Penguins Power Down Into Series Tie With Montreal after 3-1 Game 2 Defeat

You live by the sword, and you die by the sword.

And so it was for the Pittsburgh Penguins in game 2 of their Eastern Conference Semifinal series against the Montreal Canadiens at Mellon Arena yesterday -- a game that the Canadiens used to even the series at one game each after a 3-1 victory.

Two days after going 4-for-4 on the power play in game one, the Penguins came up empty in three man advantage opportunities in game 2. All three of those were in the pivotal third period, which Montreal began by leading 2-1 on the strength of goals by Brian Gionta in the 1st and Mike Cammalleri -- knocking a puck out of the air and in -- during the 2nd.

Pens' LW Matt Cooke scored his 4th of the playoffs to open the scoring for Pittsburgh 5 minutes into the game, sneaking behind the Montreal defense and going forehand to backhand before beating Habs' netminder Jaroslav Halak between the legs.

Thanks in part to their miserable power play, though, that was the only marker the Penguins would get on the night, and when the Canadiens got a break late in the game to make it 3-1, we had a series.

The bad break happened on a play where the puck bounced right off the skate of Pittsburgh blueliner Kris Letang before popping directly to Cammalleri. Because he was streaking into the Pens' zone at the time, he was able to take the biscuit in stride, promptly go in and quickly beat Marc-Andre Fleury glove side for his playoff leading 8th goal so far this year.

Pittsburgh has to find a way to slow him down or the Canadiens can definitely keep things interesting in this series.

In a cruel twist of fate, part of Pittsburgh's problem in game 2 was that they might have actually been TOO successful in game one, particularly on the man-advantage.

In that contest, they waited for prime scoring opportunities and didn't miss when they got them.

In game two yesterday, it looked like they tried too hard to get the prime scoring opportunities, and passed up chances along the way waiting for them.

By the end of the game, they had outshot the Canadiens by a whopping 39-21 margin -- as the Washington Capitals so often did in their first round series against Montreal -- but didn't have the lead where it mattered most because they didn't create as much havoc down low and in front of Halak as they did in game 1.

Still, the territorial dominance on the ice in game 2 was plain, and Pittsburgh feels confident that if it continues to generally play that way and just tweak a few things they are doing in the offenisve zone, they'll get good results and not go the same way as the Washington Capitals did in round 1.

For the Penguins to get those results, though, they also need Evgeni Malkin and Fleury to step up and be players in this series.

As I've said in this space before, Fleury has yet to steal a game for Pittsburgh in these playoffs, and, while Malkin has 9 points sofar, he, too, isn't playing up to his potential -- especially at even strength.

Even Sidney Crosby went without a point in game 2, and has failed to score a goal in 3 straight post-season games now.

Still, the Penguins were even at 1-1 with the Ottawa Senators in round one -- just like they are with Montreal now -- before whipping the Senators in back-to-back games in their own barn to take a stranglehold on the series. With their unbeaten 3-0 road record so far, the Penguins won't be fazed before what is surely to be a raucous Bell Centre crowd in Montreal for game 3.

More later.


NOTES:

Both Tyler Kennedy and Jordan Leopold returned to the lineup for the Penguins in game 2. Leopold took Jay McKee's spot in the lineup and, while he was pretty quiet most of the game, it was good to see him back in the lineup again after missing the last 5 games and about 2 weeks with concussion symptoms.

TK, meanwhile, had more of an impact on the game, with 5 shots in about 13 minutes of ice time playing on the second line with Geno, and taking the lineup spot of injured teammate Jordan Staal.