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April 15, 2010 6:34 AM
PITTSBURGH — “Out for Justice” is the Pittsburgh Penguins playoff motto.
Out for revenge is more like it after the Ottawa Senators stunned the reigning Stanley Cup champions 5-4 in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal.
Senators celebrates Ottawa goal in the second period past Pens goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.Photograph by: Peter Diana, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Anxious to get their good young players a taste of National Hockey League experience, the Senators couldn’t have been happier to watch them taste victory in a whacky, follow-the-bouncing-puck kind of playoff game.
Ottawa wanted a split of these first two games in Pittsburgh. A split assured, now the Senators have ideas of going home with a 2-0 series lead.
Sid the Kid, Sidney Crosby, is the main attraction here, but Ottawa’s youth brigade wrecked havoc in the biggest game of their lives. Head coach Cory Clouston recorded his first playoff coaching victory. Rookies Peter Regin and Erik Karlsson scored their first NHL playoff goals, and goaltender Brian Elliott survived more than a few shaky moments to post his initial playoff win.
Shaky Moment Exhibit A: Penguins fourth-liner Craig Adams had not scored for 111 regular-season games when he beat Elliott on a backhand to pull the home team to within a goal early in the third period. The Penguins again pulled within a goal, but the Senators held off the final surge and kept the mighty Pens to just 21 shots overall.
Clouston vowed afterward that Elliott would be “more comfortable” in Game 2 on Friday. Senators fans with heart conditions can only hope.
And how about the Lunch Bucket Boys of Ottawa’s third line? Chris Neil, Chris Kelly and Jarkko Ruutu combined for three goals and six points.
As they say in Vegas, the Senators were all in. Jason Spezza, the Senators top centre, not exactly known for his grit, impressed his own teammates by delivering THREE body checks.
“Maybe he had six all year,” Kelly quipped.
The Senators looked nervous early on and were quickly down 1-0 on a power play goal by the big Russian, Evgeni Malkin.
But, as so often happens in hockey, one moment, one spark, can lift a team and turn a game around. In Game 1, it was a strong rush up ice by Spezza and a simple shot on goal from a sharp angle. Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury made the save, but delivered a rebound as convenient as room service at the Senators’ Pittsburgh hotel. Regin shot it into an open net, and, with the period less than half over, the Senators had tied the game and calmed their nerves simultaneously.
Neil’s go-ahead goal stunned the “whiteout” crowd, starting to groan now at the realization that their beloved champs were getting outplayed and outworked by a Senators team eager to be back in the postseason after missing the spring dance a year ago.
Ottawa Senators' Peter Regin (43) scores against Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury (L) in the first period of Game 1 of their NHL Eastern Conference quarter-final hockey game in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, April 14, 2010.Photograph by: Jason Cohn, Reuters
Even the stars in the sky seemed to agree. How else to explain a quirky bounce off the corner glass early in the second period that, due to star alignment or dumb luck, bounced right onto Kelly’s stick for an easy goal into a vacated net. That sent the Senators to a 3-1 lead and they were on their way until a crazy third period that couldn’t end soon enough for Ottawa’s bench.
They should be “old friends,” the Pens and Sens, having met three times in the past four playoff seasons. The opposing head coaches, Clouston and Dan Bylsma, used to butt heads in the American Hockey League and have what Bylsma referred to as “cordial respect” for each other. A further link: Bylsma once played for Senators general manager Bryan Murray in Anaheim.
Friendship has a funny way of manifesting itself when teams get this familiar, at this time of year. Hate is an awfully strong word, but Pittsburgh Penguins forward Maxime Talbot, a native of Lemoyne, Que., uses it in the best possible way when he speaks of the instant hatred a team has to have for its playoff opponent.
“It’s awesome,” Talbot said when asked if “hate” was a good thing. “If you don’t have it in the first game of a playoffs, you learn to hate them pretty quickly. It takes a period and you already hate the other guys you play against. You know it can go to seven games, so it’s important to leave a message and leave your mark every time you can.”
Plenty of Pens and Sens left “marks” in Game 1, with subtle cross-checks and hits after whistles. Bruising Senators defenceman Matt Carkner responded in kind to Talbot’s remark.
“I hate every one of them,” Carkner said of the Penguins, warming quickly to the first playoff rival of his late-blooming NHL career.
These are Carkner’s early playoff moments, but the last days for the old Mellon Arena, affectionately known as the Igloo.
Fans here are giving the old gal a rousing sendoff, and the Game 1 scene was typical. It has become tradition for fans who don’t have game tickets to watch the games on the big screen outside the main entrance. By early Wednesday afternoon, fans were already staking out places on the lawn in front of the screen, sitting on lawn chairs or sprawled out on blankets and sleeping bags while Penguins game highlights rolled on the screen.
There were a few highlights from Game 1 they’d just as soon not watch.
Subscribers can read previous columns by Wayne Scanlan at ottawacitizen.com. He can be reached at wscanlan@thecitizen.canwest.com.
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