Pittsburgh producer no Flyers fan

It's one thing for an announcer to be a homer and openly root for the team he covers, but it's another thing for a television producer to try to alter the outcome of a game he's airing.

That's what FSN Pittsburgh producer Lowell MacDonald Jr. did Jan. 7 during the Philadelphia Flyers' 7-4 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins.

MacDonald Jr., a former lead hockey producer at ESPN and son of former Penguins forward Lowell MacDonald, has been suspended indefinitely by FSN Pittsburgh for not immediately showing a replay that would have awarded a goal to Flyers forward Simon Gagne.

Gagne's shot appeared to cross the goal line while Pittsburgh goalie Brent Johnson was covering the puck late in the second period, but the on-ice officials didn't signal a goal, and TV replays sent to the NHL's review team in Toronto were inconclusive.

Moments after play resumed, though, FSN Pittsburgh aired a replay from an overhead camera that showed the puck crossing the goal line, and one of the Penguins announcers told viewers, "Oh, we saved that one (replay)!"

The NHL said that replay wasn't sent to Toronto until after the puck had been dropped following the review, and a call can't be reversed once play has resumed.

Despite the disallowed goal, the Flyers still won, which begs the question: Why would MacDonald Jr. put his job on the line during a lopsided loss in a regular-season game?

If he's that fanatical about the Penguins, wouldn't he want to save that stunt for a playoff game? Then again, maybe he bet big on Pittsburgh to beat Philadelphia.

• ROMO HATERS -- Two men wearing Philadelphia Eagles jerseys reportedly slashed a woman in Bethlehem, Pa., on Friday because she was wearing a Dallas Cowboys T-shirt with quarterback Tony Romo's name and number on the back.

Jamie Wert, 27, was walking to a convenience store when one of the men said, "Hey, Romo." When she turned around, she was struck with something that cut her face.

"I had blood running down my neck," she told a local news station. "It was scary."

Police said they're looking for two men wearing Eagles jerseys in connection with the assault. Wow, that narrows the search.

• 'BLONDE MOMENT' -- Poor Natalie Gulbis. The LPGA Tour star who lives at Lake Las Vegas made a mistake on a photo caption she put on her Twitpic account Wednesday and within moments was ridiculed for it all over the Internet.

Gulbis, who was in Washington, D.C., with the rest of the Solheim Cup team to meet the president, posted a picture with Michelle Wie with the caption, "Michelle and I with Lincoln Memorial in background." The problem: The Washington Monument was in the background.

By the time she tweeted a correction Wednesday afternoon, "Oops! Washington Memorial! Typed before mind caught up. Sorry," several Web sites had ripped her, including "With Leather," which wrote she had a "blonde moment" and should "get a geography lesson: Here's a hint: the Lincoln Memorial looks like Lincoln."

Don't sweat it, Natalie, you look great in the picture.

COMPILED BY TODD DEWEY LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL