock for the playoffs.

Their latest accomplishment includes victories in two back-to-back games. It's hard enough to win 2 games in a row with no rest in beween. Now throw in the fact that Tuesday's game was against conference leading Buffalo and Wednesday's game against division leading New Jersey (in New Jersey) and you've got a moderately heroic feat. The Pens continue to threaten to steal the lead in the Atlantic division from the Devils, but they've still got their work cut out for them. New Jersey leads Pittsburgh by just 4 points (thanks to last night's 3-0 win by Pittsburgh), but they have only 12 games left on the schedule and 11 of those are against teams with winning records. The Pens and Devils will not face each other again this season (The Devil's won the season series 3-4-1.) However, if the Pens can manage to catch the Devils, they'd vault from being the #4 seed in the East to a #2 seed. It's a tall order, but not out of the reach of a hot club.

Add to their winning ways the fact that owner Mario Lemieux just signed an agreement with the city of Pittsburgh to build a new stadium and keep the Pens in Pittsburgh for the next 30 years, and you've got a good couple weeks going in Steel Town. Here's wishing the Pens some good fortune down the playoff stretch.

Of Note: Of the 8 games Pittsburgh has played in the month of March, 6 have gone to overtime - 5 of those to shootouts - Pittsburgh is 5-1 in those games. Goaltender Joceluyn Thibault got the starting nod against Jersey last night, over embattled goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury; Thibault put in a stellar performance, outdueling perennial all-star Martin Brodeur by making 24 saves and recording his first shoutout of the season.