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Two shortys lift Penguins over Habs 3-1: Face Flyers in 1st round, home-ice TBD Sunday
by Tony on 04/11/09 at 10:19 PM ET
Comments (5)
Tonight’s 3-1 Penguins victory over the Canadiens in Montreal was certainly nothing like last year’s snoozefest finale in Philadelphia, where the Pens pretty much mailed it in.
Max Talbot and Kris Letang both scored short-handed goals on the same penalty kill midway through the third period, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 29 saves for the win.
Tonight’s win sealed a first-round playoff matchup with their busom buddies from Philadelphia. The Penguins will now become Rangers fans, for just one day. If the Rangers defeat the Flyers tomorrow in Philly in regulation, the Penguins will clinch 4th place in the Eastern Conference and home-ice advantage in the Flyers series.
Evgeni Malkin scored the first goal of the night for the Pens and won the Art Ross Trophy as well.
The Penguins pretty much dominated most of the action tonight. They were first to the puck, more aggressive, and played in the Habs’ zone most of the night.
Malkin’s backhanded rebound goal after a Sergei Gonchar slapper from the center point gave the Pens a 1-0 lead only 1:02 into the game.
The lead probably should have been greater, but Habs’ goalie Carey Price made some incredible saves in the second period on odd-man rushes to keep the score tied entering the third period.
That all changed when Brooks Orpik was called by the Montreal crowd for cross checking at 8:42 of the third. However, an errant pass sent the Penguins on a 2-on-1 break short-handed. Pascal Dupuis skated in on Price and made a backhanded pass to Talbot, who finally beat Price to give the Penguins a 2-1 lead.
As the Orpik penalty was winding down, Kris Letang brought the puck into the Habs’ zone, and simply fired a hard slapper from the left boards that Price couldn’t handle for another short-handed goal to give the Penguins a 3-1 lead.
Other notes;
- Carey Price was the #1 star of the game.
- Another great game for the Penguins’ penalty kill, going 3 for 3.
- The Penguins powerplay went 0-for-5, but at least their passing was sharp.
- Philippe Boucher led the Pens with 5 hits and 5 blocked shots.
So it’s Flyers and Pens, we’ll find out who’ll get home ice, as well as the schedule, by this time tomorrow.
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Tags: Montreal+Canadiens, NHL-Hockey, Pittsburgh+Penguins,
Comments
Pens in 6, maybe 5. If the Flyers power play isn’t productive, this series will be a quck one.
Posted by cs6687 on 04/11/09 at 09:55 PM ET
“That all changed when Brooks Orpik was called by the Montreal crowd for cross checking...”
“Carey Price was the #1 star of the game.”
Yeah, what’s that all about? I guess 100 years in the league can buy you certain advantages.
Bring on those Philly Neanderthals!
Posted by Principal Dondelinger on 04/12/09 at 09:14 AM ET
LOL, yeah it was humorous watching the ref wait until AFTER the crowd did their familiar cheer for a penalty, THEN make the call.... Whatever, it certainly works for them....
As for Price, he did make two game-saving saves, I’ll give him that… Good enough for #1 star ?? Debatable....
I’ll save my Philly comments for the buildup sure to come in the next few days… 
Posted by Tony F from Virginia Beach, VA on 04/12/09 at 09:50 AM ET
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Welcome to The Confluence, a Pittsburgh Penguins blog since 2006. Originally at Blogspot, then at MVN, The Confluence has over 1000 articles reporting Penguins news as well as jumping on my soapbox to opine constructive Penguins criticism. My posts are regularly linked by hockey websites such as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Empty Netters and Yahoo!’s Puck Daddy, and I’ve done guest blogger spots on such websites as the New York Times. I invite you to spend a little time and peruse the archives at all of the sites for some of my better work. I am a retired U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer, but don’t confuse me with my fellow Chief at A2Y.
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LET’S GO PENS and bring on the orange retards! Home ice or not we will win AGAIN!
Anyway, when was the last time that we had 2 shorthanded goals on the same penalty kill?
By the way we will have live game chat during every game for the playoffs on http://penschat.com - check it out
Posted by LGP8771 on 04/11/09 at 09:43 PM ET