How do you bring a sell out crowd at the Igloo to its feet? Simple. You score goals.

How do you send a sell out crowd at the Igloo into a euphoric state? Even simpler. You score goals by Malkin, Ruutu and Laraque.

Last night at the Igloo the Penguins hosted the lowly New York Islanders who are eliminated from the playoffs. So they came in with a chip on their shoulder and something to prove.

Malkin opened the scoring in the first with his 45^th goal of the year and proved he could play with anyone and score. He was on the ice with agitator Ruutu and heavyweight champion of the NHL Georges Laraque who both assisted on the goal.

Later on the Islanders tied the score at 1-1 in the same period.

The Islanders played hard but at times seemed more interested in inflicting physical pain and instigating than playing hockey. So Ruutu decided to make a statement of his own in the second period. With the Penguins killing a penalty, Ruutu gobbled up a loose puck and raced down the ice in to the Islander’s end. He saw no opportunity to shoot the puck on the rush but turned on his jets, leaned into the corner, flew around the pack of the net dangling the puck on his blade and came around the other side to poke the puck between Dubielwicz’s pads and put the Pens ahead 2 - 1.

Ruutu has been on a tear lately, scoring a handful of goals and adding assists in recent games which caused him to remark once (jokingly) that he was getting tired of carrying the team.

A goal and an assist would have been a good night for Ruutu but he wasn’t done yet. At 6:40 of the third, he flipped a loose puck to teammate Georges Laraque who was all alone in the middle of the ice. Laraque lost control of the puck as he headed to the net but was still able to reach back and pop the biscuit into the net for his 4^th of the year and Ruutu notched his 3^rd point of the game.

Fleury played very well in goal again stopping 27 of 28 shots and looked sharp on almost every shot except the one he allowed to trickle in through his pads in the first.

Sidney Crosby also looked good and missed three excellent scoring chances where he had the goaltender either dead to rights or nearly so. Chalk that up to a little bit of rust.

Pittsburgh (45-26-7, 97pts) are 1^st in the East and extended their lead in the Atlantic to 6 points over New Jersey who lost last night. The Pens are 1pt ahead of Montreal with 4 games remaining in their schedule. New Jersey and Montreal each have five remaining so the Pens really need to not let their foot off the accelerator and try to coast into the playoffs. Because they could easily drop from first to fourth in a heartbeat.