Saturday, May 01, 2010
By Dave Molinari, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/?m=1
The Penguins were impressed by what they saw of Montreal's penalty-killing against Washington in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
And they should have been.
Hey, the Canadiens neutralized the NHL's most-prolific regular-season power play, limiting it to one goal in 33 tries, which is a big part of the reason they were the guests of honor for Game 1 of the second round Friday night at Mellon Arena.
Peter Diana/Post-Gazette
Jordan Staal celebrates after scoring against the Canadiens in the first period of Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinal Friday at Mellon Arena.
So when Montreal returns for Game 2 of the series at 2:08 p.m. Sunday, the Canadiens might want to remember to bring that accomplished penalty-killing unit with them, because it was a virtual no-show for the Penguins' 6-3 victory.
The Penguins torched the Canadiens for four man-advantage goals, tying the franchise playoff record. And the only reason they didn't make a serious run at breaking it is that they couldn't figure out how to score five times on four chances.
They had to settle for perfection.
It turns out that while the Penguins were marveling at Montreal's short-handed work against Washington, they also were taking notes.
"Preparation before a series is real important," said defenseman Kris Letang, who scored the Penguins' third goal. "The coaches, all the staff, spent a lot of hours looking at tapes, and we noticed a few things on the power play that we need to do. And we did them tonight."
There was nothing particularly complicated or original about the formula they came up with -- a heavy emphasis on movement of the puck and players, opening shooting lanes, setting screens, etc. -- but it certainly was effective.
Suffice it to say, Montreal coach Jacques Martin and his staff will spend a lot of time between now and Game 2 trying to patch the weaknesses the Penguins exploited.
"I don't know what went wrong." Martin said. "We'll have an opportunity to look at the game, dissect the special teams and make the necessary adjustments."
This is just the second time in the past five series that the Penguins have won the opener, but it could prove to be a Pyrrhic victory because center Jordan Staal left the game with a right leg injury midway through the second period after colliding with Montreal defenseman P.K. Subban.
Although the Penguins declined to divulge the nature or severity of Staal's injury, he appeared to have been cut by Subban's skate and left the arena on crutches.
The unofficial word was that Staal could be out for a period of weeks.
Max Talbot, who replaced him on the third line after Staal was hurt, is the obvious candidate to fill in if Staal can't play for a while.
"I'll be ready to do whatever they ask me," Talbot said.
Matt Freed/Post-Gazette
Craig Adams scores the Penguins' fourth goal against Canadiens goaltender Jaroslav Halak in the second period Friday.
Montreal, meanwhile, played most of the game without its best defenseman, Andrei Markov, who appeared to injure his right knee or ankle after absorbing a shoulder-to-shoulder hit from Penguins winger Matt Cooke at about 11:40 of the first period. He is scheduled to be re-evaluated today.
"I cut in front of the net, finished my check," Cooke said. "He tried to hit me back. I don't know what happened after that, if he went down weird or what."
Subban gave Montreal a 1-0 lead 4 1/2 minutes into the game when his wrist shot from the right point glanced off Penguins defenseman Mark Eaton before eluding goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.
The Penguins got that goal back on their first power play, as Sergei Gonchar scored on a slap shot from the high slot at 8:38. Bill Guerin made the goal possible by screening goalie Jaroslav Halak.
The Penguins went ahead, 2-1, while Montreal center Scott Gomez was serving a roughing minor, as Staal whipped a wrist shot past Halak from the slot at 13:27. Letang picked up their third man-advantage goal at 2:34 of the second, on a wrist shot from above the left hash.
After Canadiens left winger Mike Cammalleri disrupted the Pengiuns' surge by scoring from the edge of the left circle at 15:27, Craig Adams got the winner by steering in a Pascal Dupuis feed at 18:36.
Alex Goligoski's power-play goal at 2:59 of the third made it 5-2 and, after Brian Gionta lifted Montreal to within two when he scored on a power play at 12:29, Guerin hit an empty net with 48.2 seconds left to close out the scoring.
That was just the Penguins' second even-strength goal of the game.
"I don't think we played very well five-on-five," Letang said.
Maybe not.
But at least on this night, it didn't matter.
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.
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