Marc-Andre Fleury stopped every shot the Montreal Canadiens threw at him, Evgeni Malkin scored a power play goal, and Pascal Dupuis capitalized on an empty net as the Pittsburgh Penguins took a hard-fought 2-0 decision on Tuesday night. The win gives the Pens a 2-1 lead in the series, which will resume in Montreal on Thursday night.
The game's #1 star, Fleury turned in his finest performance of the postseason, a statement game aimed at his outspoken critics who've said the goalie hasn't "won" a game for the Pens in the 2010 playoffs. And while the Penguin netminder faced only 18 shots on the evening, he still managed to come up with huge save after huge save, especially in the third period, with a sliding pad stop on Mike Cammalleri with 7:36 remaining and a right pad save on Tomas Plekanec's redirection late in the game. With all that being said, in a contest that was scoreless into the third, every save was a big save - and MAF could do no more.
While the defense was solid, the Penguins' offensive struggles continued at even strength, where they would once again go scoreless on the night. Pittsburgh has scored just two even-strength goals so far in the series, definitely a statistic to keep an eye on.
Another area of concern is the lack of scoring from Sidney Crosby, who has just two assists and no goals yet in the series. However, it's worth adding that Crosby drew the penalty on Hal Gill that set up the third-period power play, which then led to Malkin scoring the eventual game-winner a little more than a minute into the final period.
Like Fleury, Malkin had been drawing criticism for not playing up to his potential in the postseason, going five games without a goal - so it was nice to see him score such a big one on Tuesday. The Incredible Malk hadn't scored since the 7-4 win over Ottawa in Game Four of their opening round series on April 20.
Not only were the Penguins battling a tough Canadiens team, a hot goalie, and a hostile crowd, they had injuries to contend with on Tuesday. Bill Guerin was ruled out on Tuesday morning with an undisclosed injury, and Jordan Staal was limited to a spectator's role after his tendon injury last Friday night. But despite those obstacles, they managed to pitch a shutout in a second-round road playoff game - never an easy task.
The series takes a day off, then picks back up on Thursday at Montreal's Bell Centre. If the Penguins are lucky enough to skate off with another victory, they'll return to Pittsburgh up 3-1 in the series, ready to deliver the knockout blow. A Penguin loss basically creates a best-of-three scenario, with two of those games being played in Pittsburgh. Considering they've fallen behind in the series while allowing a total of one goal to the Crosby/Malkin two-headed-monster, time is running out on the Habs - and Thursday figures to be their most desperate hour yet.
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