Penguins Beat Habs, 3-1; Draw Matchup With Flyers -- And Home Ice -- In First Round

The rise from the depths is now complete.

From 10th place in the Eastern Conference to 4th place and home-ice advantage in the first round.

From playoff outsiders to the team nobody wants to face.

Pittsburgh Penguins -- say hello to the 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The Penguins completed the unlikely over the weekend. With their 3-1 win on Saturday night over the Montreal Canadiens, and the New York Rangers' come-from-behind 4-3 road victory over the Philadelphia Flyers yesterday, the Penguins sewed up 4th place in the Eastern Conference playoff field and a first round matchup against those hated Flyers beginning Wednesday, April 15 at Mellon Arena.

The Penguins dominated most of the contest on Saturday night against Montreal, running up a 34-10 shot advantage at one point, and then taking over the game in the 3rd period.

Evgeni Malkin scored in the first period to give the Penguins a 1-1 lead, but Canadiens' defenseman Roman Hamrlik scored on a point shot that deflected off defenseman Hal Gill and past Pittsburgh netminder Marc-Andre Fleury to tie the score.

It stayed that way into the third thanks to Montreal goalie Cary Price literally standing on his head.

Price made several great stops in the first 2 frames, none better than a glove save on Penguins' LW Matt Cooke, who was unable to finish a 2-on-1. Price stopped Penguins' RW Bill Guerin on a similar play just a few minutes later.

The Penguins also missed several other great scoring chances in the game --- one by Sergei Gonchar when he basically missed an open net on a slapshot that went wide on a power play, and another when Pascal Dupuis and Max Talbot were not able to convert a near 2-on-0 while killing a penalty early in the 3rd period.

When Montreal again went on the power play later in the final frame thanks to a lame, phantom "cross checking" penalty on Penguins' defenseman Brooks Orpik (he actually just gave former Penguin George Laraque a little shove, who went into the boards headfirst and bought the call when he looked up at the official), it looked like Price might have put his team in a position to steal a game they had no business being in.

But Talbot and Dupuis -- again out killing the penalty -- got another near 2-on-0 opportunity and this time made no mistake, with Dupuis setting up Talbot to finish the play to give the Penguins a 2-1 lead.

Then, while killing the same penalty, Kris Letang drilled a bullet past Price on the short side from the far boards after crusing into the zone with no help and just deciding to unleash on the net.

That goal gave the Penguins a 3-1 lead and completely deflated the Bell Center.

Fleury closed the door the rest of the way to finish with 29 saves on 30 shots, and the Penguins finished the year 45-28-9, for 99 points -- only 3 less than last season when they finished with 102.

By the way, 102 points this season would have gotten them the same spot in the East they are currently in -- 4th.

Malkin, with his goal (and Ovechkin only adding 2 points to his total in the Capitals' 7-4 loss to the Florida Panthers Saturday night), wrapped up his first Art Ross trophy as the NHL's leading scorer.

Malkin finished with 113 points; Ovechkin had 110.

The Art Ross Trophy is the Penguins' 13th in the last 21 seasons -- just a remarkable figure. No other team since the Penguins came into the league in 1967-68 has had more Art Ross trophies than the Penguins and nobody has had as many different players win it (Lemieux -- 6 times; Jagr -- 5 times; Crosby -- 1 time; Malkin -- 1 time).

Under "interim" head coach Dan Bylsma, the Penguins finished 18-3-4 in the their final 27 games. They finished 20 in the league on the power play and had a near 20% success rate under his tenure. They finished 8th in the league on the penalty kill, at a near 88% kill rate since he arrived.

Only 3 teams in the league scored more goals than the Penguins this year -- the Boston Bruins, the San Jose Sharks and the Washington Capitals. The Penguins tied for 4th with the Flyers and the Chicago Blackhawks.

Other notable statistical achievements for the Penguins' this season include having six 20-goal scorers and 12 players reach double-digits in goal scoring. With the exception of defenseman Kris Letang -- who was the only rearguard to do it -- that's just about every one of the Penguins' forwards reaching at least 10 goals. Not many teams have depth like that.

The Penguins also had the top 2 assist men in the league this year -- Malkin and Crosby, with 78 and 70 helpers respectively.

Pittsburgh also had the numbers 2, 5 and 16 hitters in the game this season. Orpik finished 2nd with 309. Matt Cooke was 5th with 262. LW Chris Kunitz was 16th with 207.

The Penguins first round matchup with the Flyers will begin on Wednesday night at 7 PM at Mellon Arena, and go every other day, without exception, for as long as the series lasts. Game 3 is a nationally televised game Sunday at 3 PM, while game 6, if necessary, will also be televised on Saturday, April 25 at 3 PM.

The series will follow the traditional 2-2-1-1-1 format, with games 1, 2 and, if necessary, 5 and 7 being at Mellon, while games 3, 4 and, if necessary, 6 being at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia.

I'll post a more detailed round 1 preview here tomorrow, but for now I'll say that home ice for the Penguins cannot be understated in round one, as the Penguins and Flyers will probably engage in a much more competitive series this year than the 5-game victory Pittsburgh had over their hated rivals in the Eastern Conference Finals last season. First round series' are almost always among the most physically intense and this one should be no exception. It's bad enough that these 2 teams hate each other so much. A first round matchup between them should be that much more physical.

It's going to be a heck of a series.

Let's Go Pens!