When he came off the ice after the morning skate, Penguins rookie Jordan Staal felt reasonably sure he had made it as permanent member of the team for the season.

As if there was much question, considering that going into the game against Tampa Bay last night he had 12 goals, 15 points, was plus-3, led the league with five short-handed goals and was in the top 10 with a shooting percent of 21.8.

"I haven't heard anything yet, so I'm pretty sure my spot is secure now," Staal said.

Confirmation came when he was in the lineup for the Penguins' 40th game of the season, meaning the club has opted to keep him rather than returning him to the juniors. This now counts as an accrued season toward the seven needed for unrestricted free agency.

Staal and fellow rookie Evgeni Malkin are on pace to reach restricted free agency the same summer, 2013.

When he arrived for rookie camp just before his 18th birthday, Staal, the Penguins' 2006 first-round pick, was somewhat doubtful he would make the roster for the start of the season, much less make it to a 10-game cutoff for going back to junior hockey with no recall options, or the 40-game mark.

"Then the more I played, the better I felt and the more comfortable I felt," he said. "Then after those first 10 games, they told me I could stay and I started to feel even more comfortable."

That includes the way he sees the game.

"It's definitely slowed down," Staal said. "Those first few games were really quick and you had to think a lot quicker."

Lightning strikes again

The Penguins headed to the airport after the game to fly to Tampa for a rematch tomorrow night. It's their only set of back-to-back games against the same opponent this season.

Called home-and-homes, two-game series with the same team in two or three nights used to be common in the NHL.

"I didn't realize we didn't play any other home-and-homes," Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik said. "I know growing up I remember watching Buffalo and Montreal play them. It's good, especially if you have a bad loss or something, you can get right back again with those same guys."

This is the fourth of five home-and-home series for the Lightning. That's not enough, said Tampa Bay coach John Tortorella.

"They should do that more often," he said. "Instead of playing all the teams in your division the way they are right now so many times, I think they should really look toward playing -- no matter what team it is; it could be out of conference -- more back-to-backs. Then I think you get a little blood involved and some intensity, which is so lacking in this league right now."

The NHL scheduling, which has received criticism, has each team playing division clubs eight times while not playing some teams in the opposite conference. That apparently makes it difficult to schedule home-and-home series.

"It's just like in a playoff series," Tortorella said of home-and-homes. "You see one another more and you're playing against one another more and you get aggravated when you see each other more often."

It's Christmas for Gonchar

For Penguins defenseman Sergei Gonchar and his teammate/tenant, forward Evgeni Malkin, yesterday was more than just game day. It was their Russian Orthodox Christmas.

But not much of one.

"With the game, we couldn't really do anything except a family dinner [Saturday]," Gonchar said. "We don't get two days off like everybody else does" under NHL rules at the Dec. 25 Christmas.

Big crowd

Last night's game drew 17,132, the 13th Mellon Arena sellout of the season, surpassing the 12 capacity crowds the Penguins had last season. It was the sixth sellout in a row and the 10th in the team's past 12 home games.

The Penguins were 3-2 in the previous five home sellouts.

Slap shots

The Penguins' lone scratch was forward Chris Thorburn, who sat out for the second game in a row and for the fourth time in seven games. ... Tampa Bay scratched center Andreas Karlsson, who returned home when his wife went into labor. ... The Penguins wore a "Garth Brooks Teammates for Kids" commemorative patch. Their jerseys will be donated to the 2007 Teammates for Kids Online Auction, with proceeds benefiting the Garth Brooks Teammates for Kids Foundation.