Canadiens beat Penguins, Flyers still soaring
Once the Washington Capitals were eliminated by the Montreal Canadiens in round one of the play-offs it was inconceivable they could do it again and defeat the defending champions, Pittsburgh Penguins.
But that is exactly what happened on Wednesday night as the Canadiens dispatched the Penguins 5-2, to take the Eastern Conference semi-finals in seven games.
The Habs took the lead just 32 seconds into the game as they capitalised on a power-play given to them by Pens captain Sidney Crosby for boarding Josh Gorges. Brian Gionta got the goal and the Canadiens never looked back going on to increase their lead to four goals.
Dominic Moore, Mike Cammalleri and Travis Moen all added goals before the Penguins managed to get back two of their own and make the score 4-2. But those two goals were all Pittsburgh, on home ice, could muster as Gionta added a fifth goal and Jaroslav came up with 37 huge saves to finish off a second consecutive upset.
“We played Washington and we were supposed to get killed and we played these guys and we were supposed to get killed," defenseman Hal Gill said. "It's nice to be part of a team that gets things done."
The Canadiens became the first team since the current play-off format was adopted in 1994 to beat the Presidents’ Trophy winner and Stanley Cup champion in consecutive years, but still the Canadiens aren’t getting overexcited.
"I don't claim we're this great team, I don't claim we're perfect and I don't claim that everything we do is on purpose, I think we're just finding ways to win,” Mike Cammalleri said.
And finding ways to win will come in handy against their next opponents, the Boston Bruins or the Philadelphia Flyers who face-off in their own game seven on Friday after the Flyers came back from a 3-0 hole to tie the series at 3-3 on Wednesday night.
Needing a win to avoid elimination, the Flyers got a game-winning performance from goaltender Michael Leighton who, making his first start in two months, saved 30 shots as the Flyers took a close game 2-1.
Mike Richards and Danny Briere gave the Flyers a two-goal lead as the Bruins struggled to break the Philadelphia defence, finally managing to score with a minute to go in the last period.
But the Flyers managed to hold on and give themselves an opportunity to finish off one of the best comebacks in NHL history. But just like the Canadiens the Flyers aren’t getting too ahead of themselves with Leighton admitting they have yet to win the series.
"We can't look too far ahead of this game. We've got to look ahead at the next one, that's the big one. We battled back in this series, and we've done a great job preparing for each game."
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