Michel Ouellet (7), Sidney Crosby and Colby Armstrong celebrate with goalie Marc-Andre Fleury after winning the shootout against the Canadiens last night at Mellon Arena.
Game had intense play, physical confrontations
Friday, February 02, 2007
They don't share a division anymore. And for all of Montreal's fabled playoff history, the Canadiens have had one postseason series against the Penguins in the past four decades.
But none of that seemed to matter while the Penguins were running their winning streak to five with a 5-4 shootout victory at Mellon Arena last night.
Serious intensity -- and hostilities -- began a split-second after the opening faceoff, when Montreal's Maxim Lapierre dropped Sidney Crosby with a butt-end to the stomach, and didn't let up until shortly before goalie Marc-Andre Fleury clinched the victory by stopping Tomas Plekanec on Montreal's final shootout try.
"It was a big-time playoff atmosphere out there," Penguins defenseman Rob Scuderi said.
No one responded to it better than Fleury, who rejected 40 of 45 shots in regulation and overtime, then denied Chris Higgins and Plekanec in the shootout after being beaten by Alex Kovalev.
"He's been so good for us, the difference in so many games," said Crosby, who again failed to score in a shootout, but had three assists to push his league-leading points total to 82.
Canadiens goalie David Aebischer stopped Crosby in the shootout but was beaten by Erik Christensen and Evgeni Malkin as the Penguins (25-17-8) moved to 7-0-1 in their past eight games.
Although both teams will play tomorrow afternoon -- the Penguins face Washington at home; the Canadiens play the New York Islanders in Montreal -- they might already be thinking ahead to the rematch at 2:08 p.m. Sunday at the Bell Centre.
"It's going to be intense," Canadiens defenseman Sheldon Souray said.
Especially for Souray, whose evening ended abruptly at 4:53 of the second period.
Seconds after Penguins winger Colby Armstrong drove a shoulder into Canadiens captain Saku Koivu, laying him out behind the Penguins' net, Souray dragged Armstrong to the ice in the slot and began throwing punches at him.
"It was a pretty clean hit, but we wanted to let him know that we don't want to have [Koivu] treated like that," Montreal winger Mike Johnson said.
Souray's message was tough to miss. So was the one sent by referees Francois St.-Laurent and Don Koharski, who gave him a minor for instigating, a fighting major, a 10-minute misconduct and a game misconduct.
Armstrong wasn't penalized, so the Penguins ended up with a seven-minute power play, during which they scored twice. That was a high price to pay for avenging Koivu, although coach Guy Carbonneau didn't seem to mind.
"Saku's our best player," he said. "If somebody does something like that to him, I have no problem with what Sheldon did."
While the Canadiens might be the NHL's best special-teams club -- they entered the game with the No. 2 power play and the third-ranked penalty-killing unit -- the Penguins ended up with a nominal edge in that facet of play. They were 3 for 6 with the extra man; Montreal failed to score on six power plays but got two goals while short-handed.
Malkin gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 18:19 of the first, and Sergei Gonchar made it 2-0 at 8:40 of the second. After Radek Bonk picked up Montreal's first short-handed goal at 10:35, Gonchar countered by lashing a slap shot past Aebischer from the slot at 11:38.
Bonk, who hadn't scored in the previous 19 games, got that back by deflecting in a Sergei Samsonov feed at 17:13, but Christensen restored the Penguins' two-goal lead at 9:09 of the third.
That seemed secure when Plekanec was penalized for roughing at 14:25, but four seconds later, Johnson deflected a Craig Rivet shot behind Fleury for the Canadiens' second short-handed goal, and Mathieu Dandenault forced overtime when his shot from the right point bounced off Penguins defenseman Mark Eaton and Scuderi before ending up in the net.
But the Penguins survived those -- and a 7-0 disadvantage in overtime shots -- en route to a compelling victory against one of the clubs they're trying to overtake in the Eastern Conference.
"If you look at the points, there are five or six teams that are so close and fighting for playoff berths," Gonchar said. "That's why the playoff atmosphere starts in February, because everybody really has a chance."
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(Dave Molinari can be reached at DWMolinari@Yahoo.com. )
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