Pascal Dupuis added another chapter to the storied annals of Penguin playoff history, ending their first-round series against the Ottawa Senators in dramatic fashion with a goal 9:56 into overtime, giving the Pens a spot in the second round with a 4-3 win on Saturday night.
Dupuis' goal completed an amazing Pittsburgh comeback, clawing back from a 3-1 hole in the third period behind goals from Bill Guerin and Matt Cooke, who scored twice on the night. The Penguin secondary scoring was huge in this one, considering the fact that Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin were held mostly in check. The dynamic duo was limited to one Malkin assist on the evening.
A major storyline in this game was the two goals lost on video replays, one for each team. A Mike Rupp goal that would've tied the game at one was wiped out for the Pens, and a Mike Fisher goal that would've given the Senators a commanding 4-1 lead was taken off the board for Ottawa. But I'm sure Carrie Underwood will make Fisher feel better when he's golfing next week.
As for the goalies, Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 28 of 31 shots for the Penguins, and the smoldering Pascal Leclaire stopped 39 of 43 for the Senators. But make no doubt about it, this game turned in the critical third period, when Pittsburgh scored twice and outshot Ottawa 18-4.
It was bad enough that this series was forced to a sixth game (and another overtime contest at that), but make no doubt about it - the Penguins wanted no part of a seventh game, even if it was at the Igloo. This series had to end tonight, so kudos to Dupuis for making that happen. For his efforts, he will receive a lifelong entry in the lengthy list of electric Penguin postseason moments, and his teammates get a pass into the next round of the NHL's championship tournament.
5 comments:
Wow. Listen to the crowd after Dupuis scored. Ottawa is one place that you wouldn't think there would be that many of us in attendance. Apparently, a lot of Pittsburghers either moved up there looking for work or a whole ton got visas and drove (yikes) all the way up there for the game, or both.
Anyway, that crowd response last night may even be more telling than the minimum 25,000 Steeler fans at every road game as to the reason why we are the most hated sports fan base in all of the world. Can you imagine getting your dreams crushed by a visiting team in your own house while surrounded by hordes of their cheering fans? You can't, because you are a Pittsburgh fan! What a beautiful day.
There were an impressive amount of Wings fans at Mellon for Game 6 in '08. Prob not as many as Pens fans in Ottawa, but still a lot.
I sense some sarcasm in this post:
"It was bad enough that this series was forced to a sixth game (and another overtime contest at that"
Look, I think the Senators are a good team, and I think the Pens are clearly better and demonstrated that. They beat us by one goal in what was admitedly a bad game for the Pens. Then we dominated them for three straight games. The Sens played with desperation needing three overtimes to extend the game, and the Pens showed they were better beating back that desperation in Game 6.
Honestly, I don't see the problem.
The Pens proved they were better than the Sens and for now, that's all we needed to see. The next round will be tougher and I don't see any reason why they won't rise to the challenge.
Let's go Pens!
Have there ever been soooo many calls to Toronto in a series? Wow
Have there ever been so many close plays? I think the refs got every call right too after the reviews. That's the most important thing.
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