Bob Smizik: Penguins' best effort just wasn't enough

Evgeni Malkin reacts after being stopped by Senators goalie Ray Emery last night at Mellon Arena.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

It was a secret to no one that Game 4 of this Stanley Cup playoff matchup between the Penguins and the Ottawa Senators was of critical importance. The Penguins, down a game, were in desperate need of a victory. They needed to play well, They needed to seize energy from a passionate crowd.

It all started so well. Unlike the first game of this series played at Mellon Arena, the crowd came poised to help. They were passionate and they were smart.

The 17,132 who jammed the old building had the decency and good sense not to boo the Canadian national anthem, something a few jerks in the crowd two days earlier did. Maybe this crowd realized that -- duh! -- most of the Penguins, including Sidney Crosby, Mark Recchi and Marc-Andre Fleury, are Canadians and quite understandably might take exception to such stupid behavior.

This crowd did one other thing differently than the one at the first game: It didn't grow silent when the Penguins fell behind. Instead, the passion remained high even after the Senators scored on a fluke goal before the game was four minutes old. A centering pass off the stick of Jason Spezza, hit the stick of Jordan Staal, who was defending the area in front of the goal, and sailed past Fleury.

But for this game, though, the power of the crowd wasn't enough. Neither was the best performance of the series by the Penguins.

In a fiercely and well-played game, the Senators got a goal midway through the third period from defenseman Anton Volchenkov to win, 2-1, and take a 3-1 advantage in the best-of-seven series which resumes tomorrow night at Ottawa.

Obviously, the Penguins are in a desperate situation. They need to win three in a row against the Senators, with two of the games being played in Ottawa. If they require inspiration, they need only recall the final month of the season when they did beat the Senators three times, with two of those victories coming on the road.

It they are to make such a run, and it will be extremely difficult, at least they showed on the ice last night they are poised to make it. Unlike after their two earlier defeats, the Penguins weren't second-guessing their commitment. They had fretted ever since losing the third game Sunday about their lack of focus. They talked incessantly about the need to focus. For this game they were focused.

"Both teams played well," Sidney Crosby said. "It was a good game. You need a break to win playoff games. We didn't get a break."

Although they started slowly and allowed Ottawa to dominate early, eventually the Penguins took their cue from the pumped-up crowd and gained control of the game. The second period was their best of the playoffs. They scored on a goal by Jordan Staal, who threw a rebound past goalie Ray Emery, and dominated play. They outshot the Senators, 13-4.

That they took seriously their situation was indicated by their physical style of play. With veteran Gary Roberts playing possessed, and being criticized by Ottawa coach Bryan Murray for his aggressiveness, the Penguins outhit the Senators, 30-16.

Roberts was credited with nine hits.

But the unheralded Emery, a large question mark before the series and relatively untested before last night, countered what the Penguins did so well.

"He was the difference tonight," Penguins coach Michel Therrien said. "He made some crucial saves."

Emery was particularly masterful in the second period as he continually turned aside good scoring chances.

With the score tied after two periods and the Penguins clearly having the momentum, a chance a victory looked good.

But the Senators wouldn't have it.

"We found a way to rally and play the way we're supposed to in the third period," Murray said. "Then we got a goal from a player we don't expect to get one from."

Crosby said, "It was the next goal wins, and they got it."

Murray was critical of his team's play for most of the first two periods but was more than willing to credit to the Penguins.

"Pittsburgh played very, very strong," he said. "Their crowd rallied them. They got a lot of energy from their crowd.

"They played as hard as I've seen them play all year."

The Penguins' power play, their strength for much of the season, failed them. They were scoreless in five chances. On their first two power plays, they failed to put a shot on Emery.

But there was no disgrace in this defeat.

"Both teams played well," Therrien said. "It was a good game."

Just not quite good enough for the Penguins.