Penguins Playoff Thursday

Yinzers,

Sorry for the bland blog. My only excuse is that I finished up my finals and was packing up my belongings to return to Forbes Magazine's #1 most livable city: Pittsburgh, PA. Therefore, I will just have a score report and a few words for the Thursday blog.

Tuesday's Game 3
The Penguins streak by the Montreal Canadiens 2-0, anchored by Marc-Andre Fleury's best performance of the entire year. Fleury turned away all 18 Montreal shots, several of which were in extraordinary fashion. Evgeni Malkin scored the first goal of the game at 1:16 in the third period and Pascal Dupuis added an empty netter. The overall play of the game was dominated by the Penguins, just like most of this series has been. Jaroslav Halak continued to be my vote for playoffs MVP, looking cool and collected in spite of the loss. Penguins go up in the series 2-1.

Thursday's Game 4
Frustrating is the only word to describe tonight's game. The Pittsburgh Penguins had their way with the Montreal Canadiens for approximately 45 out of the 60 minutes of hockey in this game, but still came out short, losing 3-2. Tom Pyatt got the Canadiens on the board first with what was quite possibly the softest goal of the post season through the five hole of Marc-Andre Fleury. Maxime Talbot answered just one minute later, beating Jaroslav Halak on a fast break. From there, the rest of the first two period belonged solely to the Penguins. Chris Kunitz added a power play goal to give the Pens a 2-1 lead after one period. The third period started with a goal from Maxim Lapierre to tie the game at 2. At that time, the Penguins were out-shooting the Canadiens 26-9. Brian Gionta scored a fluke goal on the Canadiens' 10th "shot" of the game. It was actually a centering pass that hit off the skate of Kris Letang and ended up behind Fleury. The Canadiens would hold onto that 3-2 lead for the remainder of the game. I felt like punching a baby at the end of this one. Jaroslav Halak...you...manatee!

The series is now tied 2-2 heading back to Pittsburgh on Saturday at 7:00 pm. Crash the net, get in Halak's head and stop the bad give-aways in the neutral zone. Even if the Canadiens do not make it farther in the playoffs, Jaroslav Halak is the playoff MVP. Without him, Montreal beats nobody.

Let's go Pens,
B Brog