By Dave Molinari, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/?m=1
MONTREAL -- This is, quite understandably, not what the Penguins wanted.
It is, at the same time, pretty much what they deserve.
Montreal defeated them, 4-3, Monday night at the Bell Centre to tie this second-round playoff series, 3-3, and send it to a seventh game, which will be played at 7:15 p.m. Wednesday at Mellon Arena.
"It's obviously not what we were looking for," right winger Bill Guerin said. "[But] it's been a hard-fought series since Game 1."
Peter Diana/Post-Gazette
Canadiens defenseman Jaroslav Spacek celebrates his goal with teammates in front of Penguins forward Bill Guerin during Monday's game at the Bell Centre.
The series has produced quite a few interesting nuggets and numbers, but the most intriguing might be this: The Penguins have had a lead -- and failed to protect it -- in each of their three defeats.
Monday night, that meant allowing a 2-1 advantage to morph into a 3-2 deficit in a span of 2 1/2 minutes shortly after the midpoint of the second period.
Whether that's an indictment of their killer instinct or a tribute to Montreal is a matter of perspective -- "That's a team that, when they get behind, they never stop working," Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik said -- but it is a habit the Penguins might want to break by Wednesday evening.
They also might want to devise a way to slow, if not stop, Canadiens left winger Mike Cammalleri, who has accounted for six of his team's 14 goals in this series.
Game 7 will be the first elimination game the Penguins have faced in 2010, and their third in the past two springs. They won Game 7s at Washington and Detroit a year ago.
Montreal won a Game 7 on the road against the Capitals in the opening round to advance to this series.
The Penguins have won their past four Game 7s and own an all-time record of 7-4 in them, but are just 2-4 in Game 7 at home.
Their most recent Game 7 in Pittsburgh was a 3-1 loss to Florida in the 1996 Eastern Conference final. Both of the Penguins' Game 7 victories on home ice have come against Washington; they have lost Game 7s at home to the Panthers, the New York Islanders (twice) and Philadelphia.
If Montreal wins Game 7, it will go down as the final one played at Mellon Arena.
The Canadiens played Game 6 without defenseman Hal Gill, whose leg was cut by the skate of Penguins winger Chris Kunitz in Game 5, but got back Jaroslav Spacek, who had missed the previous nine games because of a viral ailment that reportedly had been affecting his balance.
The Penguins used the same lineup they had in Game 5, but altered the makeup of their top two lines. Guerin, who spent most of the season on Sidney Crosby's right side, moved onto Evgeni Malkin's unit, while Pascal Dupuis went from the Malkin line to Crosby's.
The Penguins didn't wait long before making their first major gaffe. Just over a minute into the game, defenseman Kris Letang lost the puck in the neutral zone, leading to an odd-man break that ended with Cammalleri scoring from near the right dot at 1:13.
Crosby tied the score at 7:22, as he swatted a Mark Eaton rebound out of the air and past Canadiens goalie Jaroslav Halak from near the lip of the crease for his sixth of the playoffs and first of the series.
Letang got a measure of redemption by scoring on a power play at 5:21 of the second, but Cammalleri beat goalie Marc-Andre Fleury with an across-the-grain backhander from the inner edge of the right circle at 10:45 to make it 2-2.
That was a pivotal moment in the game, because the Penguins had been dominating play to that point. After Cammalleri scored, the crowd was rejuvenated -- it took a short break from slurring Crosby and the officials with chants, and actually focused on cheering for the home team -- and so were his teammates.
At 13:15, Spacek put Montreal in front to stay on a low slapshot from the high slot that made it through traffic before eluding Fleury. Maxim Lapierre made it 4-2 at 11:03 of the third.
"If you look at all four of their goals, it was our turnovers [that caused them]," Orpik said. "It wasn't them creating much in our zone. It was us not managing the puck well. We turned the puck over four times, and they scored four times."
Lapierre's goal became the winner when Guerin tipped in a Gonchar shot at 18:36 and the Penguins were unable to manufacture the goal that would have forced overtime and possibly prevented a Game 7.
And so they are faced with the harsh reality of a 60-minute season, although the Penguins' confidence doesn't appear to be shaken by it.
"As long as we play better than we did [in Game 6]," Orpik said, "I'll enjoy it."
For more on the Penguins, read the Pens Plus blog with Dave Molinari and Shelly Anderson at www.post-gazette.com/plus. Dave Molinari: dmolinari@post-gazette.com.
Penguins Plus, a blog by Dave Molinari and Shelly Anderson, is featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.
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