Letang and Alex Goligoski each had a goal and an assist and the
Pittsburgh Penguins shredded Montreal's penalty-killing unit that
Washington never solved in the opening round, beating the Canadiens 6-3
Friday night in the first game of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Sidney Crosby set up two goals, and
Jordan Staal and Sergei Gonchar also scored as the Penguins' improved
power play went 4-for-4. That is three more goals than the Capitals
scored with the man advantage during Montreal's stunning first-round
upset, when the Canadiens killed 32-of-33 Capitals power plays.
Bill Guerin added an empty-net goal
and had an assist as the Penguins won Game 1 for only the second time in
five playoff series.
The Stanley Cup champion Penguins,
winners of eight of 10 series since 2007, are in position to take a 2-0
lead in Game 2 on Sunday at home.
The Canadiens repeatedly turned aside
rush after Capitals rush while becoming the first No. 8-seeded team to
rally from a 3-1 series deficit to beat a top-seeded team, but the
Penguins employed a much-different strategy. They screened goalie
Jaroslav Halak in front and, rather than carrying the puck through
traffic and into Montreal's collapsing defense, they instructed their
undefended point men to keep pumping one-timers at the net.
The Penguins' first three goals — by
Gonchar and Staal in the first period and Letang early in the second —
all came from center point and couldn't be stopped by Halak, who turned
aside 131 of the Capitals' final 134 shots in the first round. He let in
five goals on 20 shots.
Halak was pulled early in the third
for Carey Price, several minutes after Goligoski made it 5-2 by scoring
off Crosby's setup.
The Canadiens, playing two days after
finishing off one of the biggest first-round upsets in NHL history,
didn't look to be off their game or fatigued despite the quick
turnaround. They held Pittsburgh to 16 shots in the first two periods
and 24 overall and kept Crosby and Evgeni Malkin from scoring, something
Ottawa rarely did. Crosby had five goals, and Malkin added four in the
Penguins' six-game, opening-round series win over the Senators.
The rested and patient Penguins simply
looked better — and, unlike the Capitals, better prepared. Playing for
the first time in six days, the Penguins didn't remain stationary on
offense and throw puck after puck at Halak the way the increasingly
frustrated Capitals did.
Brian Gionta had a goal and an
assist, but the Canadiens never led after P.K. Subban scored unassisted
on a shot from the right point with 4:30 gone. Gonchar tied it about
four minutes later after Gionta's tripping penalty. Staal put the
Penguins ahead to stay by cutting across the middle and beating Halak
with a wrist shot at 13:27 of the first.
Staal, who has never missed a game to
injury in his four NHL seasons, hurt his right leg after being undercut
by Subban behind the net near the midpoint of the second period and
didn't return.
The Canadiens played the final 2 1/2
periods without defenseman Andrei Markov, who sustained an unspecified
lower body injury while being upended by Penguins forward Matt Cooke
while trying to control the puck in a corner.
Markov's injury inadvertently set up
the Penguins' go-ahead goal. As Markov was being attended to by
trainers, two Canadiens players drew roughing penalties — only one
Penguins player did — and Staal scored near the end of that power play.
Crosby stayed off for a few shifts
after sustaining a facial injury in the second, but he returned later in
the period.
Mike Cammalleri scored his sixth for
Montreal, briefly cutting it to 3-2 in the second period, but Craig
Adams answered late in the period to restore Pittsburgh's two-goal
advantage. Adams has two goals in seven playoff games after going
without a goal all season.
Notes
Pittsburgh has won four of
five against Montreal this season. … Crosby has 16 points in seven
postseason games. … Montreal outshot Pittsburgh 31-24, but Marc-Andre
Fleury made 28 saves. In the first round, Washington outshot Montreal
292-194.