Hockey stalwarts in Penguins country unfazed by Ottawa's early lead

By all accounts, at least down here in Penguins country, this is supposed to be Pittsburgh's year.

It's the defending Stanley Cup champions'50th anniversary, after all.

The Ottawa Senators did their best to spoil the party on Saturday,surprisingthe Penguins with a 2-1 overtime winand grabbing the earlyseries lead going into Game 2 Monday night.

• Senators take early series lead with OT win in Pittsburgh
• 8 tweets that defined Game 1 of the Senators-Penguins series

None of that appears to worry the residents ofSharpsburg, Pa., a narrow, working-class borough of about 3,500 people some 10 minutes northeast of downtown Pittsburgh, just across the Allegheny River.

"We feel like if we can beat theCaps and Columbus, the two best teams other than the Pens,then we can go all the way," said Marty Tierney Sr. from his font porch in Sharpsburg.

"You got to take Karlsson, and Anderson seriously," added his son Marty Jr., "But if [Marc-Andre]Fleury keeps hot that's what it's all about."

Saucy past

A towering, concrete Highway 28, constructed long afterSharpsburgwas established, squeezes the town between the hills to the north, and the railroad tracks and Allegheny river to the south.

A handful ofSharpsburg'ssimple, narrow Victorian homes sit in shadows cast by the overhead highway.

Though Sharpsburg once boasted steel mills and foundries, brick yardsand glassworks, the town's main claim to fame is its rolein the Heinz ketchup story.

Henry J. Heinz began his food packing enterprise in a Sharpsburg basement in the late 1860s with a horseradish recipe borrowed from an aunt.

Later, H.J. Heinz developed aprocess for preserving and bottling the "57 Varieties" ketchup for which the company eventually became synonymous.

"He used to teachSundayschool at the church down there,"motioned Jeff Sayre, a resident keeping an eye on a pre-school aged daughter play in a Sharpsburg park.

Repeating recent history?

But it's the history of the Pittsburgh Penguins that is preoccupying the residents of this Pennsylvania steel town this spring.

The Penguins celebrate their 50th anniversary this year.

Since entering the league in the 1967 NHL expansion, the team has won four Stanley Cups, with their latest just last year.

Fans like Sayre who have become accustomed to cheering for a perennial contenderwould like to see the team win back-to-back championships as a fitting way to celebrate the team's 50th birthday.

"I don'tthink [Sidney Crosby] is done. I think a force like [him]isn't going to be satisfied with winning the amount of cups that he has right now," Sayre explained.

Brandon Morgan also admitted to a romantic view of the Penguins' chances of repeating as Stanley Cup Chances.

"It's definitely possible," said Morgan, pointing to the repeat championships won by those Mario Lemieux-lead teams in 1991 and 1992.

"I think the fans have a lot do with it," nodded Jamie Hedges, agreeing with her boyfriend.

"It puts a lot of pressure on the Penguins to bring the Cup home for the fans."

The matchup

With that kind of talk, have Pens fans written off the Ottawa Senators?

"I don't think the Penguins think that, I think some fans probably do," said Marty Tierney Jr.

"I was a little disappointed, but they still showed signs of life," saidSayreof the Penguins opening game loss.

"I'm not too concerned at this point."