Charles LeClaire – USA TODAY Sports
Last night the Pittsburgh Penguins held their Black and Gold scrimmage game and to say it was a complete success is quite an understatement. Moreover, the fans of Pittsburgh certainly proved that there aren’t any hard feelings lingering from the NHL lockout. They’re just happy hockey is back in the Steel City.
The game was part of the special perks the Penguins have planned to pay back the fans for their continued support of the team through the lockout and was free to the public.
The Penguins organization was estimating that approximately 7,000 fans would show up for the scrimmage, so when people were lining up early in the afternoon and the team was playing in front of a packed house at the CONSOL Energy Center they were quite pleased.
The fans got quite a show last night and if they would’ve paid to get into the game, they would’ve gotten their money’s worth. Head coach, Dan Bylsma, wanted the players to leave everything on the ice as if they were playing a legitimate, regular-season game that counted and the players did just that and more. The team played their hearts out and the fans gave them a game-like atmosphere to go along with it.
The game included an overtime period along with a five-player shootout in order to give the team practice with every game scenario. In the end, Team Black ultimately came out on top with a final shootout goal scored by Jayson Megna and the final score being 5-4.
As a side note, the Penguins announced earlier today that they’ve sent forwards Beau Bennett and Jayson Megna back to Wilkes-Barre Scranton and have placed defenseman Brian Strait on waivers. If he clears waivers by tomorrow at 12 noon, he will then be reassigned to WBS. The Penguins roster is now finalized with 23 players.
Stephanie Lewark is a featured Pittsburgh Penguins columnist for www.RantSports.com. If you enjoy her articles / posts, you can follow her on Twitter (@steelcitysports), check out her personal Facebook page (via Networked Blogs), visit her personal Tumblr page, or stop by her Pinterest page.
