PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
The Penguins' Hal Gill takes out the Philadelphia Flyers' Scottie Upshall in the first period of the Eastern Conference Final in Game 3 at the Wachovia Center, May 13, 2008. The Penguins won, 4-1, to take 3-0 series lead.
Chaz Palla/Tribune-Review
PHILADELPHIA: Talk about a buzz kill.
It's nearly impossible to describe what the Penguins did to this blood-thirsty crowd Tuesday night at the Wachovia Center.
I mean, it's one thing for a manic mob to suddenly go silent on a losing goal in overtime or something. We've all seen that.
It's quite another to see a team systematically remove a crowd from a game over the course of three periods.
Shoot, the ushers might as well have escorted these folks out of their seats the minute the puck dropped.
Picture 19,965 people primed for a Bruce Springsteen concert only to see Kenny Rogers show up.
By the way, the Springsteen song "Trapped" would have worked nicely as the background music to this stifling, 4-1 victory, one that put the Penguins on the precipice of their first Stanley Cup final appearance since 1992.
Seems like I'm caught up
in your trap again
Seems like I'll be wearing
the same old chains
This had to be one of the finest defensive performances in franchise history. The Penguins played their 1-2-2 trap to near-perfection.
OK, to perfection.
Penguins center Sidney Crosby takes out the Philadelphia Flyers Joffrey Lupul in the first period of Game 3 in the Eastern Conference Final at the Wachovia Center, May 13, 2008. The Penguins won, 4-1, to take 3-0 series lead.
Chaz Palla/Tribune-Review
"It kinda felt like the (New Jersey) Devils out there," defenseman Brooks Orpik said, referring to the franchise that made trapping famous. "Sometimes, you have to find a way to win like that."
Two early goals served as a body blow to the Flyers and their orange-clad fans.
Ryan Whitney's first goal of the playoffs made it 1-0 at 5:03 when his shot deflected off defenseman Jason Smith.
Marian Hossa scored the second one, two minutes later, on an incredible move and shot. He seemed ready to pass to Sidney Crosby on his right at the Flyers' blue line but pulled the puck back like a yo-yo and turned Jeff Carter into a Philadelphia Soft Pretzel.
Hossa then fired a low wrist shot between the skates of defenseman Lasse Kukkonen and past goaltender Martin Biron.
Hossa, as usual, was a two-way demon, picking Flyers' pockets left and right. After the game, Penguins assistant general manager Ed Johnston said he believes Hossa is the best two-way forward in the game.
In regard to Hossa's back-checking, Johnston said, "As good as I've ever seen."
Jordan Staal also stood out defensively. Heck, the whole team did, creating turnovers and racing back down the ice.
It wasn't just the trap, which the Flyers have yet to solve (every time they reached the Penguins' blue line, it was a small miracle). It was a series of small battles the Penguins kept winning.
Sergei Gonchar diving to break up Mike Richards' short-handed breakaway in the second period comes to mind.
So does Crosby's dive to knock a puck out of the zone in the final two minutes.
The Penguins enjoyed silencing the crowd.
"We knew that's what would happen if we played the way we wanted," said center Maxime Talbot.
Orpik was stunned to look up after two periods and see the Flyers with only eight shots. Their record for fewest shots in a playoff game was 13 on May 24, 2000, against the New Jersey Devils.
They wound up with 18, including a grand total of one - combined - for Daniel Briere and Vinny Prospal, so there was no record.
But it was only fitting that the Devils would come up last night. The masters of the trap never played it better than this.
Joe Starkey is a sports writer for the Tribune-Review. He can be reached at jstarkey@tribweb.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment