It's one of those hockey cliches that draws knowing sighs from coaches and rolled eyes from reporters: the two-goal lead is the most dangerous one in hockey. The reasoning goes that the team with the multiple-goal advantage can start to feel too comfortable until the other team gets back within a goal, and then it's too late. Back within a single shot of knotting the game, the trailing team can start building momentum that it carries through to tying and, eventually, a winning goal.

Leaguewide statistics do not bear out the cliche -- as one would logically expect, teams that build two-goal leads have a higher winning percentage in those games than in matches where the largest lead is a single goal. Nevertheless, two-goal comebacks happen often enough -- and can be mentally devastating to the losing side-- that teams need to be on their guard against letdowns with the lead.  

I doubt that the Florida Panthers thought they had the game in the bag when they took a 2-0 lead into the third period against the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins. If anything, they played too tentatively in trying to protect the advantage. Sure enough, goals by Pascal Dupuis  (a rather fluky one at that) and Michael Rupp sent the game to OT. When the Panthers' Nathan Horton got sent off on a four-minute high-sticking penalty in the extra frame, Sidney Crosby turned the resulting 4-on-3 advantage into a game-winning goal. The tally spoiled a 42-save performance by Tomas Vokoun. It also overshadowed a first-period goal by Horton made possible by Stephen Weiss beating both Sergei Gonchar and Brooks Orpik and feeding the open forward, who made no mistake.

As far as tonight's overtime penalty call goes, it was a clear-cut  penalty in this case. In many instances, however, I take issue with the way late-regulation and/or OT penalties are almost predictable in many games -- often after the referees swallow the whistle for most of the third period and let more blatant infractions go.

Meltzer's game of the night: Columbus (12-7-3) at Montreal (11-11-1). With only one game on the slate tonight (before a busy schedule on the eve of Thanksgiving in the US), it wasn't too tough to pick a game of the night. Both the Blue Jackets and Canadiens have been Jeckyl-and-Hyde teams this season. The Blue Jackets are coming off a 7-4 loss last night to the Rangers, while Montreal lost in a shootout, 3-2, to Detroit on Saturday.