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PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Pirates owner Bob Nutting declined to listen to separate proposals to buy the team last year, including a surprise bid from Pittsburgh Penguins co-owner Mario Lemieux, officials with knowledge of the talks told The Associated Press. The officials spoke Saturday on condition of anonymity because the talks were private. The Pirates confirmed discussions with Lemieux and Penguins co-owner Ron Burkle took place, but said there was no talk about selling. The Pittsburgh Post …As a Pirates fan, I have to ask that you sell to Mario Lemieux. Mario would bring back the kind of players Pittsburgh needs to be competitive. The current owner just wants to make a buc with a cheap product. 17 straight losing seasons the fans can not take much more. Let’s bring back the Pirates of old..the lumber company..

MONTREAL — The Montreal Canadiens took the attack to the Pittsburgh Penguins and were rewarded with their third win in a row. Brian Gionta had two goals and an assist and Jaroslav Halak made 18 saves to win his third straight start, leading Montreal to a 5-3 victory over Pittsburgh on Saturday. Gionta beat Brent Johnson for his second goal of the game — his 16th of the season — to put Montreal up by three 10:47 into the third.Gionta recorded his first two points of the game 43 seconds apart in the second, scoring on a breakaway at 9:38 before assisting on Scott Gomez’s power-play goal that put the Canadiens up 3-1 at 10:21.

Pascal Dupuis, Bill Guerin and Evgeni Malkin scored for the Penguins, who had won two in a row and four of five.

“I don’t think we played a very good game today as a team, and that’s a very disappointing way to lose a match,” Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said.

Marc-Andre Fleury, who was replaced by Johnson after Darche’s goal, made 24 saves. Johnson stopped three shots.

Pittsburgh, which was outshot 32-21, hadn’t played since Monday, when Sidney Crosby recorded his third hat trick of the season in a 5-4 come-from-behind win over Buffalo.

Penguins need to stay confident and keep on the New Jersey Devil’s heels in the standings. Go Penguins….

During the game, it seemed as if Pittsburgh (No. 21 ESPN/USA Today, No. 22 AP) was in fast forward and the Pirates were trudging wearily step by step in a blizzard, trying but failing to keep up with a motivated and determined opponent the Pittsburgh Panthers. Gilbert Brown bounced back from a scoreless game with 23 points and Pittsburgh nearly shut out Seton Hall scoring leader Jeremy Hazell in an 83-58 rout Saturday that avenged a loss to the Pirates less than two weeks ago. Brown came out strong at the start after being shut out against West Virginia, scoring 11 points as Pitt (17-6, 7-4 Big East) took a 15-11 lead — and causing a foot-stomping Gonzalez to switch off defenders against him several times, once only 30 seconds into the second half. Dixon added 15 points, Brad Wanamaker had 13, Gary McGhee 12 and Ashton Gibbs 11 for Pittsburgh, which shot 51.7 percent to Seton Hall’s 35.7 percent. Pittsburgh is now 17-6. 7-4  in Big East play. Hopefully, this game will bring back some needed confidence for these young Pitt Panther players.

Dominique Jones scored 37 points and host South Florida extended its school best Big East winning streak to three games with a 70-61 victory over sputtering No.17 Pittsburgh. Jones made 10 of 20 shots from the fieldand 14 of 17 free throws. USF (14-7, 4-5) nearly squandered a 14 point lead down the stretch, but held on by making 11 of 14 free throws in the final three minutes. Gilbert Brown scored a career high 25 for Pittsburgh (16-5, 6-3).  The Pittsburgh Panthers have been off lately and need to find a sense of urgency and turn up the level of play to dominate teams like USF. Let’s get it together Pittsburgh Panthers…Go Go Go

Sidney Crosby scored during regulation and in the shootout  and the Penguins overcame Jimmy Howards’ second successive 46-save game to beat the Red Wings 2-1 on Sunday in the rivals’ first game since Pittsburgh won game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals in Detroit. Daniel Cleary’s deflection of Brad Stuart’s slap shot midway through the third period sent the game to overtime, where Pittsburgh survived playing short-handed for the final 1:21. Crosby and Malkin then scored against Howard in the shootout while both Red Wings shooters Pavel Datsyuk and Jason Williams failed against Marc Andre Fleury, who made 23 saves. The Penguins are 7-0 in shootouts, while Detroit is 4-6. Great game for the penguins and a great win against a quality franchise. Go Penguins Go….

Pittsburgh Panthers came up with a big win on Saturday in overtime over the Louisville Cardinals 82-77. Pittsburgh Panthers now ranked 20th have beaten some top teams in recent weeks like Syracuse, Connecticut, and Saturday Louisville. The Pitt Panthers are 15-2 and 5-0 in the Big East. This young Panthers team is gaining confidence and learning how to win under head coach Jamie Dixon. Look for great things from this exciting team.

The Pittsburgh Steelers ended their season with a three game win streak but it was too little too late. When the Steelers lost 5 games in a row, they gave the season away. With losses to: Kansas City Chiefs, Oakland Raiders and the Cleveland Browns, the fans knew the season was in jeopardy. After the Steelers won their 5th superbowlvictory, they came out the next season and went 8-8 and missed the playoffs. After the 6th superbowl victory, they went 9-7 on the season.  There were some great stats on this years Pittsburgh Steelers. There were 2 receivers with over a 1,000 yards receiving. There was a running back with over 1,000 yards rushing and a quarterback with over 4,000 yards passing. A great deal to be proud of and still a great disappointment not to make the playoffs. I personally believe that Troy Palamala’s injury completely changed the dynamics of the Pittsburgh Steelers defense. Troy’s absence was a major weakness and caused the Steelers to give up big plays on defense. I believe the Steelers have the 18th overall draft pick. We need an impact player at defensive cornerback that can catch the ball. We had way to many dropped balls in the defensive backfield. Let’s start working on next season. We will have to make some big decisions like letting Willie Parker go and a few others like Limas Sweed who hasn’t panned out.  Looking forward to next year. Meanwhile Lets go Penguins and Pitt Panthers.

The Pittsburgh Steeler got a little help from the Baltimore Ravens as the Ravens ruined chance after chance to score. Penalties destroyed the Ravens opportunities. Wide Receiver Mason also dropped a touchdown pass to provide an opportunity for the Steelers to stay in the game. The win helped the Steelers get back in the playoff hunt. They need the Jets and the Houston Texans to lose to have a shot of getting in. This is not impossible but not likely either. This season should have never come down to help from others. The 5 game losing streak to teams like the Oakland Raiders, Cleveland Browns, and the Kansas City Chiefs doomed our season. We should have never lost to these teams after the 6-2 start we had. This week we play the Miami Dolphins and we better take care of our business and let everything else fall where they may. Lets go steelers….

Big Ben Rothelisberger threw for over 500 yards and the Pittsburgh Steelers found a way to win as time expired. Rothelisberger found Wallace with a perfect catch in the endzone as time expired. The Pittsburgh Steelers needed the extra point to win. This was an exciting game and reminded me of Holmes reception in the superbowl last year. Wallace’s catch was perfect with both feet in and Rothelisberger threw it where only he could catch it. Very very exciting finish to a great game. The win took some pressure off Tomlin’s on side kick decision late in the game. I am sure many look at that decision as Tomlin loosing faith in his defense. Our defense still needs some work to get back to a classic Steeler defense. Well, everyone enjoy your Holiday and I will be back to comment more on this game and Baltimore Raven game next week. Pittsburgh is still in the playoff picture but needs help to get in….Go Steelers

Pittsburgh Steelers lost for the 1st time in 11 games against the Cleveland Browns as Big Ben Rothelisberger was sacked 8 times. The Pittsburgh Steelers were out coached and out played in this game and the Steelers made the Cleveland Browns defense look good. The Steelers have now lost to Kansas City, Oakland Raiders and the Cleveland Browns and have lost 5 straight games in what seems like a never ending freefall. The Pittsburgh Steelers have lost their identity as a smash mouth football team and the opponents are exposing the Steelers on special teams and late drives in the games. Big Ben coming back from a concussion can probably take blame for 4 of the 8 sacks as he went down easily. If Big Ben is scared of getting hit he needs to retire. Their is no room for fear in the NFL. Coach Tomlin has some big decisions to make with his coaching staff especially with special teams. The special teams has been horrible and probably lost 3 games for the team alone. As a Steeler fan, I do not even know what to say. These games have been hard to watch. I want my old Steelers back…Smash mouth football needs to get back on Coach Tomlins priority list and put Steeler football back on the map…