Penguins Playoff Monday

Yinzers,

Get ready for round 2. The Penguins are into the next round of the playoffs after defeating the Ottawa Senators 4-2 in the series. They now join the Philthadelphia Flyers and wait for the Bruins-Sabres and Capitals-Canadiens series to end. Here is what happened in games 5 and 6.

Game 5 Thursday Night in Pittsburgh
With the Penguins looking to close out the Senators in the Igloo, the air was electric in dahntahn Pittsburgh. Game 5 would prove to be an iron man race, taking 3 overtimes to decide a victor. Scoring opened up in the first period at 10:55 when Ottawa's Chris Neal scored on the power play. Just a little over a minute later, former Penguin Jarkko Ruutu added a second goal for the Senators. With most of the momentum going the way of the Senators, Kris Letang put the Penguins on the board with a power play goal. Tanger has really stepped up his game in the playoffs and is proving that he is worth the 4 year contract. The Senators led the contest 2-1 heading into the first intermission. The second period saw little scoring and a lot of shot-blocking from the Ottawa defense. We'll have more on that later, but it seemed that every shot the Penguins attempted ended up hitting a Senator and getting safely distributed into the corner. At 18:34 in the second, Chris Kunitz scored the equalizer for the Penguins and the game was tied at 2 after 2. The Penguins believed they got the go-ahead goal at 3:02, but the official review showed a high stick on the goal by Chris Kunitz. Sidney Crosby gave the Penguins the lead at 9:01 in the third period, but that damn Peter Regin scored for Ottawa, tying the game at 10:24. This one was headed to overtime.

What the players and fans did not know, was that this game would need 3 overtime periods to decide a winner. By the end of the second overtime, the Penguins had attempted over 100 shots with the Ottawa Senators blocking over 40 of them. At the final tally, Pittsburgh would attempt over 110 shots but only 59 of them made it to the net. All others were either blocked or missed the net. Jason Spezza thought he had the game-winner at 2:03 in the first overtime, but the official review overturned the decision based on a kicking motion by the Ottawa player charging the net. The two and a half overtime periods were a lot of back-and-forth hockey with chances at each end in spite of the numerous blocked shots on both sides. The game was brought to an end after 107:06 when Matt Carkner scored for Ottawa at 7:06 in the third overtime. This series was not over...they were headed back to Scotiabank Place for at least one more.

Game 6 Saturday at Scotiabank Place
The Penguins found themselves asking "what to we have to do to put these guys away?" The answer was get some more auxiliary scoring from someone besides Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin...oh yea and don't let the Senators get any momentum. The Penguins accomplished half of these goals. They got auxiliary scoring from the team, but let the Senators get the momentum by going up 3-0 before the Penguins got on the board. Matt Cullen got a goal at 5:19 in the first to lead the Senators into the first intermission with a 1-0 lead. The Penguins thought they had an equalizer at 12:40 when Mike Rupp put one to the left leg pad of Pascal Leclaire, but there was insufficient evidence to prove that the puck crossed the line (which it did) so the goal was disallowed.

At 1:51 in the second period, Chris Neal got a lucky bounce as the puck rolled over the shoulder of Marc-Andre Fleury. Daniel Alfredsson made it 3-0 in favor of the Senators with a goal at 9:48 in the second. The energy in Scotiabank Place was fueling the fire of the Senators. Matt Cooke began to extinguish the fire with a goal at 10:56 in the second, but there was still a lot of work to be done. There was another official review when Mike Fisher believed he had a goal, but this goal was disallowed after review as well. The Penguins finally got their act together in the third period, scoring two goals and tying the game at 3-3. Billy Guerin's power play goal and Matt Cooke's second of the game forced an overtime period. Pascal Dupuis put the Senators away at 9:56 in the overtime period when he sniped a shot over the left shoulder of Pascal Leclaire. Teeing off next, Lafferty, Daniel and Alfredsson, Daniel.

And now its a waiting game. In the Eastern Conference, the Penguins and the Philthadelphia Flyers await the other two series to finish. Both play tonight at 7:00. Boston is up 3 games to 2 on the Buffalo Sabres and the Washington Capitals lead the Montreal Canadiens 3 games to 2. Here are the situations (the latter team getting home-ice advantage):

If Washington and Boston win:
Flyers v. Capitals; Bruins v. Penguins

If Washington and Buffalo win:
Flyers v. Capitals; Penguins v. Sabres

If Montreal and Boston win:
Flyers v. Bruins; Canadiens v. Penguins

If Montreal and Buffalo win:
Flyers v. Sabres; Canadiens v. Penguins

We'll see what the future holds. Until then, continue not to shave.

Lets go Pens,
B Brog