http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Call it the Meltdown at Mellon Arena.
In the final chapter of their tortured Game 7 history at home — and last game in the only building in the history of the franchise — the Penguins' Stanley Cup championship reign ended with a 5-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday night in their Eastern Conference semifinal.
"It's disappointing," Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said. "We all want that perfect ending."
Iceburgh sits on the bench dasher boards after the last game at Mellon Arena.
Chaz Palla, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
The Penguins finished 2-5 all-time in Game 7s in Mellon Arena, which will be replaced next season by 18,887-seat Consol Energy Center.
The Canadiens were the first NHL opponent to play in the Igloo with a 2-1 victory over the Penguins on Oct. 11, 1967, and built a 4-0 lead to get a bookend victory to close the oldest building in the National Hockey League.
The defeat stunned the standing-room-only crowd of 17,132 — the team's 166th consecutive sellout — that created a whiteout of T-shirts and rally towels and was rocking during the Penguins' second-period rally.
"This is the best Mellon Arena crowd that I can remember," Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said. "I thought we were going to give them a really good story."
Red-hot Montreal goalie Jaroslav Halak made the two biggest saves of the series - and possibly the playoffs - by stopping Penguins superstars Crosby and Evgeni Malkin on a pair of point-blank attempts during third-period power plays.
"The crowd, the way that they responded down 4-0, was pretty incredible," Crosby said.
"It isn't the Montreal Forum, but Mario (Lemieux) scored a lot of big goals here," Canadiens winger Michael Cammelleri said. "It's a nice little piece of history for us to close down this building."
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