sleddy2008
04-21-2010, 03:04 AM
C/p from TSN.ca
OTTAWA -- Sidney Crosby continued his dominance over the Ottawa Senators with two goals and two assists Tuesday night and his Pittsburgh Penguins took a 3-1 lead in the Eastern Conference quarter-final series with a 7-4 victory.
Crosby now has 11 points in four games in the best-of-seven series and, in large part because of his efforts, have a chance to eliminate the Senators at home on Thursday night.
Evgeni Malkin, on the power play, and Matt Cooke joined Crosby on the scoresheet as the Penguins jumped out to a 4-0 lead before a sellout crowd of 20,014 at Scotiabank Place, which may have just witnessed their final game in the building for the season.
Those four goals came on 19 shots against Senators starting goaltender Brian Elliott, who made way for Pascal Leclaire following Crosby's second goal early in the second period.
Although the Senators attempted to get back into the game with the help of their power play, they couldn't avoid being pushed to the brink by the reigning Stanley Cup champions.
Chris Kunitz added a goal and three assists, Maxime Talbot had a goal and an assist and Jordan Staal also scored for the Penguins, who received 26 saves from Marc-Andre Fleury.
Sergei Gonchar chipped in with three helpers.
Matt Cullen scored once and set up two goals for the Senators, who managed a couple of power-play markers during 5-on-3 advantages.
Daniel Alfredsson and Jason Spezza, who've both come under fire for their lack of production so far in the series, each had their first goals and an assist and Chris Neil also scored.
Pascal Leclaire saw his first playoff action in relief of Elliott and stopped 19 of 22 shots the rest of the way.
After losing the previous two games, the Senators opted for a lineup change, replacing Ryan Shannon with Jonathan Cheechoo, a former 56-goal scorer. But that was years ago and Cheechoo's fallen a long way since he accomplished the feat in 2005-06, ending his first season with the Senators following a trade from the San Jose Sharks by being demoted to the American Hockey League.
The Senators failed to generate many chances in the opening period, getting outshot 14-6, and fell behind when Anton Volchenkov was sent to the penalty box for hooking.
On the ensuing power play, Malkin ripped a one-timer from the top of the faceoff circle past Elliott at the 11:50 mark.
The Scotiabank Place crowd, dressed mostly in red and armed with white towels to twirl overhead, grew impatient as the period went on and began to boo the home team when, with the teams playing four players aside, the Penguins -- and Crosby in particular -- cycled the puck for long periods with the Senators unable to gain possession.
It got worse from there.
With the Senators applying a bit of pressure of their own early in the second, Spezza, the target of boos from the home crowd in Game 3, dropped a pass onto the stick of Gonchar at the Penguins' blue-line and when Kunitz couldn't break free from Gonchar's lead pass, Crosby took it the rest of the way to slip the puck past Elliott.
Twelve seconds later, Cooke scored from the slot and it was 3-0.
When Crosby snapped a seemingly routine shot inside the far post to make it 4-0 at the 6:12 mark, Leclaire wasted no time in grabbing his mask and heading for the net to replace Elliott.
Neil gave the Senators some life when he scored on a rebound and Alfredsson got his first of the playoffs.
Talbot, with a short-handed goal, and Cullen, with a power-play marker during a 5-on-3 advantage, traded goals before Kunitz converted a rebound of Crosby's shot to make it 6-3 after two periods.
Spezza cut the Penguins' lead to two goals with another 5-on-3 marker, but Staal scored his first of the playoffs on a rebound to restore the three-goal advantage.
NOTES: Staal was named Tuesday as a finalist for the Selke Trophy as the NHL's top defensive forward alongside Detroit's Pavel Datsyuk and Vancouver's Ryan Kesler. ... Crosby and Gonchar moved into fifth and 10th place all-time on the Penguins' playoff scoring list, respectively. ... Elliott entered the game with the worst save percentage among all playoff goalies at .868. ... The Senators saluted Canadian Paralympians Jean Labonte (sledge hockey captain) and Karolina Wisniewska and Viviane Forest (both alpine), who were in attendance.
OTTAWA -- Sidney Crosby continued his dominance over the Ottawa Senators with two goals and two assists Tuesday night and his Pittsburgh Penguins took a 3-1 lead in the Eastern Conference quarter-final series with a 7-4 victory.
Crosby now has 11 points in four games in the best-of-seven series and, in large part because of his efforts, have a chance to eliminate the Senators at home on Thursday night.
Evgeni Malkin, on the power play, and Matt Cooke joined Crosby on the scoresheet as the Penguins jumped out to a 4-0 lead before a sellout crowd of 20,014 at Scotiabank Place, which may have just witnessed their final game in the building for the season.
Those four goals came on 19 shots against Senators starting goaltender Brian Elliott, who made way for Pascal Leclaire following Crosby's second goal early in the second period.
Although the Senators attempted to get back into the game with the help of their power play, they couldn't avoid being pushed to the brink by the reigning Stanley Cup champions.
Chris Kunitz added a goal and three assists, Maxime Talbot had a goal and an assist and Jordan Staal also scored for the Penguins, who received 26 saves from Marc-Andre Fleury.
Sergei Gonchar chipped in with three helpers.
Matt Cullen scored once and set up two goals for the Senators, who managed a couple of power-play markers during 5-on-3 advantages.
Daniel Alfredsson and Jason Spezza, who've both come under fire for their lack of production so far in the series, each had their first goals and an assist and Chris Neil also scored.
Pascal Leclaire saw his first playoff action in relief of Elliott and stopped 19 of 22 shots the rest of the way.
After losing the previous two games, the Senators opted for a lineup change, replacing Ryan Shannon with Jonathan Cheechoo, a former 56-goal scorer. But that was years ago and Cheechoo's fallen a long way since he accomplished the feat in 2005-06, ending his first season with the Senators following a trade from the San Jose Sharks by being demoted to the American Hockey League.
The Senators failed to generate many chances in the opening period, getting outshot 14-6, and fell behind when Anton Volchenkov was sent to the penalty box for hooking.
On the ensuing power play, Malkin ripped a one-timer from the top of the faceoff circle past Elliott at the 11:50 mark.
The Scotiabank Place crowd, dressed mostly in red and armed with white towels to twirl overhead, grew impatient as the period went on and began to boo the home team when, with the teams playing four players aside, the Penguins -- and Crosby in particular -- cycled the puck for long periods with the Senators unable to gain possession.
It got worse from there.
With the Senators applying a bit of pressure of their own early in the second, Spezza, the target of boos from the home crowd in Game 3, dropped a pass onto the stick of Gonchar at the Penguins' blue-line and when Kunitz couldn't break free from Gonchar's lead pass, Crosby took it the rest of the way to slip the puck past Elliott.
Twelve seconds later, Cooke scored from the slot and it was 3-0.
When Crosby snapped a seemingly routine shot inside the far post to make it 4-0 at the 6:12 mark, Leclaire wasted no time in grabbing his mask and heading for the net to replace Elliott.
Neil gave the Senators some life when he scored on a rebound and Alfredsson got his first of the playoffs.
Talbot, with a short-handed goal, and Cullen, with a power-play marker during a 5-on-3 advantage, traded goals before Kunitz converted a rebound of Crosby's shot to make it 6-3 after two periods.
Spezza cut the Penguins' lead to two goals with another 5-on-3 marker, but Staal scored his first of the playoffs on a rebound to restore the three-goal advantage.
NOTES: Staal was named Tuesday as a finalist for the Selke Trophy as the NHL's top defensive forward alongside Detroit's Pavel Datsyuk and Vancouver's Ryan Kesler. ... Crosby and Gonchar moved into fifth and 10th place all-time on the Penguins' playoff scoring list, respectively. ... Elliott entered the game with the worst save percentage among all playoff goalies at .868. ... The Senators saluted Canadian Paralympians Jean Labonte (sledge hockey captain) and Karolina Wisniewska and Viviane Forest (both alpine), who were in attendance.