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Penguins pummel Varlamov, Capitals for series win, 6-2
by Tony on 05/13/09 at 09:32 PM ET
Comments (8)
This game may have been decided in the first couple of minutes.
Marc-Andre Fleury, who had been simply average the entire series, stoned Alex Ovechkin on a breakaway in the opening minutes of the game. If Ovechkin scores, who the hell knows how this game turns out.
But he didn’t, and the Penguins took advantage of 19 Capitals giveaways en route to a 6-2 blowout at the Verizon Center to eliminate the Caps. The Penguins finally chased Simeon Varlamov, who was pulled from the game early in the second period after the Pens’ fourth goal.
Sidney Crosby scored twice for the Penguins, who advance for the 2nd consecutive year to the Eastern Conference Finals against the winner of tomorrow night’s Game Seven in Boston between the Hurricanes and Bruins.
It was a stellar effort for the Penguins. Not only did they force the 19 Caps’ giveaways, but they only committed 4 of their own. In addition, the Pens did not commit one penalty. While the Caps were only whistled for three penalties themselves (not including one double- minor), the Penguins turned those penalties into two powerplay goals.
The Penguins jumped on the Caps right off the bat. Midway through the first period with the Penguins on the powerplay, returning defenseman Sergei Gonchar fired a slapper from center point that deflected to the stick of Crosby, who banged it into the net to give the Penguins a huge 1-0 lead at the 12:36 mark.
The Pens stunned the Caps and their crowd only eight seconds later, as fourth liner Craig Adams took a pass from Ruslan Fedotenko and fired a wrister through Varlamov’s five hole to make it 2-0.
The Penguins continued the dominance throughout the first period, outshooting the Caps 16-5 in the period.
As the second period began, Crosby took control of a loose puck in the neutral zone and skated into the Caps’ zone. Crosby calmly waited until Bill Guerin got into the zone and centered the puck for him, where Guerin blasted a one-timer from the right slot past Varlamov to make it 3-0 Pens at only the 28 second mark of the second period.
It only took less than two minutes later for the Penguins to put the game away for the most part. Kris Letang took a cross-ice pass from Evgeni Malkin, skated into the Caps’ zone and fired another slapper from the right slot that Varlamov couldn’t handle to make it 4-0, and that was the end of Varlamov’s night, getting pulled for Jose Theodore.
The change in net didn’t make much difference midway through the period, as Jordan Staal took advantage of a lazy Ovechkin. Staal stole the puck from Ovechkin on the forecheck, then simply went to the net after passing the puck to Miro Satan as Ovechkin skated away. Satan then fed the wide open Staal in front of the net for the easy one-timer past Theodore to make it 5-0 Pens at 11:37.
The game really went into “run out the clock” mode after that point. Fleury made his first blemish of the game on a poor pass behind the net that Ovechkin stole and made an easy wraparound goal to cut the Pens’ lead to 5-1.
The Penguins went back on the powerplay on a double-minor high stick on Brooks Laich at the 26 second mark of the third period. With the Caps very aggressive on the penalty kill trying to get back in the game, Crosby stole the puck from Ovechkin and went in all alone on a breakaway. Crosby skated in very slowly and fired a wrister past Theodore to make it 6-2 Pens.
Laich finished the scoring about six minutes into the period when he poked a rebound off Fleury and into the net for the final score of 6-2.
Other notes:
- Gonchar did not seem to have much lingering pain all game long. In fact, he played deep into the game, after the outcome was well decided upon. He finished with 15:06 of ice time.
- Matt Cooke led the team with 4 hits.
- Mike Green just had a horrible series. Just horrible. Including a game-low -3.
- Mark Eaton, Fedotenko and Satan all led the Pens with +2.
The Penguins will now await the outcome of the Canes/Bruins game tomorrow night. If the Bruins win, the Pens will open at Boston. If the Canes win, the Pens will open at the Igloo.
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Tags: NHL-Hockey, Pittsburgh+Penguins, Washington+Capitals,
Comments
I’ve been harsh on Fleury, but he did pretty well tonight. If he could just stop giving away free goals with his stick handling, we’d be in pretty good shape.
Well done to the whole team!
Posted by catz27 on 05/13/09 at 10:48 PM ET
crosbys whinin won the series for pens
Posted by Oilers Rock from Edmonton, Alberta on 05/13/09 at 11:04 PM ET
Oilers Rock? If you mean the golf course, you are correct.
Posted by Puckhead from Jersey, you idiots! on 05/13/09 at 11:24 PM ET
dont worry bonehead frm jursey we will join em soon enough
Posted by evil pens from kuklaskorner on 05/14/09 at 12:04 AM ET
Mr.Puckhead ur ahl team just joined us, next up your pens
Posted by Oilers Rock from Edmonton, Alberta on 05/14/09 at 01:27 AM ET
@Pens Fan in DC - This year’s Caps really reminded me of the Pens of 2 years ago that go ousted by the Senators….
Posted by Tony F from Virginia Beach, VA on 05/14/09 at 09:02 AM ET
evilpens, you’re a joke. Oilers Suck, I think you’re confused..hahahahaha…
Posted by Puckhead from Jersey, you idiots! on 05/14/09 at 10:00 AM ET
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I heard a funny thing on the Comcast Sportsnet broadcast, in DC, tonight: The Capitulators will learn from this because they are a young team. Funny thing is, so are the Pens! Crosby, Malkin, Staal, Fleury, Orpik, Scuderi, Letang, Goligoski, Kennedy, are there are more, all all in the first 50% of the their careers (some are still in the first 25%). The Capitulators, and the cheap-shot artist, Obitchkin, are going to be dealing with the Pens for the next decade. Unless Semin, Green, Fleischmann, etc start showing up when it counts, they won’t make it into the 2nd Round again. Obitchkin, is a great player, but he has to stop trying to get revenge, and start playing a complete game. His defensive work is awful, and his coach pretty much said that after Game #5. He let Jordan Staal score goal #5 tonight, because he is more worried about cherry-picking and taking a run at somebody than playing a complete game, especially in his own end. First it was Philly , now DC, who is next? Bring them on! LET’S GO PENS!
Posted by Pens Fan in DC on 05/13/09 at 10:43 PM ET