At approximately 8 a.m. on Sunday morning, the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey players arrived in Stockholm, Sweden after a lengthy plane trip across the Atlantic. Leaving on Saturday and flying into a drastically different time zone was a concern for Sunday’s practice. It was unfounded, however, as the Penguins roster (all 25 players) showed that youthful exuberance can overcome even the most trying jet lag.

Despite the severe jet lag that many players suffered (more pronounced in players like defenseman Rob Scudari who has never flown across the country), the Penguins laced up their skates and put together a quality practice that consisted of spirited 4-on-4 scrimmages, individual skills practice, and shooting drills. Penguins Captain Sidney Crosby was extremely happy to know that his team can keep this focused despite mental fatigue.

All of the Pittsburgh players know the true reason why they’re in Stockholm: to play a very important regular season matchup against the Ottawa Senators. It just so happens that the locale is different. The players are dedicated to putting their job first and sight-seeing second, which is a good thing as the game is set for this upcoming Saturday.

Crosby made his 1st NHL visit to Western Canada a victorious one here. The player helped the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-2 in the city, where Gretzky became a legend. Sidney Crosby assisted on 3 of Pittsburgh’ 4 goals in the final period in his 1st National Hockey League game in his home nation west of Toronto. The Oilers led 2-0 but goals by Talbot, Armstrong, Letang, and Whitney lifted Pittsburgh to win for the 5th time in 6 matches.

The decisive goal was scored by Ilya Kovalchuk in a shootout last night to give the Thrashers a 3-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens.

Ilya Kovalchuk put a shot past the Canadiens rookie Carey Price on the Thrashers’ 3rd attempt, and Atlanta goalie Johan Hedberg forced Kovalev to shoot wide. Each team scored in the 2nd round after neither of them scored in the 1st one. The Canadiens forced overtime after Higgins scored on a power play with only two minutes remaining in regulation.

The Coyotes scored two times in the final 8 minutes to earn a comeback victory at home. Zigomanis tied the score with seven minutes remaining and Sjostrom scored the winner on a wraparound shot with 3 minutes left. After no goals in the first and second period, Brad Boyes scored his 9th goal in ten matches to give the St. Louis Blues a lead.

Evgeni Malkin from the Pittsburgh Penguins had 2 goals and one assist and Sidney Crosby added one goal and 3 assists for visiting Penguins.

Sidney Crosby assisted on a power-play goal by Sykora that broke a 2-2 tie midway through the 3rd period, and then scored less than 5 minutes later.

The Minnesota Wild was without two forwards Demitra and Gaborik and goalie Backstrom because of their injuries.

In other NHL matches, Filppula scored with twenty-five seconds left to give the Red Wings a 2-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers; and Jarome Iginla scored 2 goals to help the Calgary Flames defeat the visiting Nashville Predators, 5-1.

Simon Gagné from the Philadelphia Flyers has not played for the team since he experienced dizziness after colliding with the Panthers defenseman Jay Bouwmeester in last Wednesday’s match.