Pittsburgh Penguins take Game 1 by owning Ottawa Senators 4-1 -NHL Update
The power play opportunities that the Pittsburgh Penguins were blessed with against Ottawa in Game 1 of the 2012 National Hockey League (NHL) Stanley Cup Semifinals was a clear factor in their daunting 4-1 victory, downing the Senators in the opener.
Being in Pittsburgh to kick off the semifinals is one thing, but being in such an ecstatic mood certainly will be a great way to continue the series with Ottawa morally down as they managed to perfectly kill off any momentum the Senators came in with by
defeating the Montreal Canadiens in round one.
"We are way more near where we need to be [in Game 1]," Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma said, according to NHL.com. "We got the puck deep, got on the forecheck, and we were able to get in the offensive zone because of that.”
While the series is still new and there are still six more games that can possibly be played, the Montreal Canadiens are working hard to not lose out on any chances they may get to take the Penguins over in the next matchup.
"Special teams [are] huge, and again this power play that they have with all those players, they're dangerous," Ottawa defenseman Marc Methot said. "Whether we've got to play with more discipline, whatever that is; whatever the answer is, it's something
we have to focus in on."
With nearly 18,000 fans in the CONSOL Energy Center, the environment was electric, especially when Paul Martin kicked the scoring off at 2:41 into the first period. Colin Greening leveled it nearly two minutes later but Evgeni Malkin kept them at bay by
taking the lead at 12:15 with his third of the postseason.
Chris Kunitz potted his third as well on the power play on an assist from Jarome Iginla with less than two minutes remaining in the second and Pascal Dupuis sealed the deal even when the Penguins were shorthanded 11:24 into the final round of action. It
was Dupius’ sixth of the playoffs as he seems to have emerged as one of the stronger Penguins thus far.
Game 2 of the series is planned to take place on Friday at 7:30 PM ET.
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