Simon Despres becomes savior, then hero for Penguins in overtime win

The Penguins owe their win to their young defenseman.

Friday night should have been all about Cory Schneider. The New Jersey Devils netminder played brilliantly for most of three periods, keeping the Pittsburgh Penguins at bay while his team barely held on to a 1-0 lead.

But Penguins defenseman Simon Despres stole the narrative instead with two game-defining plays. The first came all the way back in the first period when the puck fell behind his netminder with Patrik Elias on the doorstep. Despres swept the puck out of harm's way at the last possible second to save an easy Devils goal.

It seemed insignificant at the time, but if Despres doesn't stop that puck from trickling in, the Penguins would be down two goals and couldn't have tied the game to send it to overtime. And if they couldn't do that, then Despres couldn't do this in sudden death.

And that's how Simon Despres single-handedly stole Cory Schneider's thunder.

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