JESSICA BOPP – OVATHLETICS.COM
The Penguins and Senators picked up with Game 4 on Tuesday.
Evgeni Malkin opened the scoring with a nice power play goal from Sidney Crosby and Sergei Gonchar. His shot from the right faceoff circle went past Ottawa goalie Brian Elliott.
His goal was the only one of the first period, although there were seven penalties given out—4 to Ottawa and 3 to Pittsburgh.
The Penguins were up 2-0 when Sidney Crosby scored while on a partial breakaway. Chris Kunitz and Sergei Gonchar assisted.
Then, just 12 seconds later, Matt Cooke made it 3-0 when Max Talbot set Cooke up for a nice goal.
And if that weren’t enough, Crosby scored again, his fourth goal of the series, at 6:12 from Gonchar and Kunitz—again. The Penguins scored three goals in less than three minutes.
Back-up goalie Pascal Leclaire replaced Brian Elliott after Crosby’s second goal.
After that, Chris Neil’s backhander finally put the Senators on the board at 7:06 in the second. And shortly thereafter, Daniel Alfredsson made it 4-2 with his goal from Erik Karlsson and Matt Cullen.
The Penguins took a bigger lead when Max Talbot made scored a short-handed goal from Craig Adams to put the Pens ahead 5-2.
While on the power play, Jason Spezza set up Matt Cullen, who ripped the puck past Marc-Andre Fleury. Alfredsson also assisted.
At the end of the second period, Chris Kunitz made it 6-3 with his first post-season goal.
Spezza tried to spark the Senators in the third period when he made it 6-4 with a power play goal from Erik Karlsson and Matt Cullen.
But when Jordan Staal added another goal for the Penguins while on the power play, the Senators didn’t have much time to come back. Alex Goligoski and Alexei Ponikarovsky assisted.
The third period saw a ridiculous amount of penalties. Of the 12 dished out, nine went to Ottawa. And three of those were 10-minute game misconducts.
At the end of three, the Penguins beat the Senators 7-4, giving them a 3-1 series lead.
Game 5 was played on Thursday night and was the fourth longest game in Penguin history and the longest ever for the Senators.
Pascal Leclaire started in goal for the Senators after taking over for Brian Elliott last game.
Halfway through the first period, Mike Fisher scored on a power play to give the Senators a 1-0 lead. Erik Karlsson and Jason Spezza assisted.
Just over a minute later, the Senators had a 2-0 lead when former Penguin Jarkko Ruutu put the puck past Marc-Andre Fleury.
But the Penguins got on the board just before the first period ended as Kris Letang scored on the power play from Bill Guerin and Evgeni Malkin.
Chris Kunitz of the Pittsburgh Penguins scored the only goal in the second period thanks to the video review. The ruling on the ice was that the net had been dislodged, but after review, it was determined that the pegs holding the net to the ice were still attached, so the goal was good.
But Kunitz did have a goal taken away from him at 3:22 in the third as he deflected a shot from Sergie Gonchar with a high stick.
Sidney Crosby scored his fifth goal of the series at 9:01 in the third with a hard shot from a Malkin rebound, but the Penguins only had the lead for a little over a minute.
Senator Peter Regin tied the game at three on a slap shot. The goal that took the game into overtime was assisted by Spezza and Karlsson.
It looked as though the Senators were going to win it just 2:05 into OT, but the goal was denied since Nick Foligno kicked the puck in the net with his skate. That was the third goal to be reviewed during the game.
There were five penalties in the first OT period, but no goals.
The second OT was even more uneventful—no goals and no penalties.
Then, at 7:06 in the third OT, Daniel Alfredsson passed the puck to Matt Carkner, who fired a slap shot to the net. The puck deflected off of Penguin Matt Cooke and in the net past Fleury. Mike Fisher also assisted.
Clocking in at 107 minutes and 6 seconds, it was the longest playoff game so far this year.
The Senators won 4-3 in triple OT, forcing a Game 6, which was played on Saturday night.
Ottawa was on the board first when Matt Cullen scored on a breakaway just over five minutes into the game. Daniel Alfresson made a pass up the middle to Cullen who shot and scored on Marc-Andre Fleury. Anton Volchenkov recorded the other assist.
At 12:40, it looked as though the Penguins were going to tie it up but Mike Rupp’s attempt was saved by Pascal Leclaire pad on the goal line. The very in depth review allowed the official to rule that the puck did not go over the goal line.
The Senators led 3-0 in the second period and appeared to go up 4-1 in the frame, but lost a goal to video replay when it was determined the puck crossed the line after the net was knocked off its moorings.
Chris Neil gave Ottawa a 2-0 lead with his goal at the beginning of the second period. And Daniel Alfredsson extended the lead even more when he beat Fleury inside the right post.
Then, the Penguins finally got on the board thanks to Matt Cooke. His backhander from Jordan Staal’s rebound blew past Leclaire to make it 3-1. Dupuis got the other assist.
Thankfully, Mike Fisher’s attempt at 16:19 was overturned after a lengthy video review.
The third period was all about the comeback.
Bill Guerin’s one-timer from Alex Goligoski and Evgeni Malkin went in the net while the Penguins were on a power play.
Then, with less than eight minutes left, Matt Cooke scored his second goal of the night to tie the game at three. Mark Eaton and Alexei Ponikarovsky assisted.
So the game was forced into OT, yet, this one wasn’t nearly as long as the previous game.
It only took half of the first OT period for the Penguins to score.
Pascal Dupuis accepted a nice pass from Jordan Staal from the left corner and ripped the shot into the net for a 4-3 Penguin victory. That was Dupuis’ first goal of the postseason, and the Penguins’ fourth unanswered goal of the night.
The Pittsburgh Penguins have moved on to the second round of the playoffs, eliminating the Ottawa Senators in Game 6.
