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April 21,2010
Pittsburgh Penguins' Sidney Crosby celebrates his team's goal on Ottawa Senators' Brian Elliot during first period action at Scotiabank Place in Ottawa, April 20, 2010. Photo by Jean Levac / Ottawa Citizen
Must win?
Couldn’t win.
Talk about fleeting glory.
Just three days ago, the city was celebrating its first home playoff game in two years.
Last night, after a bizarre 7-4 loss by the Senators in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinal, the NHL playoffs might have made its Ottawa farewell for the spring of 2010.
The Senators, now trailing the Penguins three games to one, will need to win Game 5 in Pittsburgh to bring the series back to the Nation’s Capital.
On Sunday, the team and the community were “All In.” By Thursday, they could be All Out.
If bodychecks were playoff goals, the Senators might have greater hope in this series. Their plan to maul the Penguins physically (what Conn Smythe used to call “beat them in the alley”) backfired mightily, because while Ottawa was lunging to make hits, the Penguins were making plays to score goals.
The Penguins skill set is in a different league, especially with Alex Kovalev, one of the Senators skilled, though enigmatic forwards, out with an injury. The Senators played like the Charlestown Chiefs of Slapshot fame.
Cheap thrills for a capacity crowd.
Pittsburgh scored five -- FIVE -- in the second period alone on two Ottawa goaltenders, one of the wackiest 20 playoff minutes involving any Senators team since the franchise first qualified for the 1997 postseason.
Three separate times the Penguins held three-goal leads, at 3-0, 4-1 and 6-3, as the teams combined for eight goals. Every time the Senators fought back with a goal, the Penguins raised the bar.
Crosby continued his scoring field day against the Senators, scoring twice with two assists to lift his point total to 11 in four games.
And when the Senators were threatening to rally on a power play in a 4-2 game, a sheet of glass gave way and while the Penguins drew a badly needed breath, Ottawa’s momentum was lost.
“I’ve never seen a period like it,” said longtime Senators radio broadcaster Dave Schreiber. “And I’ve done a lot of games.”
In keeping with the Halloween theme, by the third period the Senators had taken their second too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty of the game and 900th of the season (OK, it only seems like it).
Crosby’s first goal early in the second period was a killer, Pittsburgh taking advantage of a Jason Spezza giveaway at the Penguins blueline, during what had been a promising shift by Ottawa, to send Crosby in alone for a breakaway. His shot leaked through Brian Elliott’s pads.
After Crosby’s second goal, a long-range missile to put the visitors ahead 4-0, Elliott was mercifully lifted in favor of backup goaltender Pascal Leclaire, seeing his first action of the series and the first NHL playoff minutes of his career. When he arrived here from Columbus last year in the Antoine Vermette trade, it was thought the 2010 playoffs would be Leclaire’s to call his own.
Instead, he was only called on to stem bleeding in a hopeless case. Leclaire gave up two goals in the second period and another in the third, by Jordan Staal after a Spezza goal had given Ottawa some late life.
Without Elliott, the Senators might have been out of this game in the first period. The Penguins outplayed and outshot the hosts, despite their “must win” status, but Elliott made several stellar stops, perhaps his best on Pittsburgh’s Alex Goligoski, flicking his right pad to prevent a backhand from going in.
Senators head coach Cory Clouston made it plain that he expected big night from Elliott, who entered the game with the worst playoff numbers in the NHL -- and then blew them off the charts.
“I don’t think we’re good enough to have just average goaltending,” Clouston said. “I’m not saying he’s been average, but I think he’s been a little inconsistent at times.”
There’s an understatement.
Pittsburgh opened the scoring on the power play, with Evegeni Malkin delivering his series-leading fourth goal from a familiar launching point -- to Elliott’s left, near the top of the faceoff circle.
Malkin ripped a slapshot just inside the post as Elliott stretched in vain to try to reach it with his trapper.
After speculation that centre Mike Fisher might take on the task of marking Penguins centre Sidney Crosby, it was Chris Kelly’s line, with Chris Neil and Jarkko Ruutu who spent most of the game in Crosby’s company.
The Senators crashed and banged all night.
And say this much. They did not quit.
Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson played, but seemed to be laboring with an injury that limits mobility. Alfredsson set off alarm bells when, after skipping Monday’s optional practice, also failed to take a casual twirl on the morning of the game. Down the stretch of the regular season, Alfredsson often skipped practice to rest/heal (“maintenance days” in the vernacular), but it’s extremely unusual for him to be absent for a morning skate on game day.
Have to hand it to him, though. Summoning whatever strength he had, Alfredsson ripped a second period power play goal (5 on 3) to pull his team to within two goals at 4-2.
With Spezza and Alfredsson both ending playoff droughts, this is what passed for moral victories on a wild night that exposed a lot of Senator shortcomings.
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