Penguins 5 - Flyers 4 (SO): Shootout Shutout Broken

Gooooooooooooooooool!
'Twas a strange night for Sid and the Penguins.

Sidney was pointless on the night, which is hard to believe against the crappy Flyers, especially when the Penguins score 4 times.

After going 0-7 in shootouts this year, Sidney FINALLY buried one, and a good one at that. Sidney's tally was the game winner as the Penguins picked up another two points and keep on rollin'. This must be a huge relief for Sidney, who was just having no luck at all in this skills competition portion of the game.

From Yahoo! Sports:

On a rare scoreless night for the NHL's scoring leader, Sidney Crosby's final shot made the difference.

Held without a point during regulation, Crosby had the only goal in a shootout to lift the Pittsburgh Penguins over Philadelphia 5-4 on Thursday night, extending the Flyers' franchise-worst home-losing streak to 13 games.

Mike Knuble's second goal with 1:24 left in the third period forced overtime, and Simon Gagne had two power-play goals for Philadelphia, which has the fewest wins (13) and points (34) in the NHL. Flyers captain Peter Forsberg had three assists.

Crosby was 0-for-7 in shootouts before he beat Antero Niittymaki on the Penguins' third shot. Marc-Andre Fleury then stopped Gagne to win it.

"I was having a tough time with shootouts," said the 19-year-old Crosby. "I just tried to go there and give it my best shot and see what happened and it went in."

It was just the second time in 33 games the Penguins won when Crosby didn't have a point. Goals in shootouts don't count on the stat sheet.

With Niittymaki pulled for an extra skater, Knuble redirected Alexei Zhitnik's slap shot in to tie it at 4.

Mark Recchi and Erik Christensen scored 30 seconds apart early in the third period, and Jordan Staal and Michel Ouellet also had goals for the Penguins, the NHL's most improved team this season. Pittsburgh has won 10 of 12 with two overtime losses.

"It's been a long time since we had a bad game," Penguins coach Michel Therrien said. "Even if you're not at your best and you win, at this time of the year it's a good sign."

Sidney's totals for the night: 20:51 of ice time, 0 points, 4 shots on goal, and EVEN with 0 PIM.