Daily Clips – 5/18/13

Behind Crosby’s hat trick, Penguins sneak past Senators

By Rob Rossi Published: Friday, May 17, 2013, 10:24 p.m. Updated 7 hours ago

The Penguins went backward to move forward Friday.

That movement started with four players who were part of the lineup the last time the Penguins swept the first two games in Pittsburgh of a Stanley Cup playoff series.

Captain Sidney Crosby was joined by alternates Brooks Orpik and Chris Kunitz, and leader-without-a-letter Pascal Dupuis, for the opening faceoff in Game 2 of a second-round series against the Ottawa Senators at Consol Energy Center.

Sixty hockey-minutes later, the Penguins had a 4-3 victory and a 2-0 lead in this best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinal.

“You start Sidney in the game for a reason,” coach Dan Bylsma said. “You look for those guys … to set the example for the way we want to play, the way we want to execute.”

Game 3 is at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Ottawa's Scotiabank Place.

The Senators are, as veteran defenseman Chris Phillips feared was possible, “not in a situation you want to be in.”

Penguins defenseman Kris Letang called the victory “huge.”

If history matters, he perhaps was underselling the win.

During the Crosby era, the Penguins never have lost a playoff series in which they've won the first two games in Pittsburgh.

This series marks the first time that has happened at Consol Energy Center. The Penguins were 5-9 in playoff games at Consol, but they are 4-1 in these playoffs.

That is just like the good old days, actually.

The Penguins went 18-3 at Mellon Arena during the 2008 and '09 postseasons, when they lost, then won, in the Cup Final.

In seven of those eight series, they swept those first two games in Pittsburgh.

“We wanted to win this,” right winger Tyler Kennedy said.

Bylsma said the message Thursday was that the Penguins could use Game 2 to play their best game of this postseason.

They finished with advantages in shots (42-22), power plays (6-2), blocks (20-8) and takeaways (9-3).

Their best shift, Bylsma said, came from the third line with about three minutes remaining and holding a one-goal lead.

The best player was Crosby, who turned his first hat trick since experiencing concussion symptoms — a span of 21⁄2 years.

His third goal, early in the second period, chased Ottawa starting goalie Craig Anderson. That move, Senators coach Paul MacLean said, was “more for the team” — and Ottawa responded with two goals that made for a compelling final 17 minutes to Game 2.

However, as was the case during three regular-season meetings — all losses — the Senators could merely get close to the Penguins.

“We need to start the way we finished,” MacLean said, referring to the Senators attempting 18 shots — only six were not blocked or missed — over the final 20 minutes.

The Penguins, however, may have finished this series by holding off the charge.

In their past three postseasons, each ending with losses to lower-seeded clubs, the Penguins had failed to hold home-ice advantage before playing a game in the opposing city.

That trend is history.

Quickly after Game 2, Crosby wanted what went down on this Friday night in Pittsburgh to be part of history, too.

“I don't think we need to get caught up in the fact that we won two here,” Crosby said. “They're going to be pretty desperate so we better be ready going into Ottawa.”

Penguins far from satisfied after Game 2

By Josh Yohe Published: Friday, May 17, 2013, 10:42 p.m. Updated 8 hours ago

Taking a 2-0 series lead for the first time since the 2009 Eastern Conference final would have seemed like a rewarding experience for the Penguins.

But it wasn't. Not this team, and not with the mistakes that were made in Friday's 4-3 victory against the Ottawa Senators in Game 2 of the best-of-seven series at Consol Energy Center.

The Penguins were somewhat surly after this one. They didn't just want to win, but rather, feel like they should have buried the Senators.

“It probably shouldn't have been that close of a game but it was because of the Grade-A scoring opportunities we gave them,” defenseman Douglas Murray said. “We need to be better.”

In fact, Murray's words describe the overall mood in the locker room following this contest.

Although the Penguins outshot Ottawa, 42-22, and were utterly dominant at times — captain Sidney Crosby had something to do with that — there were lapses in the game that irritated them well after the contest was over.

“That shot total honestly might be a little misleading,” center Joe Vitale said. “If you're talking about quality scoring chances, we may have been a little bit better than them. But just a little bit.”

“It wasn't our best game,” goalie Tomas Vokoun added. “But a win is a win.”

While the Penguins did many marvelous things on this night — it was their seventh playoff game with at least four goals, Crosby recorded a hat trick and the Penguins' work in the offensive zone was terrific — they also committed gaffes that have been evident in past playoff failures.

• Ottawa, while attempting to make a comeback in the second period, enjoyed two breakaway opportunities against Vokoun. Both were denied.

• Center Evgeni Malkin took another careless postseason penalty, this one in the offensive zone, in the first period. It led to an Ottawa goal.

• Defenseman Brooks Orpik was guilty of a boarding penalty early in the third period that gave Ottawa a chance to even the game on the power play.

The Penguins were actually much better in the final 15 minutes of the game, finally slowing down the game and making a number of prudent decisions with the puck.

What took place in the locker room between the second and third periods may have been the reason for the Penguins' suddenly responsible play.

Three of the Penguins' leaders — Crosby, right wing Jarome Iginla and left wing Chris Kunitz — addressed the team during the second intermission. The message was clear: Reverting to pond hockey, taking careless penalties and making casual passes instead of playing proper playoff hockey was no longer acceptable.

After a brief lapse early in the third — Ottawa pulled within a goal when Vokoun was trapped outside of his net — the Penguins responded to the words from their leaders.

“We finally tightened up in the last 10 minutes,” Murray said. “But we still have to get rid of the breakdowns. Look at Boston and Toronto. People believe in miracles this time of year. You've got to stay on people.”

The Penguins feel like they are on the verge of doing something special. But cleaning up the mistakes — they are almost exclusively born of unneeded aggression, not laziness — is mandatory for them to become a truly special team.

“I'm happy with a lot of the things we did,” defenseman Matt Niskanen said. “But honestly, this still wasn't good enough.”

Penguins notebook: Malkin makes points run

By Rob Rossi Published: Friday, May 17, 2013, 9:51 p.m. Updated 8 hours ago

Sidney Crosby's big Game 2 overshadowed another productive effort by center Evgeni Malkin on Friday night.

Malkin has consecutive multiple-point games in Round 2 against Ottawa and three in a row dating to Round 1.

He has recorded at least two points in all but one of eight postseason games this season — his best run since six straight games with multiple points during the 2009 playoffs. Malkin led the NHL in scoring that postseason with 36 points in 24 games and the Penguins won the Stanley Cup.

Not all good

Though he is scoring at a personal-best rate this postseason, Malkin is taking a lot of penalties.

He has been called for a penalty in three straight games. Malkin has played only three penalty-free games this postseason.

For the record

Crosby's Game 2 against Ottawa included his second playoff hat trick, 100th career point and taking over fourth place on the Penguins' career playoff scoring list.

Crosby's 100th point came on his first-period goal. He recorded it in his 75th playoff game. Mario Lemieux needed 50 games to score 100 postseason points. Crosby is the NHL's fifth-fastest player to the postseason century mark.

Crosby's second goal broke a short-lived tie with former Penguins center Ron Francis on the franchise's postseason scoring list.

Martin streaking

With a first-period assist, defenseman Paul Martin extended his points streak to four games. That is the longest of his playoff career.

Kovacevic: The smartest man in hockey

By Dejan Kovacevic Published: Friday, May 17, 2013, 11:48 p.m. Updated 8 hours ago

He's the pitcher with the 99 mph heat who still can fan the Mendoza Line hitter with a filthy curve.

He's the quarterback capable of a full-stride Hail Mary who still can look off the safety and audible a screen.

He's Sidney Crosby.

And for all his marvelous athleticism, the hyperdrive skating, the heavy shot, the velvet touch, the one facet of his all-around extraordinary game that goes largely unappreciated, I think, is that he's not only the best player in hockey but also among its brightest.

Maybe the brightest, given the velocity at which those brain cells are forced to keep pace.

“He's right there,” Jarome Iginla was saying Friday night after the Penguins fended off the Senators, 4-3, in Game 2 of this Stanley Cup playoff series. “It's almost like there's nothing he does that surprises you. I mean, there's all the skill, but there's also the compete level, the speed he's doing everything with … yeah, he's that good, that smart.”

Care to debate?

Better question: Which of Crosby's three goals do you think resulted more from his physical gifts than his guile?

My count is exactly zero, but hey, let's have a little fun breaking it down, anyway …

First period, three minutes in, Crosby wheeled up the left side of the neutral zone. Had options to his right. Sized up what was ahead. Chose the latter.

Of course he chose the latter.

It's only Erik Karlsson, the Norris Trophy winner, right?

Well, not so fast. For one, Karlsson didn't claim that Norris for anything he'd ever achieved inside his own blue line. For another, as most in these parts will recall, Karlsson's Achilles tendon was severed in February, and he conceded this week he's “not 100 percent.”

Don't think for a second Crosby wasn't processing that thought with each churn of his skates. The ice is his chess board.

“No, I didn't know it was him,” the captain replied when I asked.

Believe him?

That's up to you, but he continued: “I think he was getting ready to gap up, and I was able to catch a stride there. He's a great skater, so being able to catch a step and get around him … it worked out pretty well.”

Actually, it was a puckish Picasso. Karlsson backed off as if Crosby were approaching with an elephant gun, the captain danced inside the defenseman, then flicked the puck through Craig Anderson's five-hole.

1-0.

Karlsson was asked about the play and shot back, “Were you blind?”

End of interview session.

He knew who got torched.

Next came my favorite.

Sixteen minutes in, Crosby again whisked up the left side, this time breaking free by simply gaining a step on a three-on-two. To his right was Chris Kunitz, farther over Pascal Dupuis a bit late.

Anderson clearly had seen this clip before. You know, the one where Crosby looks the goaltender dead in the eye, tees up … and feeds Dupuis for the alley-oop.

So Anderson wouldn't bite. And still got beat.

Of course he did.

Crosby rifled the puck to that short side the keeper unwisely abandoned.

2-1.

“I knew Duper was coming, and I was kind of running out of room down there,” Crosby recalled. “But I wasn't sure if Anderson would come off the post or not. Just kind of threw it to the net.”

Sure he did.

Believe him yet?

A minute into the second period, Penguins on the power play, Crosby was left alone atop the left circle.

“Shooooooooot!” the crowd implored.

Nope. Not yet. Crosby had Iginla at the goal line and cast him a glance. Chris Phillips, the Senators' most experienced defenseman, abandoned the slot to go that way.

Of course he did.

That's what Crosby anticipated and, the moment Phillips was screening Anderson, Crosby shot and found the far side.

3-1.

On this one, he acknowledged a least a little intent.

“Yeah, I did wait for Phillips to come across there. Just wanted to have some traffic.”

If looks could kill, with the glare Anderson gave Phillips right before Paul MacLean yanked him, Phillips would no longer be with us.

Don't sweat what followed. Big leads can bring bigger complacency, and the Penguins bent but didn't break down the stretch. Bottom line is they chased Anderson, generated 42 total shots and could have had a bunch more.

Also, they showed the Senators something — someone, rather — they aren't close to having on their side.

One last one …

Ottawa was pressing hard with five minutes to go, and squirtbug Cory Conacher was chasing Crosby all over the surface. Whacking him, too.

Crosby fought through, claimed the puck, bolted up ice and, when Conacher's stick flew up and caught him on the Iron Jaw helmet — and it really did clip him — Crosby made plenty sure that didn't escape the eye of the men in stripes.

Power play, Pittsburgh.

Game, set, match and halfway to a series victory.

Here's betting he wouldn't confess to being smart there, either.

Senators head home to regroup

By Jerry DiPaola Published: Friday, May 17, 2013, 11:39 p.m. Updated 9 hours ago

The Ottawa Senators can't hide from the reality of their seemingly dire situation. They trail the Penguins, 2-0, in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinals, and a comeback probably will require equal parts skill and good fortune.

But the Senators can take some solace in three facts of their playoff life that developed during their 4-3 loss to the Penguins on Friday at Consol Energy Center.

• They're going home for Games 3 and 4 at Scotiabank Place, where they were 17-6-3 this season, including two postseason victories against the Montreal Canadiens in the first round.

• They didn't fold in the midst of Sidney Crosby's hat trick, scoring after his first and third goals to keep the game competitive and the outcome in question. Forty seconds after rink workers picked the hats off the ice, the Senators picked themselves up on a goal by Colin Greening to slice the lead to 3-2.

• Perhaps most important, Senators coach Paul MacLean kept his star goaltender Craig Anderson fresh — mentally and physically — by pulling him in the second period in favor of playoff novice Robin Lehner after Crosby's third goal. MacLean is counting on a long series, and he'll need Anderson to make that happen.

“You get a little mental break,” Anderson said about getting pulled. “You get to sit out and watch the team and see it from a different perspective. It's one of those things where you have to keep learning, you have to keep getting better. Obviously, we all can be better.”

“The tone of the game changed, and we started to play a lot better.”

Lehner stepped up in a desperate situation, stopping 20 of 21 shots after replacing Anderson with 18:45 left in the second period.

When asked about changing goalies, MacLean said it was made for the team's sake.

“It had nothing to do with the way (Anderson) had played,” he said. “I was just trying to get the team to recognize the fact that we were in the game and we needed to play.”

Lehner's finest moment came with six minutes left in the third period and the Penguins clinging to a 4-3 lead. Lehner raced out of the net to the top of the faceoff circle to redirect the puck as Jarome Iginla appeared to have a breakaway opportunity.

Coming into the series, Anderson, who turns 32 next week, appeared to be the Senators' best chance of advancing to the Eastern Conference finals. Among goaltenders who played a significant number of games, Anderson led the NHL in goals-against average (1.69) in the regular season.

Anderson fell victim to Crosby's brilliance only 3:16 into the game, failing to make the save after the Penguins' star center skated through and around four Senators, the last of whom was reigning Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson, who was on the ice for the first two of Crosby's goals in the first period.

On the second, Anderson had Crosby on his right and Pascal Dupuis on his left. Crosby scored merely by keeping the puck and shooting.

Senators notebook: Penguins’ Bylsma backs MacLean for Adams Award

By Rob Rossi and Jerry Dipaola Published: Friday, May 17, 2013, 9:09 p.m. Updated 9 hours ago

Bylsma backs MacLean

Ottawa's Paul MacLean again is a finalist for the Jack Adams Award, given to the NHL's top coach, and his opposing bench boss in Round 2 backed his candidacy Friday.

“This year, different challenges for his team and group, and they've dealt with some injuries and still consistently been a good hockey team,” Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said. “I would have cast a vote for him.”

The Adams Award is voted on by NHL broadcasters. Others finalists are Anaheim's Bruce Boudreau and Chicago's Joel Quenneville.

MacLean has steered the Senators into the playoffs in each of his first two seasons. His club qualified this season despite playing long stretches without top defenseman Erik Karlsson and No. 1 goalie Craig Anderson. Center Jason Spezza has not played since February when he had back surgery.

Bylsma won the Adams in 2011 when he led the Penguins to a top-four seed in the Eastern Conference.

Too many penalties

The Penguins had six power plays Friday night to the Senators' two, and MacLean said his team took some unnecessary penalties.

“That is an issue,” he said. “Discipline is an issue. We have to make sure we are only on the ice to play the game, not referee the game.”

Spezza's status

Spezza will skate in an optional practice Saturday in Ottawa with the hope of playing Sunday in Game 3.

“I am going to be there to watch,” MacLean said. “We are going to have him in the lineup if he's available.”

Marathon drama

Left wing Guillaume Latendresse, who played Friday for the first time since the second game of the Canadiens series, was among several Senators who planned to be at the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15 but changed their minds and stayed at the hotel to nap.

“We were a little bit tired, so we wanted to make sure we got some rest,” he said. “You're happy you weren't part of it, but you're sad for the people who were.”

Sidney Crosby puts on a show in 4-3 victory

By Dave Molinari / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

He did, Sidney Crosby recalled, feel pretty good before the game.

Likely nowhere near as good as he felt by the time it was over, though.

Crosby scored the Penguins' first three goals in their 4-3 victory against Ottawa at Consol Energy Center Friday night, giving them a 2-0 lead in their second-round series against the Senators.

"He's a fun guy to watch," Penguins winger Jarome Iginla said. "A fun guy to have on your team."

Crosby's hat trick was the second of his playoff career and allowed him to become the 84th player in NHL history to hit triple-figures in career playoff points.

That's pretty impressive, but not as impressive as this: Only four players got to 100 points in fewer games than the 75 Crosby needed.

That this was one of the most outstanding performances of his career is a given. Precisely where it fell on that list wasn't so obvious.

"I don't know," defenseman Kris Letang said. "He's had so many."

The Penguins' 2-0 lead is their first in a series since the Eastern Conference final against Carolina in 2009. They went on to sweep the Hurricanes.

The series now shifts to Scotiabank Place for Game 3 at 7:38 p.m. Sunday and Game 4 Wednesday night.

Crosby put the Senators behind for the first time with a remarkable effort at 3:16 of the first period.

He got the puck near the Penguins' blue line, carried it through the left side of the neutral zone then, after cutting inside Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson near the Ottawa blue line, beat Senators goalie Craig Anderson from inside the left circle.

"I was kind of running out of space there to make a pass," Crosby said. "I was hoping it was able to find a way in, somehow."

Paul Martin's assist on that goal gave him a point in four consecutive games, tying the longest playoff streak of his career.

Although the Penguins dominated much of the play before and after Crosby scored, they couldn't get a two-goal lead.

That became significant when Evgeni Malkin took an offensive-zone hooking penalty at 13:03, and Kyle Turris of the Senators put a shot between the legs of Penguins goalie Tomas Vokoun from along the goal line to the left of the Penguins' net at 13:15.

The Turris goal rejuvenated the Senators, who clearly were cognizant they could have been behind by a field goal instead of tied at that point, but Crosby short-circuited Ottawa's momentum a few minutes later.

He carried the puck from center ice to near the bottom of the left circle, then banked a shot off the inside of Anderson's left leg pad and into the net at 16:07.

"Crosby just kind of threw it on net and caught me off-guard," Anderson said.

That was Crosby's fifth goal of the playoffs and his 101st career playoff point, moving him past Ron Francis and into fourth on the franchise's all-time list. Crosby completed his hat trick 75 seconds into the second period by hammering a slap shot past Anderson from above the left dot during a power play.

That prompted Ottawa coach Paul MacLean to replace Anderson with Robin Lehner, and Anderson wasn't even settled on the bench when the Senators climbed back to within one.

Colin Greening made it 3-2 at 1:55, beating Vokoun on the short side from the inner edge of the left circle.

Brenden Morrow's first goal of these playoffs at 8:04 of the second made it 4-2.

Vokoun was not sharp early, but rejected two breakaways before the second intermission to preserve the Penguins' two-goal advantage.

He stopped Greening in the middle of the period while Ottawa was killing a slashing minor to Chris Neil, then turned aside Cory Conacher when he exploited a Kris Letang giveaway to move down the left side alone before cutting to the net at 17:08.

The importance of those saves was magnified at 2:01 of the third, when Jean-Gabriel Pageau backhanded in a loose puck to lift the Senators to within one again, but Ottawa couldn't get another puck by Vokoun.

The Penguins have the upper hand, but aren't making arrangements for Round 3 yet.

"We know it's going to be difficult," Crosby said. "I think we just turn the page on this one and move on to the next. I don't think we need to get caught up in the fact that we won two here.

"They're going to be pretty desperate, so we'd better be ready."

Goalie switch helps calm Ottawa's nerves

By Sam Werner / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Just three minutes into Robin Lehner's first career playoff appearance, the 21-year-old goalie had James Neal and Jarome Iginla bearing down on him with a lone defenseman between them.

Neal slid the puck across the ice to Iginla, and Lehner threw his body back in that director. Improbably, Iginla's shot struck the goalie's left leg and stayed out of the net.

Lehner came on Friday night in relief of Ottawa starter Craig Anderson.

Senators coach Paul MacLean made the switch 1:15 into the second period, after Sidney Crosby completed his hat trick to put the Penguins up 3-1.

"It happened very fast," Lehner said. "Usually, you see the coach start asking around. I wasn't really ready. Everyone was throwing their hats, then, all of a sudden, I saw [a coach] by my face and he said 'Go in.'

"You just kind of boost your adrenaline a little bit and go try to do your job."

MacLean said he made the move not as an reaction to Anderson's play, but a way to change the tone of a game that wasn't over, even though the Penguins dominated play most of the early going.

"That was more for the team," MacLean said. "It had nothing to do with the way [Anderson] had played. It was just trying to get the team to recognize the fact that we were in the game."

Lehner said he wasn't nervous while making his first career postseason appearance, but admitted he needed to settle down a little bit once he got on the ice.

"It's not nerves, it's more adrenaline," he said. "It's more your legs start shaking. It's not because I'm nervous, it's because I get so jacked up with so much adrenaline, so you've got to take some deep breaths, calm the adrenaline down a little bit."

Lehner finished with 20 saves on 21 shots, including several stops on Penguins right at his doorstep. He gave up one goal, on a deflection from Brenden Morrow 8:04 into the second period, but settled down after that and allowed the Senators to pull within a goal by the end of the game.

MacLean assessed Lehner's performance as "fine."

Anderson said he understood why his coach made the change and, even though the Senators didn't complete their comeback, thought it accomplished its goal.

"I think the tone of the game changed, and we started to play a lot better," Anderson said. "Whether that was a wake-up call for everybody, I don't know, but there's several ways to change momentum in a game. You can call timeout, you can pull the goalie, you can do a lot of things. Tonight, it was changing the goalie."

Now, the Senators have to turn around for Game 3 Sunday while facing a 2-0 deficit and knowing that another loss would be catastrophic to their playoff chances. Not that he enjoyed getting pulled, but Anderson said the move gave him a "mental break" and that he was ready to move forward in the series.

Lehner had no illusions that even a strong showing Friday would cause MacLean to rethink his starting goaltender. Anderson has been spectacular at times for the Senators this year, posting a 1.69 goals-against average in 24 regular-season starts, and leading Ottawa past Montreal in the first round.

"I'm the backup right now, and Craig is awesome," Lehner said. "He's the guy, he's holding the fort for the whole season. My job right now is just trying to stay ready when the opportunity comes."

Brenden Morrow's contribution a big one

By Ray Fittipaldo / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

On a night when Sidney Crosby recorded his second career playoff hat trick and created a buzz around the hockey world with his jaw-dropping performance in the Penguins' 4-3 victory against Ottawa in Game 2 of their second-round series Friday night, it was up to the player with the worst plus-minus rating on the team to score the winning goal.

Brenden Morrow was a minus-3 in the first seven playoff games, but he came through with the game-deciding goal with 10:56 remaining in the second period when he deflected a Paul Martin shot past backup goaltender Robin Lehner.

"It's just as fun watching Sid do his thing, but it's good to contribute, too," said Morrow, who recorded his first playoff goal as a Penguin.

Morrow was acquired near the trade deadline from the Dallas Stars to provide some scoring punch as a top-six forward. But shortly after Morrow arrived in Pittsburgh, the Penguins traded for Jarome Iginla, who has assumed a role as a top-six forward on the top two lines.

Morrow, the captain of the Stars when he was traded, had been relegated to third-line and sometimes fourth-line duty in recent games.

"Throughout the lineup everyone is willing to check their egos at the door and do what's best for the team," Morrow said. "I'm in that same boat. Whatever coach Dan [Bylsma] thinks is best for the team. We're all pulling on that same rope, and we're having success with it."

Morrow's teammates were happy to see him come through with a big goal. He scored six goals in 15 games during the regular season for the Penguins, but his only two points in the playoffs had been assists.

"He's played so hard," Iginla said. "He's been great for us. He's one of our physical guys, kind of in a shutdown role. But he's been getting great looks, great shots. In front of the net, he's always creating havoc, does stuff on the forecheck.

"Earlier in the game, he had some good looks around the net. It was great to see him get that tip. It was a big goal. He's a guy you hate to play against. You're glad he's on your team."

Despite his recent struggles, Bylsma continued to play Morrow in some important situations. He has used him some as a penalty killer and on the second power play unit.

The winning goal came seconds after a power play ended, and the second unit provided some quality chances before Morrow scored.

"We want those big guys playing as many minutes as they can get," Morrow said. "Sometimes, they're a little gassed and get off. The recipe is to have them out there as much as we can get them. But tonight we came up with a big one."

Lehner originally believed Morrow used a high stick to tip the shot past him, but replays indicated it was a legal deflection.

"It was coming towards my head," Lehner said. "Even if I'm on my knees, I'm pretty tall. I put my glove in front of my forehead there. I know the puck is going right there and obviously it didn't. Someone deflected so my first reaction was to see if it was a high stick. It was probably a good call."

Morrow isn't worried about style points. He just hopes his first playoff goal will lead to more points, period.

"If you don't believe in yourself no one is going to," he said. "None of my goals are really pretty. That was another going in the net, hitting you and going in. Hopefully now they'll come a little easier."

"I like to score in bunches. Hopefully, this heats up and pucks start finding the net. I'm happy to get that one and we'll go from there."

Sidney Crosby: Staal's injury no deterrent

By Dave Molinari Ray Fittipaldo and Shelly Anderson / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The sequence was terrible to watch, and its consequences might be worse for Eric Staal and the Carolina Hurricanes.

Staal, playing for Canada at the world championships, was felled by a knee-on-knee hit from Sweden defenseman Alex Edler in a quarterfinal game Thursday in Stockholm.

Staal dropped to the ice, clutched his right knee in obvious pain and was taken immediately to the dressing room. He was scheduled to fly to Raleigh, N. C., later Friday and will undergo an MRI examination there today.

Depending on the severity of his injury -- there were upbeat, but unconfirmed, reports that Staal might not be injured as severely as he initially appeared to be -- it's conceivable that he wouldn't be ready for the start of next season.

Regardless, Carolina general manager Jim Rutherford told the Raleigh News & Observer he won't discourage his players from competing in international events in the future, and Penguins center Sidney Crosby was adamant Friday that Staal's injury won't deter him from representing Canada in tournaments outside the NHL.

"My thought [watching Edler's hit on Staal] was more, I felt terrible for him," Crosby said. "It looked like he was in a lot of pain, and you never like to see that. Period.

"I just hate to see that, but, unfortunately, that's the kind of thing that can happen. But I don't think that should make your decision waver, to go or not, based on the possibility of getting hurt. If you have a chance to represent your country and you don't have anything bothering you, if you look at it as a great opportunity you go, right?"

Crosby has played for his country in world championships, world junior championships and the Olympics. His overtime goal in 2010 earned a gold medal for Canada at the Games in Vancouver.

Edler, who plays for Vancouver in the NHL, has been suspended for the balance of the tournament because of the hit on Staal.

Bylsma praises MacLean

Penguins coach Dan Bylsma, who won the Jack Adams Award as the NHL's top coach in 2010-11, believes his Ottawa counterpart, Paul MacLean, would be a worthy recipient this year.

MacLean guided the Senators into the playoffs despite playing much of the season without key contributors like center Jason Spezza, defenseman Erik Karlsson and goalie Craig Anderson and joins Anaheim's Bruce Boudreau and Chicago's Joel Quenneville as Adams finalists.

"He deserves it," Bylsma said. "This year, they dealt with some injuries and still had a good hockey team with and without some of those key guys."

MacLean also was an Adams finalist a year ago, his first behind the Ottawa bench, but the stability and leadership he provided with all the adversity the Senators experienced this season were even more impressive.

"He has his ways and he doesn't let too much affect them," Ottawa defenseman Chris Phillips said.

"That rubs off on us. Being a young team, that's where it really paid off.

"Things like that didn't become distractions or excuses. That was probably one of his biggest strengths this year."

Gryba not in lineup

Senators defenseman Eric Gryba, who left Game 1 with an unspecified injury after a collision with Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik, did not dress for Game 2.

He was replaced by Andre Benoit, a 29-year old who played in 33 regular-season games. Benoit dressed for one game in Ottawa's first-round series against Montreal and recorded one assist.

MacLean also used forward Guillaume Latendresse, who played in 27 regular-season games, after not using him in Game 1.

The Senators' biggest personnel move, however, might still be coming.

Spezza, the first-line center who has been out since undergoing back surgery in early February, is scheduled to skate today in Ottawa.

After that session, MacLean is expected to decide whether Spezza is a candidate to play Game 3 Sunday night.

"He's Jason Spezza," MacLean said. "If he's available, we're going to play him."

Collier: Penguins seize momentum early in Game 2

By Gene Collier / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Penguins forward Brenden Morrow was so dead right about so many things Friday night that there was really no point in doubting his analysis.

He obviously was dead right about going to the front of the net eight minutes into the second period, as that's where his stick became the last inanimate object Paul Martin's blast from near the left point struck on the way to the Ottawa net.

It hit James Neal's stick sometime before that, and who knows how many other things, but when it finally stopped, the Penguins had the winning goal, even if few suspected it at the time and confirmation was delayed by a desperate hour or more.

"They scratched and clawed right to the end," Morrow said after the Penguins won for the fourth consecutive time in this postseason and headed for Canada with a 2-0 series lead in their luggage.

So let's not quibble. Morrow is right. The Senators did scratch and claw, and they did it right to the end; they just didn't do it at the beginning, which was curious to say the least.

We were to assume, we meaning -- I guess -- me, that Paul MacLean's team would use all of the valuable intelligence gathered from Game 1 in this series and use it to reset the politics of this desperate Penguins encounter entirely in Game 2, or certainty attempt it.

On the contrary, the Senators took the Uptown ice Friday night in a kind of wait-and-see posture that did not allow them to so much as touch the hockey puck in the offensive zone until the first period clock read 17:17 remaining, that did not allow them to fire a shot on goal until nearly two after that, and that ultimately did not allow them to fully recover from a Sidney Crosby hat trick they did everything they could to make it look almost inevitable.

"We were not ready to match their start in either game," MacLean said. "Catch-up hockey is losing hockey. Nothing about it surprised us."

Ottawa's only coherent idea appeared to be the one that was perfectly obvious to the more than 18,000 assembled, bringing goaltender Craig Anderson to the bench when it became clear he was not going to get Crosby out of his head in this game.

"That had nothing to do with the way Andy played," MacLean said with a straight face. "It was more for the team."

But it did have something to do with the fact that Sid's second postseason hat trick was constituted by a couple of spectacular goals sandwiched around a spectacularly bad goal, a bad-angle shot that caromed home off of Anderson's right side. If you're not going to square yourself properly as Crosby flies into the circle to your right, a bench seat seems only proper.

Anderson's high-gloss save percentage of .950, the one he posted in confounding the Montreal Canadiens in the first round, had faded to a .879 in the first four-plus periods of this Eastern Conference semifinal series.

"I think it changed the momentum of the game," Anderson said after watching teammate Robin Lehner turn away a flurry of exquisite scoring chances for more than a period and a half. "The tone of the game changed. We started to play a lot better. There are several ways to change the momentum. You can call timeout. You can change the goalie, you can do a lot of things."

Anderson said sometimes getting pulled can be a gambit welcomed by the goaltender, but in May?

"You get a little mental break, you get to sit out, watch the team, see if you can put it in perspective," he said. "We all can be better. You've got to keep learning. The game is so much based on momentum. You've got to find a way to change momentum.

"Could be a fight. Could be a timeout. Could be a goalie change."

The momentum in this series might now have swung out of Ottawa's control. They got put in a position where they were forced to subtract their best player, and if there's no change Sunday night in Ottawa, the Senators will be forced to flip through their own grim playoff history.

As a semi-famous football coach once said, hindsight being 50-50, perhaps our working assumptions should have been hung closer to the empirical evidence.

Such as that the Penguins have beaten this team's postseason posterior 10 times in the past 12 chances, such as that in the previous 10 playoff games against these Senators, Crosby was already averaging 2.2 points per game, and such as that Ottawa's aforementioned playoff history is such that it has now won exactly five of the previous 23 postseason appointments.

"They're hard to play against at home," Penguins defenseman Kris Letang said. "We expect their best hockey game."

Uh-huh. Maybe even for 60 minutes or more.

British Penguins fans cheer from across the pond

By Kim Lyons / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

While the Penguins most devoted fans are undoubtedly in southwestern Pennsylvania, there is a merry band of devoted "brinzers" --British yinzers-- who follow the team religiously, even though it means watching live games in the middle of the night.

The British Pens Fan Club is a core group of five hockey nuts, who have connected with fellow Penguins fans across the pond, and across the world, via social media. With more than 2,300 Twitter followers (@BritPensFanClub) and 380 Facebook likes, the group isn't enormous, but it's growing, says founding member Jonathan Northall.

"I was talking to the two Robs (Howe and Aherne, the group's two other co-founders) and we were a little disgusted because we knew there were hockey fans in the UK but there was nothing happening," Northall said.

In the United Kingdom, soccer dominates the sports scene, but there is a bona fide century-old ice hockey league, and, Northall says, a strong, core fan base. The British Pens fan club has only been in existence since January, but the three founding members have been Penguins fans since the team's glory days of the 1990s. Rob Aherne's job at the time working at a pub meant arriving home in the wee hours, and finding the Stanley Cup Final of 1992 on late night television. He was hooked.

Rob Howe hails from Sheffield (whose ice hockey team, it's worth noting, is called the Sheffield Steelers). Howe describes Sheffield as a steel town much like Pittsburgh. Sheffield also has the distinction of being the birthplace of the actual Stanley Cup: The bowl of the trophy was purchased there by Lord Stanley in the early 1890s.

And, Howe has a background in hockey writing. His past jobs include writing for NHL Weekly Hockey magazine, and as Penguins beat writer for InsideHockey.com. Howe also was secretary of the British Ice Hockey Writers' Association for a time.

On the club's first-ever podcast in January, Howe detailed how he convinced his wife to allow him to name their youngest son for the Penguins' current star player. The deal was if the Penguins won the Stanley Cup, the child's middle name would be "Crosby," but the year was 2008.

"He was born the day after we lost Game 6," he said. "It's probably because I was still in tears that I was allowed to get Crosby in there." Of course, the proviso of the Pens winning the Stanley Cup was met a year later, so he held up his end of the deal.

Northall said he had a Penguins shirt, origin unknown, which piqued his initial interest in the team. "I thought it was a really cool logo," he said. "It's a good thing it wasn't a Rangers shirt or a Flyers shirt, or things may have been different."

The Penguins don't officially recognize any fan clubs, but spokesman Tom McMillan said the team has heard of, and tweeted with, the British group.

"You're always amazed and in some ways, flattered, when you hear about groups that not only are in other countries, but with people so devoted that they stay up until 3 or 4 in the morning listening to games," McMillan said. He added that he's aware of Penguins fan groups in Russia, Sweden and the Czech Republic, but given the number of players that represent those countries in the NHL, it's not that surprising.

"But to follow a sport that's not really mainsteam in your country? That's impressive," McMillan said. "It's like those of us in the U.S. who are fans of English Premeire League Soccer. It takes some dedication."

The British Pens fans are using social media to tap into the already well-established camaraderie among other Pens fans.

"There's connectivity among people there that didn't exist before," McMillan said. "You see it here with the big screen: It's not a great way to watch the game, but people love to be together in that atmosphere."

Aherne and Howe have both attended Penguins games, but Northall has yet to visit Pittsburgh. "I do hope to get to a game sooner than later," he said, "even if we just got a small band to come over together."

The Robs and Northall are joined in their Penguin-centric efforts by James Bird and Katrina Gordon, who help out with social media and their podcast. The group works hard to keep the momentum going, and Northall said the response from Pittsburghers has been tremendous.

"To get to 2,000 Twitter followers, we never really imagined that," he said. "Just to be included with our fellow Pens fans, it's an honor. We're just fans like any other, except it's a little harder for us to get to the games."

Analysis: Pens Go to Work in Game 2

Friday, 05.17.2013 / 11:19 PM / 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs Coverage

By Sam Kasan

The roar of the crowd was at its highest decibel ever in CONSOL Energy Center. But the cacophony wasn’t inspired by Sidney Crosby’s second career playoff hat trick or Tomas Vokoun’s breakaway save on Cory Conacher – although those events did generate a roof-rattling response.

The deafening pitch was due to an offensive zone shift. A good, old-fashioned, blue-collared offensive zone shift.

With Pittsburgh gripping to a one-goal lead in the final minutes of Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Ottawa Senators at CONSOL Energy Center, the Penguins executed a lengthy offensive zone shift that killed 30-40 seconds of play as the clock wound down.

The packed house of 18,645 – and that’s not including the thousands that gathered outside the arena to watch Mario’s Big Screen – stood, screamed and showed their overwhelming approval as the clock ticked and ticked and ticked to a 4-3 Penguins’ victory and 2-0 series lead.

The offensive zone shift was orchestrated by several Penguins, including Brandon Sutter, Pascal Dupuis, Craig Adams, Crosby, Matt Cooke, Chris Kunitz, Brooks Orpik and Kris Letang.

“We had two of our better shifts from Sutter, Dupuis and Morrow, probably our best shift of the game playing in the offensive zone,” head coach Dan Bylsma. “Really denied them of the opportunity to get any kind of offense going in the last five minutes.

“You saw the crowd respond to that as well.”

That shift won the game. That attitude won the game. As much as Crosby’s hat trick and Vokoun’s timely saves.

The Penguins built a 4-2 lead after two periods of play, and then grinded out the final 20 minutes to secure the win. While they did allow one goal, they held Ottawa to a mere six shots in the final period, and just one shot in the final 8:13 minutes of play.

The Penguins clearly won the special teams battle in Game 1 with two power-play goals and a shorthanded tally for a plus-3 mark. The Senators tweaked their special teams and got some results. The Senators scored once on the man-advantage and allowed one power-play goal to break even on special teams play in Game 2.

The Senators were a lot more aggressive on the Penguins’ power-play puck carries and when they did gain possession, they used their defensemen well, passing the puck backward to their blueliners, to eat up valuable man-advantage seconds.

“Ottawa’s a very good penalty killing team,” Bylsma said. “They’re very aggressive, pressure a lot. We know that and expected that. They thwarted some of our power-play time.”

Pittsburgh looked much better 5-on-5 against the Senators. They came out blazing in the first period, firing 18 shots on goal. Their pace and tempo went unmatched by Ottawa.

The Penguins chased stud goaltender Craig Anderson just 1:15 into the second period after Crosby’s slap shot caused the 283rd consecutive sellout crowd to make it rain hats. Robin Lehner entered the game and played brilliant. Although he surrendered one goal, he kept the Penguins in off the scoreboard for the final 31-plus minutes of the game and gave his team a chance to win.

“I think their goalie did a great job of kind of keeping them in it and keeping them close,” Crosby said. “We generated some good chances in the third.”

Vokoun surrendered two shaky goals, one to Kyle Turris on a bad angle shot that sneaked through his five-hole and another to Jean-Gabriel Pageau when he was caught scrambling outside of his crease.

But Vokoun shook off the goals and bounced back with clutch saves at big times to help the Penguins hold on for the win. His two biggest stops came on breakaways. First, he kicked his left pad back to get a toe on Colin Greening’s shot. Second, he lay flat and stacked the pads to deny Conacher.

Vokoun was calm and steady in the third period, thanks to some stellar play in front of him. The Penguins clamped down and pulled out the victory in workmanlike fashion.

Now the series shifts to Ottawa. The Senators will no doubt feel some pressure as they stare down the possibility of trailing 3-0 in the series. And the Penguins are ready for it.

“They’re a resilient team, through different scenarios throughout the year like injuries, they’ve always responded,” Bylsma said. “They found a way to win through it all. You think it will be tough for them and they keep coming back. They did that tonight.

“We’ve won the two home games we had. We expect going into Ottawa, into that building, their very best for Game 3.”

Crosby's Hat Trick Leads Penguins

Friday, 05.17.2013 / 9:37 PM / 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs Coverage

By Michelle Crechiolo

The play started when Sidney Crosby received a breakout pass from Paul Martin while skating full speed out of his own end.

Crosby proceeded to slither through a tiny sliver of space between an approaching Jakob Silfverberg and the boards before coming up to his next obstacle in Erik Karlsson. Crosby then made the defending Norris Trophy winner look like a pylon as he deftly stepped around him and drove to the goal.

Crosby finished by outracing Mika Zibanejad to the net and beating arguably the league’s best goalie this season in Craig Anderson through the five-hole to open the scoring in the first period of Friday’s Game 2 of Pittsburgh’s Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Ottawa Senators at CONSOL Energy Center.

Just another epic, jaw dropping, goosebumps-inducing play from the 25-year-old superstar, exactly 22 years after Mario Lemieux split North Stars defensemen Shawn Chambers and Neil Wilkinson before deking around Jon Casey on this day in 1991 for the greatest goal in Penguins history. How fitting.

“You can contain him, but you can’t stop him,” Penguins forward Brenden Morrow said. “He’s going to find holes, he’s going to find ways to score.”

“Almost nothing he does surprises you anymore because he’s that good and you expect that much from him,” added winger Jarome Iginla. “He just competes every shift. He does everything at top speed.”

That goal was just the beginning of a big night for the Penguins captain. He scored two more goals for his second career playoff hat trick (his other coming in Game 2 of the 2009 Eastern Conference semifinals vs. Washington) – all three coming by the beginning of the second period

in a 4-3 win over the Senators to give Pittsburgh a 2-0 series lead. Crosby is just the second Penguins player other than Lemieux to notch multiple postseason hat tricks.

Crosby is usually very thoughtful, composed and reserved and doesn’t like to talk much about himself, but he allowed a big smile to spread across his face when asked about what it was like to score his first playoff hat trick at home.

“It’s fun,” he grinned. “I think it’s still lots of time left and you know that it’s not a huge lead. It’s not something you want to get too caught up in, but it’s always nice to score and obviously to get a hat trick, I know it feels good. And to get the win, it makes a lot better when you win.”

Crosby’s three points moved him into sole possession of fourth place on the franchise’s playoff scoring list with 102 points, surpassing Ron Francis (100) with his second goal of the game. He became the fifth player in Penguins history (behind Francis, Kevin Stevens, Jaromir Jagr and Lemieux) and 84th player in NHL history to reach the 100-point mark, which he did in his 75th career playoff game.

But perhaps the most impressive part of his feat is that he is the fifth youngest to do so – behind only Wayne Gretzky (46), Lemieux (50), Jari Kurri (67) and Mike Bossy (74).

Crosby’s third goal, scored with a big slapshot on a power play (the other two came at even strength), chased Anderson from the net with hats raining down onto the ice all around him to add insult to injury. Backup Robin Lehner replaced him in goal, allowing one goal on 21 shots in relief.

Crosby now has six goals (tied for first on the team with Pascal Dupuis) and 12 points in seven playoff games this postseason (which ranks second on the team behind Evgeni Malkin). The captain led his team to a big win and the perfect situation, up two games to none going into Ottawa for Games 3 and 4. The Penguins know they’ll see more of the same from Crosby heading onto the road – he’s just that kind of talent.

“He’s a special player, everybody knows that,” defenseman Matt Niskanen said. “When you see him every day, you just get to appreciate how talented and special of a player he is and he’s a tremendous competitor, great leader. He just kind of has a knack for the big games and big moments to just find a way to produce. He’s dangerous every time he has the puck and that’s a good sign for us if he’s playing like that, so hopefully that continues.”

Four-Year-Old Superfan Sees First Game

Friday, 05.17.2013 / 6:55 PM / Features

By Wes Crosby

A four-year-old who can identify current Penguins superstars like Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin by their numbers is impressive. A four-year-old who can identify former Penguins like Ken Wregget and Sergei Fedorov? Now, that’s astounding.

Macin DeFazio, a four-year-old Penguins fan from Verona, Pa., has garnered local media attention after a YouTube video titled “Pittsburgh’s biggest 4 year old hockey fan!!!” published May 5 went viral. In the video, his father, Scott DeFazio, rattles off each Penguin’s number and Macin recites the corresponding name with the precision of Mike Lange – or at least a four-year-old version of Mike Lange (WATCH THE VIDEO HERE).

“He sits around on the couch with me and watches all the games,” Scott said. “He just starts saying players’ names and he’ll ask me ‘Is that so-and-so?’ and I say ‘Yeah,’ and it just caught on and it’s really taken off.

“We didn’t think it was going to take off like this.”

Because of Macin’s love for the Penguins, the organization welcomed him and his parents, Scott and Lindsay DeFazio, to CONSOL Energy Center to attend Game 2 of Pittsburgh’s Eastern Conference Semifinals series against the Ottawa Senators, marking the first time the young hockey fanatic was able to watch his favorite team in person.

Macin took the opportunity to prove his skills yet again as he identified Crosby (his favorite player), Matt Cooke, Paul Martin and Matt Niskanen by their numbers.

“I just thought it was going to be something where we just put a video on and see what happens,” Scott said. “We were pretty excited to come down here, not just for us, but for him with this being his first game. He gets to see all of his favorite players, so it’s pretty exciting.”

But more excitement was to come, as Iceburgh, the Penguins’ popular team mascot, greeted Macin near the big goalie helmet located in CONSOL Energy Center’s main concourse. Macin ran up to the ‘Burgh’s favorite Penguin with a wide smile, giving him an emphatic high five. Iceburgh then went around the goalie mask and brought out Macin’s special present, a set of Little Penguins hockey gear that included a Little Penguins jersey with Crosby’s name on the back, a helmet, stick and puck.

Macin put on his new gear and spent the next few minutes playing his own personal pickup hockey game with Iceburgh, consistently hitting the mascot’s five hole with the skill expected from a true young Penguins fan. He even broke down his game, which was quite impressive for such a little guy.

“I’m going to try to shoot the puck,” Macin said. “I just try to move the puck and the puck moves into the Penguin and then I shoot the puck.”

The diehard fan couldn’t pull himself away from the action, as he turned away from interviews just to put one last shot through Iceburgh’s legs, all the while calling his own play.

“Watch,” Macin said. “I get the puck and put it through the legs (shooting the puck past Iceburgh and sending the Pens’ mascot to the ground with a wicked shot) and I shoot and score!”

It’s safe to say that Macin has quite the affinity for hockey.

“I’m pretty sure he’s going to be playing ice hockey this year,” his dad laughed.

Crosby's hat trick powers Penguins to Game 2 win

Friday, 05.17.2013 / 11:56 PM

Shawn P. Roarke - NHL.com Senior Managing Editor

PITTSBURGH -- Sidney Crosby stole the show Friday night in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals. But the fact he had plenty of help may well be the bigger story for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Crosby scored his second career hat trick in the Stanley Cup Playoffs -- becoming the fifth player in franchise history to top 100 career points in the postseason -- and the Penguins defeated the Ottawa Senators 4-3 at Consol Energy Center.

"I was able to capitalize on my chances and felt pretty good out there," said Crosby, who scored his three goals in the first 21:15. "It was pretty fast-paced, played with a lot of speed, and everybody was going."

Nobody was going quite as well as Crosby. He dominated early with his three goals then set the tone late with his defensive-zone work.

"Tonight, I think it was his best, and it was his best early on for our team," Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said.

The Penguins have a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 series. Game 3 is Sunday at Ottawa (7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, RDS). It's the first time the Penguins have won the first two games of a series since the Eastern Conference Finals in 2009.

The top-seeded Penguins have the cushion because their depth has paid dividends, including an impressive relief run by backup goalie Tomas Vokoun, who has won four straight games and made 19 saves in Game 2.

"Right from the drop of the puck, we came out and had some great chances, some good pressure," Penguins forward Jarome Iginla said. "I thought not just this game, but our first two games were good overall games.

"They are going to get some chances, but we put a lot more pressure on them, played a lot more [offensive-]zone time, had some great scoring chances. We gave up a few, but Voky was there when we needed him to be and we also had a timely [penalty kill]."

In essence, it was the perfect recipe for success.

For the second straight game, the Penguins found a way to score early and put the pressure on the visitors. Then, after taking the best counterpunch the seventh-seeded Senators had to offer in each game, the Penguins found a way to twice put away their opponent.

"We're not ready to match it, obviously," Ottawa coach Paul MacLean said of Pittsburgh's fast starts. "Catch-up hockey is losing hockey, and we're behind 1-0 early in both games and now you're playing catch-up the whole way and it takes energy and leads to frustration. We just have to make sure we're ready from the start."

Crosby put the Senators on the wrong end of the score in the game's fourth minute and made a little history in the process. His highlight-reel rush gave Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead and allowed him to reach 100 points in Stanley Cup Playoff game No. 75. Crosby became the fifth-fastest of the 84 players who have managed the feat.

He finished the game with 102 points to move into fourth place on the Penguins' all-time playoff scoring list. Only Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr and Kevin Stevens have more postseason points.

The game-opening goal was a stunning display of speed and skill by Crosby. The Pittsburgh captain took the puck at his own blue line and built up a full head of steam through the neutral zone before he passed a flat-footed Erik Karlsson, the Ottawa defenseman, at the attacking blue line and beat goalie Craig Anderson with a low shot to the far corner at 3:16.

"I didn't know it was [Karlsson]," Crosby said. "I think he was getting ready to gap up and I was able to catch a stride there. He's a good skater. He's one of the best, so I think being able to catch a step and get around him was good timing. I don't know who pushed the puck up to me but it worked out pretty well."

Crosby would score two more times, following a power-play goal by Ottawa forward Kyle Turris that briefly tied the game at 1-1. On the first, Crosby rushed down the wing again, holding the

puck in the hopes of passing to linemates rushing to fill the holes. When that option disappeared, he instead banked the puck into the net off Anderson's leg pad at 16:07.

In the second minute of the second period, Crosby made it 3-1 when he scored on the power play, muscling a heavy slapper under the crossbar, a goal that ended the night for Anderson, who made 18 saves on 21 shots. He was replaced by Robin Lehner, who was making his playoff debut in a move MacLean said was designed to revive his team.

"I think the tone of the game changed and we started to play a lot better," Anderson said. "Maybe it was a wakeup call for everybody, I don't know. You can call timeout, you can pull the goalie or a lot of things. Tonight it was changing the goalie."

It almost worked. Ottawa forward Colin Greening scored 40 seconds after the switch to make it 3-2, and the Senators had several other grade-A chances until another piece of Pittsburgh's depth delivered the fatal blow.

Forward Brenden Morrow, obtained at the NHL Trade Deadline, scored a little more than six minutes after Lehner entered. He deflected an already deflected shot by defenseman Paul Martin past Lehner's shoulder for the eventual game-winner.

"Some guys will say they meant to do that," said Morrow, who had missed a couple of shifts right before the goal with an "equipment malfunction." "But it was just luck."

Luck or not, it proved to be the winning margin after Ottawa forward Jean-Gabriel Pageau shoveled a loose puck into the Pittsburgh net 2:01 into in the third period to make things interesting.

But not interesting enough to gain a much-needed split at Consol Energy Center.

Crosby's hat trick demonstrates his full range of skills

Saturday, 05.18.2013 / 12:30 AM / Penguins vs Senators - 2013 SCP Conference Semifinals

By Shawn P. Roarke - NHL.com Senior Managing Editor

PITTSBURGH -- Sidney Crosby was at his best Friday night in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. As a result, he rewrote the Pittsburgh Penguins' history book a bit and gave his team a 2-0 series lead against the Ottawa Senators.

Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma said he started the line of Crosby, Chris Kunitz and Pascal Dupuis because he wanted to set a tone for his team about how important the game was.

"You look to those guys to set the tone to come out and not only just set the tone but the way we play, the way we execute -- that's why you start that line and what you got from the veteran guys to start the game," Bylsma said after a 4-3 victory that featured a Crosby hat trick.

Crosby's line did not score on the opening shift, but they did dominate zone play to put the Senators back on their heels. Crosby was on the board soon enough, though.

At 3:16, Crosby completed a highlight-reel goal, using his speed to torch a flat-footed Erik Karlsson, Ottawa's Norris Trophy-winning defenseman, before firing a low, hard shot that beat goalie Craig Anderson to the far side to give Pittsburgh a lead it would never relinquish.

The goal was a precursor of the glory to come, but it was also a piece of history as it gave Crosby 100 playoff points in 75 appearances. Four players have reached 100 points faster: Wayne Gretzky (46 games), Mario Lemieux (50), Jari Kurri (67) and Mike Bossy (74). It also tied Crosby for fourth place on the Penguins' playoff scoring list with Hall of Famer Ron Francis. Lemieux (172 points in 107 games), Jaromir Jagr (147 points in 140 games) and Kevin Stevens (106 points in 103 games) are the top three playoff scorers in franchise history.

"I didn’t know it was [Karlsson]," Crosby said when asked if he knew who was in front of him. "I think he was getting ready to gap up and I was able to catch a stride there. He’s a good skater. He’s one of the best, so I think being able to catch a step and get around him was good timing. I don’t know who pushed the puck up to me but it worked out pretty well."

"Pretty well" is an understatement. The goal was so beautiful -- reminiscent of the defense-splitting, highlight-reel goal he scored against the New York Islanders in the first-round series -- that he left his coach and teammates shaking their heads in amazement.

"He has so many assets and things that make him great, but one is that he can do everything at top speed," forward Jarome Iginla said. "There are lots of guys that can skate really fast without the puck, but he doesn't slow down with puck at all. He's fast without it, obviously, but when he has it he's just as fast. Most guys, they start coming into traffic, they have to slow up and look around. They have to slow up just a bit. He doesn't slow up at all and that is a big part of what makes him so great."

Crosby's vision and the ability to process his options are also part of his greatness. Those characteristics were on display on his second goal, when he held the puck too long as he came through the offensive zone. When the opportunity to pass disappeared, Crosby noticed Anderson was cheating toward the pass and, as a result, he decided to bank the puck off the goalie's pad and into the goal.

"He's one of the best in the game and if you give him time and space to make plays, to shoot the puck, he's going to burn you," Ottawa defenseman Chris Phillips said. "That's what we did today -- gave him a little too much time and he was able to take advantage of that."

Crosby finished his hat trick at 1:15 of the second period, scoring on the power play with a booming shot under the crossbar. This time, he used the screen of Phillips to beat Anderson.

"I wanted to shoot it a little earlier," Crosby said. "I was just trying to find a way around. I don’t’ know who was in front but I knew they were going to come up to front it. It worked out pretty good; he was going across as I was shooting it."

And, just like that, the hats were floating down to the ice as the sellout crowd celebrated wildly.

"You don’t get those opportunities all the time, especially in the playoffs, to score three," said Crosby, who also had a playoff hat trick in 2009 and joins Lemieux as the only Penguins to have more than one in the playoffs. "It’s a great feeling."

Senators' stars not shining vs. Penguins

Saturday, 05.18.2013 / 12:43 AM / Penguins vs Senators - 2013 SCP Conference Semifinals

By Chris Adamski - NHL.com Correspondent

PITTSBURGH -- For the Ottawa Senators to have any chance of upsetting the top-seeded Pittsburgh Penguins in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, their best players are going to have to be their best players.

That definitely was not the case in Game 2 on Friday night.

Reigning Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson was minus-2 and had more minor penalties (one) than points, hits and shots on goal combined. The NHL regular-season leader in goals-against average and save percentage, Craig Anderson, was pulled after allowing three goals on 21 shots. Longtime captain and franchise icon Daniel Alfredsson had one shot on goal and was minus-1.

The result? A 4-3 win for the Penguins and a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 series.

"It's one of those things where you've got to keep getting better," Anderson said. "You're going to have some adversity, and teams are going to have to battle through it."

The Senators don't have much time to do that if they are going to stay in the series. Game 3 is Sunday night at Scotiabank Place (7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, RDS). A loss in that game could all but turn out the lights on Ottawa's season.

"The big thing for us is we know we play better going home," Alfredsson said. "I believe it's going to be a different kind of game for us [there]."

Karlsson's game, in particular, stood out -- for all the wrong reasons. He was on the ice for each of the Penguins' first two goals, both by Sidney Crosby. His hooking penalty 49 seconds into the second period led to the power play that resulted in Crosby's third goal of the game.

Karlsson was playing his 10th game since returning from a lacerated Achilles sustained Feb. 13, and he's still working his way back to his former form. Earlier this week, coach Paul MacLean said "I don't think his play is close to where it was."

"I have to find a way to figure my body out, and obviously I am not feeling my play the way I am used to," Karlsson said after Friday's game. "Started bad and couldn't get it going. I guess I ran out of luck, too."

Karlsson played just 15:37. Only once since Dec. 23, 2009, had Karlsson been on the ice less than he was Friday -- and that was when he left a March 31, 2011, game at the Florida Panthers in which he sustained a cut by a skate during the first period.

"Obviously, he wasn't one of our best players," MacLean said. "On our team, the best players play; Erik wasn't one of the best players today and so he didn't play.

"He didn't play well."

His teammates stood behind Karlsson, who was second in regular-season NHL average ice time with 27:09. During his Norris Trophy campaign of 2011-12, Karlsson averaged 25:19 of ice time while putting up 19 goals and 59 assists.

In two games this series, Karlsson is minus-3 with three shots on goal and no points.

"I don't think there's any doubt that he's fighting it a bit," veteran defenseman Chris Phillips said. "He didn't play there for a long while. He's sucked it up to get out there and try to help us and we're going to support him to the fullest to allow him to be the best that he can."

After Alfredsson had six points and was plus-5 in a Ottawa's five-game series win against the Montreal Canadiens in the first round, he has one point (an assist), four shots on goal and a minus-2 rating in two games against the Penguins.

Although he did not take a penalty, Alfredsson was on the ice during two infractions against the Senators that led to first-period Penguins power plays.

"We set them up in the beginning to rush around in our zone for the first period and get the lead," Alfredsson said.

That was part of what got Anderson pulled. He allowed seven goals over a two-game span for the second time this year (regular season and playoffs). MacLean said the move wasn't an indictment of Anderson but rather in an attempt to change the momentum of a game that Pittsburgh led 3-1.

"It was more for the team; it had nothing to do with the way Andy had played," MacLean said. "It was just to get the team to recognize the fact that we were in a game and that we needed to play."

Still, Crosby's second goal was from a bad angle. A high standard, yes, but Anderson's play was not of the player who had a 1.69 goals-against average and .941 save percentage during the regular season. He has allowed four first-period goals in two games during this series.

"It's just a matter of weathering the storm, and when there's momentum against us, finding a way to change the momentum," Anderson said.

"I think the tone of the game changed [when MacLean went to backup Robin Lehner], and we started to play a lot better. Maybe it was a wakeup call for everybody."

The Senators hope they'll get the message prior to Sunday.

Sidney Crosby's hat trick helps Penguins take 2-0 lead on Senators

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH -- The Ottawa Senators have plenty of respect for Sidney Crosby.

As they're quickly learning, perhaps a little too much.

Working in wide-open swaths of ice left by Ottawa's tentative defense, the Pittsburgh superstar needed just more than one period to complete his second playoff hat trick and lift the Penguins to a 4-3 victory Friday night in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

"He's one of the best in the game and if you give him time, space to make plays, to shoot puck he's going to burn you," Ottawa defenseman Chris Phillips said. "That's what we did tonight. We gave him too much room and he took advantage."

Pittsburgh leads the series 2-0 heading into Game 3 on Sunday in Ottawa.

Kyle Turris, Colin Greening and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored for the Senators, but couldn't stop Ottawa from falling into a deep hole against the Eastern Conference's top seed. The Senators have never won a series after dropping the first two games.

Brenden Morrow added his first playoff goal in more than five years for the Penguins, and Tomas Vokoun made 19 saves to help Pittsburgh move within two victories of advancing to the conference finals for the first time since it won the 2009 Stanley Cup.

And that -- and not his spectacular flurry that sent the Senators reeling -- is all that mattered to Crosby.

"You want to play well at home and make sure you get here," Crosby said. "We did that, we got two wins. I don't think your mindset changes. We know that it's going to get harder."

It better if Ottawa wants to make this a series.

Crosby beat Craig Anderson three times in three very different ways in the game's first 22 minutes, each score showcasing a facet of his remarkable talent.

A dazzling rush from the Pittsburgh blue line between two Senators -- including Norris Trophy-winning defenseman Erik Karlsson -- ended with Crosby slipping the puck under Anderson's pad just 3:16 into the game.

After Turris banked in a shot off Vokoun to even things, Crosby put the Penguins back in front later in the first period when he zipped down the left side and eyed linemate Pascal Dupuis as they raced in on Anderson. Only Crosby didn't pass. At the last second and without even peeking at Anderson, Crosby flipped a wrist shot near the goal line that smacked off the goalie's pad and into the net.

"I was kind of running out of space to make a pass," Crosby said. "I was hoping that it was able to find a way somehow. I kind of saw him leaning a bit and didn't know how much room was there but found a way to trickle in there."

There was no fancy stickwork or fortunate bounce required for Crosby to record his first postseason hat trick since 2009. Standing atop the left circle, he boomed a slap shot over Anderson's glove to give Pittsburgh a 3-1 lead and send Anderson to the bench in favor of backup Robin Lehner.

The 21-year-old year's presence seemed to calm the Senators down. He made a series of spectacular saves -- including point-blank stops on Jarome Iginla and Evgeni Malkin -- but Ottawa coach Paul MacLean doesn't expect there to be a switch when the series heads north this weekend. Neither does Anderson, who didn't take the benching personally.

"I think the tone of the game changed and we started to play a lot better," Anderson said. "Maybe it was a wakeup call for everybody."

The Senators insisted they didn't have to play a perfect game to hang with the Eastern Conference's top seed, pointing to the way they controlled play at even strength for long stretches in a 4-1 loss in the series opener Tuesday night. Ottawa insisted if it could stay out of the penalty box and convert when it had the man advantage, it would be right there.

The score was closer this time, but the play was not. Pittsburgh outshot Ottawa 42-22 and spent the majority of the game hounding the Senators on their end of the ice.

"I think we outplayed them," Vokoun said. "The score could've been a lot worse if not for good play by their goalie. The win is the most important thing and we got that."

And Crosby didn't do it on his own. Morrow deflected in the eventual winner midway through the second period, his first postseason score since May 14, 2008, while playing for the Dallas Stars. It was the kind of gritty goal the Penguins wanted out of Morrow when they picked up him just before the trade deadline.

Ottawa sliced the 4-2 lead in half 2:01 into the third period when Pageau tapped the puck across the line following a mad scramble in front.

The Senators, however, couldn't tie it as Pittsburgh shut it down over the final 15 minutes, expertly killing a late penalty to rip off its fourth straight playoff win.

"I think that we just turn the page on this one move onto the next and prepare the same way," Crosby said. "I don't think we need to get caught up in the fact that we won two here. They're going to be pretty desperate so we better be ready to go in Ottawa."

Game notes Crosby reached the 100-point plateau in his 75th playoff game, the fifth-fastest player to reach the mark in NHL history ... Pittsburgh went 1 for 6 on the power play and is 10 of 30 (33 percent) in the postseason. The Senators went 1 for 2 after going 0 for 6 in the opener ... Ottawa D Eric Gryba didn't play. He was injured in a collision with Penguins D Brooks Orpik in the second period of Game 1.

Crosby sets new standard of clutch

By Scott Burnside | ESPN.com PITTSBURGH -- He still sports an ungainly face shield that makes him look more linebacker or sci-fi gladiator than hockey player. And a glimpse at his lower jaw area puts one in mind of a picket fence battered by a tornado. But make no mistake: Sidney Crosby is back. Oh, he’s been good, sometimes brilliant, thus far this playoff season. But Friday’s 4-3 victory over the Ottawa Senators that included a three-goal Crosby performance was something more, and marked his finest postseason game since the Penguins’ magical playoff spring of 2009. "I mean, I haven’t played that much since," Crosby said with a laugh, a bit of a rueful acknowledgement of his injury issues and the issues of getting into a good playoff groove since that run to the Cup. Still, the echoes of that 2009 playoff run were profoundly evident in this game. The win marked the first time since the 2009 Stanley Cup finals that the Penguins won two games at home in a row in the playoffs. It marked the first time since then that they won the first two games of a series at home since the 2009 Eastern Conference finals. "I was able to capitalize on my chances and felt pretty good out there. It was a pretty fast pace. I think we played with a lot of speed, everybody was going, so it was a nice game," Crosby said. That such an event coincided with Crosby’s best postseason performance in four years would appear to be not a coincidence at all, but something more, even if Crosby and the Penguins weren’t interested in reading too much into it. "Well, you want to play well at home and make sure you’re good here, and we did that. We got two wins. But I don’t think your mindset changes," Crosby said. "We know that it’s going to get more difficult. I think we just turn the page on this one and move onto the next and prepare the same way. I don’t think we need to get caught up in the fact that we won two here. They’re going to be pretty desperate, so we better be ready to go into Ottawa." A lot of water has passed under the Penguin bridge since that spring of 2009, and the seven-

game classic final series against the Detroit Red Wings, and much of it murky. And to be sure there is a lot of road to be traveled before the Penguins reach that kind of stage again. But Friday’s performance was a reminder of how many different forms greatness can take. Sometimes it’s easy to see. Like Crosby’s first goal in Game 2, as he raced with the puck from his own blue line, slicing in from the left side, gliding by defending Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson as though Karlsson was a shadow to slide a shot past Craig Anderson for a 1-0 Pittsburgh lead just 3:16 into the game. But sometimes there are deeper elements or texture to the greatness. For instance, in the wake of their 4-1 loss in Game 1, the Senators had talked about wanting to press the play and not let the Penguins dictate the pace of play, especially early in the game. And yet Crosby’s goal negated that. "Catch-up hockey is losing hockey," said Ottawa head coach and back-to-back Jack Adams Award finalist Paul MacLean after the game. "We’re behind 1-0 early in both games and now you’re playing catch-up the whole way, and that takes a lot of energy, and that leads to frustration, and we have to be sure we’re ready for the next game at the start," he added. Still, in the first period the Penguins were unsuccessful on two straight power-play opportunities and then allowed the Sens to tie the game on a power-play goal of their own by Kyle Turris after an offensive-zone hooking penalty by Evgeni Malkin. All of a sudden, the Sens were back to even keel. They had denied the NHL's most potent postseason power play and then put a dent in a Penguins penalty kill that had been dominant, killing off 11 straight man-advantage opportunities heading into Game 2. So, would the Senators exert their influence, would they be able to take advantage of those small victories to push toward a greater, more important victory? No. Because Crosby would deny them that traction by once again wheeling down the left side, waiting, waiting, and then when it looked like his only play was to slide a pass across the crease

-- something Anderson clearly anticipated and committed to -- Crosby waited that extra beat and sneaked the puck between Anderson and the post for a 2-1 lead with 3:53 left in the first period. "I was kind of running out of space there to make a pass, so I was hoping that I was able to find a way somehow, but yeah, kind of saw him leaning a bit," Crosby said. He wasn’t done. Karlsson, clearly nowhere near the dynamic player he was before having his Achilles tendon lacerated in a run-in with Pittsburgh’s Matt Cooke early in the regular season, found himself a step behind Cooke in the first minute of the second period and was forced to take a hooking penalty. Just 26 seconds later, Crosby stepped to the top of the circle to the right of Anderson and blasted home his third of the night. It would spell the end for Anderson on this night and marked the first postseason hat trick for Crosby since that epic night during the 2009 playoffs on May 4, when he and Alex Ovechkin traded hat tricks in what would be a Washington victory. "He makes the game look absolutely, disgustingly easy. There were a couple of passes tonight it was coast to coast 100 feet across the ice. One to [Pascal] Dupuis, he had just got on the ice for a change; I didn’t even know he was about to come on. Just tremendous. Could have had five," national analyst Glenn Healy told ESPN.com after the game. Crosby acknowledged Friday that coming up with the win made this one a little sweeter than the 2009 hat trick. Head coach Dan Bylsma said the team had talked about the need to build on its Game 1 victory and not take a step back or sideways, to assume things would go their way. It was why he started Crosby’s line, he said. "You look for those guys to set the tone," Bylsma said. Was this Crosby’s best postseason game in four years?

"He’s done a lot in a lot of different games for our team in different areas, but tonight I think it was his best and it was best early on for our team," Bylsma said. While the goals came at crucial moments and had an important impact on the game, in each case Bylsma also noted how well Crosby played on the defensive side of the puck in the third period after the Senators had crept back to within a goal. "[It was] his best game away from the puck defensively as well and, in the third period, in the last 10 minutes in particular. Very big in a lot of aspects," he said. Very big, indeed.

Sidney Crosby’s hat trick powers Penguins to 2-0 series lead over Senators

By Sean Leahy | Puck Daddy – 10 hours ago

The last time Sidney Crosby netted a hat trick in the playoffs was 2009. The last time the Pittsburgh Penguins took a 2-0 series lead in the playoffs was 2009. It remains to be seen if those good omens from 2009 will create a similar ending in 2013, but for now the Penguins are halfway to the Eastern Conference Finals after a 4-3 win over the Ottawa Senators Friday night.

Crosby set the tone early on scoring three times within the first 21:15 of the game as Pittsburgh stormed out to a 3-1 lead. The Penguins captain brought the CONSOL Energy Center crowd to its feet during his first goal, which left Erik Karlsson wondering what had just happened:

Craig Anderson's night was finished after Crosby completed his hat trick early in the second period. It was the first time he was pulled since March 2012. His replacement, Robin Lehner, was valiant in relief making 20 saves and keeping the Senators in the game.

Not helping the Senators' cause was the fact they handed six power plays to a Penguins team rolling along at a 36 percent rate with the man advantage entering Friday night, tops in the NHL this postseason. Pittsburgh only cashed in on one -- Crosby's third goal -- but Ottawa was never able to build momentum with the numerous trips to the penalty box.

The series now shifts to Scotiabank Place on Sunday and Tuesday for Games 3 and 4 as the Senators will attempt to slow a Pittsburgh offense averaging 4.13 goals per game. The Penguins outshot Ottawa 41-21 in Game 2, with 11 coming on the power play. As the Senators stressed

after Game 1, they cannot have a parade to the penalty box if they're to beat Pittsburgh in this series.

Ottawa also needs a stronger showing from Anderson, who's now allowed seven goals thru the first two games of this series -- the combined total he allowed from Games 2-5 against Montreal in the first round. Jason Spezza's return could give them a boost, but collectively there's still plenty of work to be done.

A Penguin's progress: Pascal Dupuis' tireless trek from playoff spare part to goal-scoring gamer

Nick Cotsonika – Yahoo! Sports

PITTSBURGH — When the Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley Cup in 2009, Pascal Dupuis celebrated. He soaked up his day with hockey’s holy grail. But he made a promise to his wife, Carole-Lyne – a promise to himself. He had been a spare part, appearing in 16 of the Pens’ 24 playoff games. Zero goals. Zero assists. Zero points. Minus-5.

“I was happy to win, but I was not one of the key guys that made the team win,” Dupuis said. “When the Cup showed up that summer, I told my wife that I’ll win it again, and I’ll be a big piece of the puzzle to get it again. Since that day, things have been going pretty well.”

The Penguins are one of the favorites to win the Stanley Cup this year, if not the favorites. They held a 1-0 lead in their second-round series with the Ottawa Senators entering Game 2 on Friday night, and guess which member of their star-studded roster was tied for the NHL lead in playoff goals?

Sidney Crosby, the best player in the world? Evgeni Malkin, the reigning winner of the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player? Jarome Iginla, the future Hall of Famer? James Neal, the star goal-scorer? Chris Kunitz, the top-10 scorer in the regular season? Kris Letang, the finalist for the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s best defenseman?

None of the above.

Pascal Dupuis, the former journeyman, the throw-in in the “Marian Hossa” trade, the old spare part who willed himself to become a piston in the engine. Still burning to play that big role on a championship team, still improving at age 34, Dupuis entered Friday night with six goals in seven games – more goals than he had scored in 42 games over the previous four playoffs. He had two assists, too.

Asked if he surprised even himself, he paused. He has surprised others far more than he has surprised himself. That wasn’t a dream he had shared with his wife that day in 2009. It was a declaration.

Still …

“It’s great when you can surprise yourself, surprise everybody around you,” he said. “It means that you do stuff that people don’t expect. Usually, it’s a good thing. Yeah, ‘surprise’ could be a good word.”

* * * * *

Search “Pascal Dupuis” and “Marian Hossa” and “trade.” In retrospect, it’s hilarious to read what was written in February 2008. A great example:

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH — Every time Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Ray Shero analyzed his team, he came to the same conclusion: A huge missing piece was a forward talented enough to play on Sidney Crosby’s line.

Shero took a major gamble to add that player, acquiring All-Star forward Marian Hossa from the Atlanta Thrashers in a deadline deal Tuesday that cost Pittsburgh two young forwards in Colby Armstrong and Eric Christensen, a top prospect and a first-round draft pick.

Dupuis isn’t mentioned in the first three paragraphs. He isn’t mentioned in the lead quote:

“We’ve always had a hard time finding that fit for Sid, and I believe Marian is a guy who can think at that level, skate at that level and, obviously, he can score goals and kill penalties and raise everybody else’s game,” Shero said.

Dupuis isn’t mentioned until the sixth paragraph – the end of the sixth paragraph.

Pittsburgh does get forward Pascal Dupuis in the deal, a right wing with speed who has 10 goals and five assists in 62 games.

How nice.

That’s not to rip on the writer. How was anyone supposed to know what would happen? Not even Shero knew, as shrewd as he was to snag Dupuis, too.

Dupuis put up big numbers in junior. He had 50 goals and 105 points in 61 games in 1999-2000, his final season with the Shawinigan Cataractes of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. But

he was never drafted, and after producing 20 goals and 48 points in his second full NHL season, his numbers dropped off.

The book on Dupuis was that he had good speed, average hands and below-average grit. He was not, in the opinion of scouts, the kind of player with whom you won in the playoffs. He bounced from the Minnesota Wild to the New York Rangers to the Atlanta Thrashers at the end of the 2006-07 season.

Then came the “Hossa” trade.

Hossa and Crosby played together as the Penguins went to the Stanley Cup final in 2008. But Dupuis played with them for much of that run. While Hossa left as a free agent, Dupuis stayed. He stayed with Crosby for the most part until Dan Bylsma replaced Michel Therrien as coach in February 2009. He fell on the depth chart during the Pens’ Cup run.

Since then, things have gone pretty well. Dupuis has won over Bylsma. He has played often with Crosby. He has seen his numbers climb. From 2008-09 to 2011-12, his goals went from 12 to 18 to 17 to 25, and his points went from 28 to 38 to 37 to 59. He had 20 goals and 38 points this year in the lockout-shortened, 48-game regular season, so he was on pace for a career-high 34 goals and 65 points in a normal 82-game season.

Dupuis has directly benefitted from playing with great teammates, but not just because they boost his numbers during games. He has taken advantage of the opportunity to become a better player in his own right. Dupuis not only works with Crosby; he studies him. He copies him as best he can.

“When you ask questions and you watch him practice, you watch him play, you learn quite a bit,” Dupuis said.

Remember how Shero described Hossa in that quote in 2008? Dupuis has become that player.

He has been a fit for Crosby because he can think at that level and skate at that level – and because he has become grittier. He plays in straight lines, which makes him predictable, which allows Crosby to find him with no-look passes. He goes to the corners and the front of the net, which suits Crosby’s down-low game. He can score goals and kill penalties and raise everybody else’s game.

“I think the credit to him is just how much he’s willing to learn and how much he has worked to do that,” Crosby said. “It’s all because of the way he’s applied himself and tried to get better. He’s playing in all situations. That’s all him. He’s working hard and learning a lot still at his age.

“If anything, we’re just more comfortable with each other. I think he just goes to those tough areas. The way he skates, I mean, he’s going to be able to get those areas, and it’s a matter of putting it in. But he gets there every time.”

The skills and confidence have carried over when Dupuis has not played with the best of the best. Crosby took a hit to the head in the 2011 Winter Classic. He has played only 58 regular-season games since because of injuries, and his absences generally have not put Dupuis with Malkin. Since Jan. 1, 2011, Dupuis has scored 32 goals without Crosby or Malkin on the ice, according to STATS Research.

Dupuis hasn’t padded his numbers on the power play, either. He hasn’t had the chance to play on the power play much. He scored two power-play goals during the regular season – after going eight seasons without a single power-play goal. Virtually all of his production has come at even strength or shorthanded.

Since Jan. 1, 2011, he ranks 19th in the NHL in even-strength goals, according to STATS Research. He tied for seventh in even-strength goals this season with 17 – one more than Alex Ovechkin, two more than Patrick Kane, three more than Phil Kessel, four more than Kunitz, five more than Crosby, No. 87.

“It goes well beyond playing with just good players,” Bylsma said. “He’s been a guy who for a long time has been the winger who we need to replace on 87’s line. But over the years, the number of even-strength goals he’s scored is right up there in the top few in the league with star names. He’s done that without 87 being in the lineup for periods of time. He’s still been that guy for a lot of the games in the last 2-1/2 years or so.”

Dupuis’ first five goals in these playoffs came at even-strength. Then Tuesday night, not long after he crashed into the boards and seemed to suffer an ankle injury, he hopped onto the ice for a penalty kill. He ended up on a 2-on-1 rush.

As he skated down the ice, Senators defenseman Sergei Gonchar took away the option of a pass to teammate Matt Cooke. But it didn’t matter. When was the last time Dupuis had this much confidence as a goal-scorer?

“Maybe back in junior,” Dupuis said.

Dupuis, who has scored eight shorthanded goals over the past three regular seasons, wired a wrist shot past the right shoulder of Senators goaltender Craig Anderson and underneath the crossbar, popping the water bottle. Instead of allowing the Senators to cut the Penguins’ lead to 3-2 on that power play, Dupuis extended their lead to 4-1.

“It’s not just 5-on-5,” Bylsma said. “It’s not just scoring goals. He’s an outstanding penalty-killer, and he did it again tonight. … That power play could have given them a chance to get back in the game. He finishes it off with an exclamation point.”

* * * * *

Dupuis will be an unrestricted free agent this summer. We can only speculate about the future.

He might stay in Pittsburgh, even if he accepts less money to do so. He knows what it is like to lose. He knows what it is like to bounce around. He knows what he has here – a home for his wife and four children, a springboard for his career. It says something that instead of playing in Europe during the lockout, he stayed to train with Crosby, Kunitz and others and reaped rewards on the ice.

“For me, it’s about winning,” he said. “It’s about being comfortable. It’s about being on a team that I feel comfortable, playing with great friends, great teammates. Right now that’s what I’m doing. The business side of it is going to take care of itself eventually.”

But what about business?

Dupuis played on a three-year deal with an annual salary of $1.4 million, then a two-year deal that gave him only a $100,000 annual raise. His cap hit of $1.5 million is 18th-highest on the team and lower than even fourth-liner Tyler Kennedy’s – a huge advantage for the Penguins, a reason they have been able to squeeze so many stars on the roster. He’s in line for a significant raise and should draw much interest in a thin free-agent market, at the same time the cap is coming down and other Penguins need new contracts or extensions.

What if another team makes a huge offer? What if the Penguins can’t come close? Who knows?

Who knows what happens even if he stays, anyway? The Penguins have not advanced past the second round since winning the Cup in 2009. They will not be able to keep this roster together next season. As the Penguins know all too well, injuries can screw up everything. Dupuis isn’t getting younger, either.

Now is the time. Dupuis is playing at the highest level of his career. He’s comfortable and playing with great teammates on a top Stanley Cup contender. He couldn’t ask for a better chance to achieve his goal.

“I’m enjoying what I got right now,” he said.

He’s earned it.

Crosby puts on a show in Penguins win over Senators

ROY MACGREGOR

PITTSBURGH — The Globe and Mail

If there was any doubt that the oft-injured Sidney Crosby had retained his title as “The Game’s Best Player,” he put all suggestions to rest Friday night in a shower of ball caps and a chant that seemed to come from all 18,645 throats in Consol Energy Center.

”M-V-P!

“M-V-P!

“M-V-P!”

The 2013 Hart Trophy finalist – along with Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals and John Tavares of the New York Islanders – scored a natural hat trick in the first and second period of his Pittsburgh Penguins’ Game 2 match with the Ottawa Senators, leading his team to a 4-3 victory and a two-games-to-none lock on this best-of-seven Round 2 series.

Crosby’s dominance from the opening faceoff to the first two shots on goal, which he took, scoring on the second, was pivotal as the Penguins took early control and maintained it for much of the night, outshooting the Senators 42-22.

Penguins head coach Dan Bylsma was unsurprisingly pleased with his captains' performance.

"Tonight I think it was his best -- and it was his best early on," Bylsma said.

Yet the Senators kept it close in the third period, giving them some slim hope for when the series resumes Sunday in Ottawa.

If you went by the chatter of the morning skates, you would fully anticipate Ottawa would have been on the early attack and the Penguins scrambling to defend as Game 2 opened.

“Any time a team loses a Game 1,” Pittsburgh defenceman Matt Niskanen had said, “there’s usually a big pushback in Game 2 – so be ready for it.”

“I expect them to come out pretty hard,” added Crosby. “They’ll want to start better and come out harder, so we’ve got to be ready for that.”

“We’re going to respond,” vowed Senators head coach Paul MacLean, earlier that morning named a finalist for the Jack Adams Trophy as the NHL’s top coach.

“We’re going to make it a series.”

That, certainly, was the expectation, yet it was the Penguins that came out on fire and the Senators who scrambled.

Crosby put his team ahead 1-0 barely three minutes into the game when he flew up the left side, blew past Ottawa’s star defenceman Erik Karlsson and fired a hard wrist shot past Ottawa goaltender Craig Anderson.

It was Crosby’s 100 playoff point in 75 post-season games. Most impressive, though Crosby’s mentor, Mario Lemieux reached the same plateau in a mere 50 games.

Karlsson was caught so flat-footed on the play that it dramatically underscored a growing debate this week as to whether or not the super-keen 22-year-old defending Norris Trophy defenceman had rushed his own recovery. Karlsson’s Achilles tendon had been sliced 70 per cent through on Feb. 13 by the skate of Pittsburgh’s Matt Cooke and had been expected to miss the remainder of the season, only to come back just in time for the playoffs.

“(I’m) struggling a little bit, and it is what it is. I don’t have the answer to it myself, I’ve got to figure my body out and obviously I’m not feeling or playing the same way I am used to,"Karlsson said.

MacLean expressed that Karlsson's lack of ice time was simply due to poor play.

"He played 13:37, which isn't normal for him, so obviously he wasn't one of our best players. He didn't play well."

“I don’t think there’s any doubt he’s fighting it a bit,” said teammate Chris Phillips of Karlsson.

Prior to the injury, Karlsson would easily have stayed with Crosby who, earlier in the day, had himself expressed great admiration for the young Swedish defenceman.

“Whenever he’s out there the puck kind of follows him,” Crosby had said of Karlsson. “He’s smart. His speed allows him to be all over the ice.”

But not this night, not when Crosby beat him so easily on the opening goal and not again, later in the opening period, when Crosby again came down Karlsson’s side, kept the puck just out of Karlsson’s reach and then threw a harmless looking shot at the Ottawa goal that slipped past Anderson, who clearly was reading pass.

That gave Pittsburgh a 2-1 lead, as a few minutes earlier Ottawa had scored on the power play when captain Daniel Alfredsson fed a quick pass to Kyle Turris and Turris basically shovelled the puck in past Penguins goaltender Tomas Vokoun.

A goaltender’s duel this was not. Of the opening three goals, only Crosby’s first deserved late night replay.

At the :49 mark of the second period, Karlsson took a hooking penalty when he let Cooke slip away on him for a shot. With Karlsson off, Crosby scored his third of the night on a hard slapshot that cleanly beat Anderson.

The sellout crowd predictably erupted, caps cascading down to celebrate the hat trick. And then the chants began.

”M-V-P!

“M-V-P!

“M-V-P!”

Anderson was then replaced in net with Robin Lehner, who played well, particularly later in the game when he stoned both Jarome Iginla and Evgeni Malkin.

"Nothing against Andy. Just try to get the team to recognize we were in the game," MacLean said during his postgame press conference.

Ottawa’s Colin Greening, playing far better in the postseason than the regular season, scored to bring Ottawa to within a goal, but the Penguins moved to 4-2 when yet another Pittsburgh power play had just expired, Brenden Borrow tipping in a point shot from defenceman Paul Martin.

Early in the third period, Ottawa rookie Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored his fourth goal of the playoffs when he picked a loose puck out of a goalmouth scramble and nudged it into the back of the Pittsburgh net to again put the Senators a goal away.

All season long, the Senators prided themselves on being a “third-period team,” capable of coming from behind when least expected.

"They've always responded...they keep coming back. They've done that all year long," Bylsma said.

But it was not to happen this night.

"Catch-up hockey is losing hockey," MacLean said.

The Senators hinted Friday that they might have top centre Jason Spezza, out since the end of January following back surgery, back for Game 3. Spezza has been working out regularly back in Ottawa.

"If he's available to us, it's Jason Spezza,” said MacLean.

“We're going to have him in the lineup."

And they are going to need him.

For Iginla, the move to Pittsburgh has been a change for the better

ROY MACGREGOR

PITTSBURGH — The Globe and Mail

“Weird.”

That’s how it felt the first time to Jarome Iginla. First time he pulled the Pittsburgh Penguins jersey over his head and knew there would be no ‘C’ over one of hockey’s greatest hearts, first time he skated out onto the ice of Consol Energy Center and knew, for certain, he was no longer captain of the Calgary Flames and playing in front of the familiar, almost family, crowd at Calgary’s Scotiabank Saddledome.

Weird is also how it felt to Ray Shero. The general manager of the Penguins had been sitting in his office late in the evening of March 27. He was flipping stations, turning from the Flames’ game against the Colorado Avalanche – where Iginla had been tellingly kept out of the lineup – and TSN, the Canadian sports network that was “confirming” that Jarome Iginla, 16 years a Calgary Flame, nine years the team captain, was now a member of the Boston Bruins.

“All I know is I was still talking to [Flames general manager] Jay Feaster,” Shero says. “I was in my office by myself watching Calgary play and I’m talking to Jay.”

Boston Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli had also been talking and was convinced Iginla was his. Boston and Pittsburgh had been two of four teams the long-serving captain had told Feaster he would go to in a trade as Calgary sought to rebuild a foundering franchise. Boston was the presumed destination. But when the final “yes” came down to the central figure in the trade, Iginla chose Pittsburgh, in no small part as it would put him back with Sidney Crosby, the linemate he had passed to in Vancouver three years ago to give Canada its “Golden Goal” and Olympic triumph.

“We just kind of stayed in it,” Shero says. He sent a first-round 2013 draft selection and two college prospects to Calgary, Feaster sent Iginla to Pittsburgh and, next day in Boston, an angry Chiarelli told a news conference that he had “no doubt” that the deal had been done.

Iginla had been the big prize of the NHL trading deadline. He led the Flames to the Stanley Cup final in 2004; he has more than 1,100 points in 1,200-plus games; he can score, make plays and, if provoked, fight.

“I didn’t know Jarome Iginla as a person at all,” Shero says. “I did talk to a couple of guys here that had played with him and know him and asked what he was like as a teammate. It was off charts in terms of the response I got: one of the best guys in the dressing room.”

In Calgary, there had been no doubt about that. Iginla has established himself as a leader among the likes of Mark Messier, Wayne Gretzky, Jean Béliveau – though, significantly, without a Stanley Cup to show for his dedication. He is, in fact, more comparable to the captain he is facing this series, Daniel Alfredsson of the Ottawa Senators, who has almost exactly the same career stats and is also chasing his first Stanley Cup this spring after previously coming up short in the 2007 final.

Iginla had reached iconic status in Calgary. The 35-year-old native of St. Albert, Alta., had not only led the team but often the community, a fixture in charity fundraising for diabetes and cancer research. Donating money for every goal he scored meant some $550,000 over the years to KidSportCalgary.

“It’s tough being out of the playoffs,” Iginla says, “and this last year was pretty tough because we were hoping for a lot more in Calgary. It’s hard when you see it slipping away and you know changes are going to be coming. Ultimately I knew I’d probably be moving.

“It was kind of the circumstances: Calgary was out of the playoffs and it was my last year of the contract. They were making some sort of a retooling. It’s not easy to go through it because at the time you’re not having success and you want the organization to have success. So it’s tough.

“And it’s a change. It’s the unknown. So it was a little bit unnerving, for sure. It’s also been home, grew up playing, grew up [in Alberta] outside of hockey, too, so it wasn’t the easiest thing.”

The adjustment seemed instant to others, but in reality it was not. “For the first few days,” Iginla says, “I found that I was a little bit off – just with the adjustments. And when I went on the ice, the puck didn’t feel just right.

“I was probably just a little bit anxious. But the guys were great, guys welcomed all of us – we had quite a few additions at the deadline, four of us [Iginla, Brenden Morrow, Douglas Murray and Jussi Jokinen] – and they were great to us. You didn’t feel like you had to be quiet or anything. They welcomed us in.”

There were, however, internal adjustments he had to make himself. First and foremost was accepting that the ‘C’ he so respected was now worn by Crosby. He recalls the very first day he

dressed as a Penguin. Tanner Glass, who has the stall next to him in the home dressing room, turned to him as Iginla was about to pull the new jersey over his head and said, “Isn’t that kind of weird?”

It was indeed, but that was not all that felt odd.

“I found walking out onto the ice, being at the home rink the first time, quite a different experience. You’re looking around at the crowd. You get so used to your surroundings being at home. For the first week or so I actually thought maybe the road was more comfortable because you’re in those dressing rooms that you’re usually in.”

Gradually, however, the sumptuous Penguins dressing room became familiar. He lived in a hotel and the family (he and Kara have three children) has been to visit a couple of times. The Iginla home in Calgary was put up for sale for nearly $4-million and sold quickly. Should he sign as a free agent over the summer, Pittsburgh would become home, though he admits “I don’t know anything besides where the practice rink is.”

He says it is all good now: “It’s been a change but it’s been a neat experience. I’m enjoying every moment.”

And no wonder. The Penguins, the powerhouse of the Eastern Conference, went on to finish first, giving them home-ice advantage against, first, the New York Islanders (dispatched in six games) and now the Senators. And Iginla, with two goals and 10 points heading into Friday’s Game 2 against the Senators, stood second in team scoring just behind Evgeni Malkin and just ahead of Crosby. He has played with both superstars, played both right and left wing and has been, Shero says, a perfect fit.

Sidney Crosby agrees, especially given that Iginla is a right shot and Crosby had been playing usually with left-shot players, such as Pascal Dupuis and Chris Kunitz.

“I am really comfortable with the way he plays and know what to expect,” Crosby says. “It’s a little bit different having a right shot as you can make a lot more plays off his scoring side, probably expect the puck a little more in certain areas, which is good.”

Crosby says that Iginla’s presence has been a smooth adjustment for the team. “It’s pretty easy,” Crosby says, “a guy like that, his attitude and his experience. He made it easy. I think it says a lot when you’re able to bring that many guys in and make it feel seamless.”

As for sharing a locker room with a player who has been captain of an NHL team far longer than Crosby, the Penguins captain says there has been no issue. Iginla still carries himself like a captain and Crosby is fine with that: “When you’re a captain for that long it’s probably pretty natural.”

Iginla, he says, has the air of a captain but gives no sense of wanting the ‘C.’ They haven’t even discussed the subject of leadership.

“I don’t think that’s something that’s in his character anyway,” Crosby says. “When I look at him I think he leads by example. We talk, but it’s not about that stuff. It’s about plays and other things.”

And, should matters progress as the odds-makers predict, Jarome Iginla and his team will move on to Round 3 – perhaps against the Boston Bruins, the team he jilted at the last moment.

And that could mean “weird” all over again.

Mormina puts Pens on his back for win

By Tom Venesky - tvenesky@civitasmedia.com

WILKES-BARRE TWP. –Joey Mormina ate his grandmother’s lasagna for lunch and then went out and assisted on all three Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguin goals in the second period of Friday’s 3-1 win over the Providence Bruins.

Coincidence? Maybe.

Still, there was another element - other than lasagna, that fueled Mormina and his teammates heading in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Desperation.

Down 3-0 in the series and facing elimination, the Penguins played like a team with their back to the wall, and team captain Mormina led the way.

In the first period his physical play was a message to the Bruins that the Penguins weren’t even close to mailing it in. The Bruins weren’t listening, however, as they jumped out to a 1-0 lead eight minutes into the game.

Unlike Games 1 and 2, the Penguins didn’t waver.

“We learned some lessons early and we applied them,” said head coach John Hynes. “Regardless of the circumstances, in the playoffs you have to have composure and stick with what you’re doing.”

That approach paid big dividends for the Penguins in the second period, thanks in large part to Mormina, who had only two points in 51 career playoff games before this postseason.

He got the second assist on a Warren Peters wrist shot that evened the score 1-1 six minutes into the period. Mormina then launched a shot that was blocked and careened over to a wide open Riley Holzapfel, who buried it from the faceoff circle to make it 2-1.

With two minutes left in the period and the Penguins on their second power play of the night, Mormina flicked a shot in from the point that made it through traffic and was deflected past Providence goaltender Niklas Svedberg by Chad Kolarik to make it 3-1.

Mormina’s teammates quickly took notice of his effort.

“That’s exactly what you expect out of your captain,” said Bobby Farnham. “To be a factor in all three goals in an elimination game… it’s unbelievable for a guy to step up like that.”

Goaltender Brad Thiessen, who stopped 31 of 32 shots while limiting the Bruins to a total of three goals in the last two games, got his second start in what could’ve been his last game as a Penguin. He allowed a first period goal to Carter Camper but was solid after that. Thiessen came up big several times in the second period, stopping Justin Florek on a breakaway and Jamie Tardiff in front of the net.

Friday’s win wasn’t a matter of pride to avoid being swept, but rather staying the course, according to Hynes.

“it’s the fact we want to win and continue to play and go after a championship,” he said. “It wasn’t pride. This is who we are and we want to continue our journey in the postseason.”

That will happen tonight when the puck drops for Game 5 at 7:05 p.m.

But for Mormina, it will begin at lunchtime today when he has more of his grandmother’s lasagna.

“I’ll use the leftovers. There’s a little bit left,” he said.

NOTES

- G Scott Darling, D Dylan Reese (injury), D Cody Wild, C Chris Barton, C Dominik Uher, LW Bobby Farnham, LW Anton Zlobin, LW Steve MacIntyre and D Harrison Ruopp were scratched for the Penguins.

- Stroudsburg area singer-songwriter Christian Porter performed the Star Spangled Banner prior to Friday’s game. Porter, 22, recently appeared on the NBC series The Voice. He was a member country artist Blake Shelton’s team before being eliminated from the competition.

- The Penguins are now 18-11 when facing elimination.

STILL BREATHING

By Jonathan Bombulie (Staff Writer)

Published: May 18, 2013

WILKES-BARRE TWP. - It wasn't professional pride that drove Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins captain Joey Mormina to new heights Friday night.

It wasn't necessarily skill, size or speed either.

It was some good, old-fashioned Italian comfort food.

"I had my grandmother's lasagna for lunch," he said with a laugh. "Maybe that was it."

Mormina set up three second-period goals as the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins defeated the Providence Bruins 3-1 at the Mohegan Sun Arena to avoid a sweep in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

The Penguins will attempt to avoid elimination again when they host Game 5 tonight.

"I don't know if it's a matter of pride to get one," Mormina said. "We came in today and we wanted to win a game on Friday night. We're going to come to the rink tomorrow and our goal is to win a game on Saturday. We can't win three games in one day. We can only win one."

Mormina led the way in the first period, playing an in-your-face style that seemed to agitate the P-Bruins, but the Penguins fell behind 1-0 anyway.

Just like they did in overtime in Game 3, Providence's second-line forwards - Jordan Caron, Carter Camper and Craig Cunningham - forced a turnover and scored a goal. Camper, the overtime hero on Wednesday, did the honors again Friday, collecting a loose puck behind the net and banking it past goalie Brad Thiessen at 7:37.

The Penguins, who allowed 12 goals in the first four periods of the series but just three goals in eight periods since, stopped the bleeding there.

"We learned some lessons early and the good thing is we've applied them," coach John Hynes said. "The bottom line is you have to have composure. Even if you get a one-goal lead or a two-

goal lead or you're down by one, regardless of the circumstances, in the playoffs, you have to have composure and stick with what you're doing."

Mormina led the offensive charge in the second.

First, he banked an outlet pass off the boards to Adam Payerl, who skated up the right wing. Payerl dropped a pass to Warren Peters, who beat goalie Niklas Svedberg with a shot from the right faceoff dot to make it 1-1 at 6:25.

"Once we got that first one, I felt like it was a relief and we were able to get two quick ones after that," Mormina said.

After the Penguins killed a Brian Gibbons slashing penalty, they scored twice in the final four minutes of the period to take a 3-1 lead.

With 3:50 left, the P-Bruins blocked a Mormina shot from the left point, but it bounced right to Riley Holzapfel at the bottom of the right faceoff circle for a goal.

With 2:03 to go, on a power play, Chad Kolarik tipped a Mormina shot from the center point past a Trevor Smith screen and in.

In his first 58 career playoff appearances, Mormina never had more than one point in a game. In the second period Friday night, with his team's season on the line, he had three.

"He's our captain. He's our leader. He definitely led by example out there on the ice tonight," Thiessen said. "A lot of blocked shots and a couple points from him is huge."

Thiessen came up big too, stopping 31-of-32 shots to earn his second win of the postseason. He has turned back 86-of-91 shots for a 1.37 goals-against average and .945 save percentage in four playoff outings.

"We're still down," Thiessen said. "We're still fighting for our lives. We're one loss away from being done. We're kind of in the same position. Just have to play the same game tomorrow night."

Crosby show sinks Senators

by Ken Warren

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Tomas Vokoun gave the Ottawa Senators some late hope Friday, but ultimately they couldn’t recover from the hot start by Sidney Crosby and the rest of his teammates.

As a result, the Penguins’ 4-3 victory gives them a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven second-round series.

Asking the Senators to win four of five games against the Penguins powerhouse is a colossal request, given what occurred here Friday.

The series isn’t over just yet, of course, but unless the Senators can discover another gear on home ice for Game 3 on Sunday — the possible appearance of Jason Spezza could provide a lift — the Penguins appear to be too much for the Senators to handle.

To their credit, the Senators didn’t go quietly into the night.

Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored early in the third period — capitalizing on some shoddy netminding by Vokoun — to make for a dicey finish. Senators goaltender Robin Lehner, who replaced starter Craig Anderson early in the second period, did his part to keep it close, making several big stops in the third period.

Lehner was on the bench for an extra attacker when the Senators came within a lucky bounce of tying the game.

For two periods, the Penguins were too skilled, too fast, too healthy for the Senators.

To put it simply, they played the game at a different speed than the Senators, parlaying Crosby’s hat trick into a 4-2 lead after two periods. Brenden Morrow also scored for Pittsburgh, while Colin Greening and Kyle Turris replied for the Senators.

The only reason it was close was Vokoun. And then came Pageau’s goal early in the third, when Vokoun was caught swimming way out of his crease, searching for the puck

In the first 40 minutes, the Penguins were dominant, resulting in some unravelling by the Senators.

After Crosby completed his hat trick with a power play goal at the 1:17 mark of the second period, Anderson was gone, making way for Lehner. It marked the first time in 55 games this season — regular season and playoffs — that Senators coach Paul MacLean has yanked his starter.

In defence of Anderson, who allowed a terrible goal to Crosby to give the Penguins a 2-1 lead with 3:53 left in the first period, the Senators’ defence provided Pittsburgh’s stars with way too much room to dance, constantly backing up inside the blue line.

Erik Karlsson remains a shadow of his former self while playing through the lingering effects of his Achilles injury, having great difficulty defending. Crosby blew by him on his game-opening goal. Recognizing this, MacLean severely cut back the Norris Trophy-winner’s ice time Friday.

The parade to the penalty box also hurt the Senators. Officially, the Penguins only scored once with the man advantage, but the Penguins’ fourth goal, from Brenden Morrow, came only seconds after a penalty had expired.

The Senators did have room to question the officiating. Both Greening and Cory Conacher were hampered by sticks on their second period breakaway attempts against Vokoun.

The first period of Game 2 followed the same script as the start of Game 1, with the Penguins again carrying a 2-1 lead into the first intermission.

The Senators barely touched the puck in the opening minutes, helpless as the Penguins zipped this way and that around them. Crosby took full advantage of Karlsson’s mobility issues to open the scoring, whizzing by him before ripping the puck between Anderson’s legs at the 3:16 mark.

The Senators gradually found their legs, successfully killing off two Penguins power plays before getting a man advantage goal of their own from Kyle Turris. Turris’s shot from a bad angle went between Vokoun’s legs and suddenly the game was deadlocked 1-1.

Anderson gave that one back, allowing Crosby’s bad angle shot to bounce in off his pad.

Sens goalie controversy or business as usual?

by Wayne Scanlan

PITTSBURGH — Ok, put your coaching hat on for a second.

Who starts in goal on Sunday for your Ottawa Senators? Craig Anderson, the man who carried the Senators to a second playoff round, at times on his own two shoulders?

Or, Robin Lehner, the heir apparent, who came off the bench on Friday night to put a scare into the Penguins in a 4-3 Pittsburgh win? Lehner stopped 20 of 21 shots he faced, and had no chance on the only one that got by him, a deflection by Brenden Morrow.

“It’s always a tough situation but that’s our job as a backup,” Lehner said, about coming off the bench cold. “You try to be in the game, watch the gamed. It happened fast. I just tried to go in and focus on the puck.

“I got an easy one there at the beginning, it was nice to just feel the puck. It took me about five minutes to calm down a little bit and started playing my game. I was a little bit over aggressive a few times.”

Initially, Lehner thought the Morrow deflection was a high stick.

“It wasn’t, I saw it on the reply,” Lehner said, “but it was coming down toward my head and even on my knees, I’m pretty tall. I put my glove in front of my head, it was coming there and suddenly it didn’t.”

Anderson also faced 21 shots, allowing three goals, all by Crosby. He was yanked after that third one, at 1:15 of the second period.

Head coach Paul MacLean said he didn’t hook Anderson because he was playing poorly, although Anderson surely wanted at least one of those Crosby goals back.

“It was more about the team, it had nothing to do with the way Andy had played,” MacLean said. “We just tried to get the team to recognize we were in a game and that we needed to play.”

“I thought he played fine, he made a couple of saves,” MacLean said. “They got one by him but I thought he was fine.”

Even Anderson seemed to agree with MacLean’s decision to hook him.

“The tone of the game changed,” Anderson said. “It was a wakeup call. There’s several ways to change momentum of a game. You can call a timeout, you can pull the goalie, you can do a lot of things. Tonight it was changing the goalie.”

It didn’t hurt to sit, even if for a brief time.

“You watch the game, get a mental break. We’re always learning. We all can be better, Anderson said.”

But does Anderson sit and watch on Sunday? The betting is that MacLean goes back to the guy that brought the Sens here, but after Lehner’s performance in Pittsburgh, the club was reminded it has a special backup ready to roll as needed.

Pittsburgh Penguins' Evgeni Malkin is media shy

By Don Brennan

PITTSBURGH — Evgeni Malkin has room to improve.

As Sidney Crosby accommodated the usual waves of media following the morning skate, a couple of Ottawa reporters broke away to speak with the other Penguins superstar. But Malkin nixed their plans with a quick shake of his head.

The always helpful PR staff explained that choosing not to speak with the media on game days was something Malkin picked up from “Gonch.” That’s fine, except for the fact that Sergei Gonchar, Malkin’s good friend and former teammate, is pretty much always available upon request.

“It’s just the way he is,” the Senators defenceman said Friday morning. “Even in Russian. He doesn’t do always do Russian. I think it’s more about him being shy, and quiet, not talking a lot to the people. It’s more his character.

“It’s not that he doesn’t like media,” added Gonchar. “It’s not natural for him. Some guys are just outspoken, but he’s different this way. I think it’s one of those things that he’s getting better at it, he speaks more and his English is obviously better, but at the same time, it’s an area where he has to do a lot of improvement.”

Gonchar says Malkin - a two-time Art Ross Trophy winner who has also captured the Hart and Conn Smythe plaques - continues to get better on the ice.

“I think so, because he’s a late bloomer physically,” said Gonchar. “His body is getting bigger and stronger. I think he’s getting to the point where he’s getting to his prime. His frame is now developed and he’s using it a lot, protecting the puck, hitting the people.

“The skill set has always been there, and now he’s getting to the point he’s using his body and he’d playing with the high comfort level. He’s been around and won a lot of awards already, so he has the confidence going now.”

Jason Spezza could return to Senators for Game 3

By Bruce Garrioch

PITTSBURGH - It wasn't just the earthquake shifting the ground around Ottawa.

A return of Senators' centre Jason Spezza from back surgery to the lineup for Game 3 of the club's playoff series Sunday night at Scotiabank Place against the Penguins is a strong possibility.

Coach Paul MacLean told reporters Spezza is continuing to skate in Ottawa and a decision on whether he'll play or not will be made after Sunday's morning skate. This is the first time that MacLean hasn't completely dismissed Spezza's a return.

A source told the Sun Spezza is targeting a Sunday return, but has to get clearance from the doctors.

"He continues to skate on a daily basis and makes progress," said MacLean Friday. "We'll go through practice (Saturday) and the pre-game skate and we'll see where it is. If he's available to us, it's Jason Spezza, we're going to have him in the lineup."

The Senators will have an optional skate Saturday and Spezza will skate with that group.

"I know I'm going to be there to watch it," said MacLean. "I might not be on the ice, but we'll make a decision from there. I don't know about all the medical hurdles but I'll know more about that (Saturday)."

Spezza hasn't suited up since Jan. 27th.

Ottawa Senators' Paul MacLean up for NHL's coach of the year award

By Bruce Garrioch

PITTSBURGH - Paul MacLean is making a habit of this.

The Senators bench boss refused to take any credit for his second straight nomination for the Jack Adams Trophy as the NHL's coach-of-the-year Friday, but it's hard not to recognize the job MacLean did under difficult circumstances this year.

As the Senators prepared for the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 2 of the Eastern semi-final Friday, all the pre-game talk was about MacLean being one of three finalists for the award along with Chicago's Joel Quenneville and Anaheim's Bruce Boudreau.

"We're with him day in and day out, on and off the ice. We think he's more than deserving of it," said defenceman Chris Phillips.

The job was especially challenging for the 55-year-old MacLean. The Senators spent most of the season without defencemen Erik Karlsson and Jared Cowen, No. 1 centre Jason Spezza, top winger Milan Michalek and goalie Craig Anderson.

"That's one of his strengths. He has his ways," said Phillips. "He doesn't let too much affect him. That rubs off on us. The team we have, a young team, paid off. Didn't let things like that distract us and we pushed forward."

Instead of throwing in the towel, the Senators overcame the injuries with players from the club's AHL affiliate in Binghamton and finished with a 25-17-6 record, the No. 7 spot in the East and they've surprised many by getting to Round 2 of the playoffs.

"Last year, he came in and learned the team over a bit of time," said captain Daniel Alfredsson. "He did a great job. Overcoming the injuries we did this year to get into the playoffs is an accomplishment. He's well-deserving of the nomination."

It was in Pittsburgh where the season may have reached a low point for the Senators on Feb. 13. Not only did the club lose Karlsson when he had his Achilles sliced by winger Matt Cooke, Michalek also went down with a knee injury.

The day after the game, Alfredsson and MacLean sat down in his Scotiabank Place office to discuss what would happen next. He decided to address the team and expressed full confidence in the players along with their ability to stay in the race.

It may have been a watershed moment in the season.

"The one thing we wanted to make sure was that we didn't feel sorry for ourselves because we knew nobody else in the league felt sorry for us so why would you feel sorry for yourself," said MacLean, who was a runner-up to Ken Hitchcock last year.

"I just felt with 30-some games to play, we have to play them as best we can and make adjustments that we need to make. We were just pleased with quality of players we were able to put in (the lineup).

"Did it galvanize our team? It probably gave them a little bit of something to be an underdog. You're going to be an underdog every night without (those) players. Did some of them play with a little bit of fear? For sure they did because this is a difficult league to play in. At the same time, a lot of them took advantage of the opportunity and showed that they can play in the league."

Senators GM Bryan Murray, one of the winningest coaches in NHL history, said MacLean and his staff have done a good job managing the players.

"He did an outstanding job. It's a real compliment to him and his staff that they were able to put the people in the positions they did with the players to win hockey games at the same time and give us chance to be in the playoffs," said Murray.

"He's really willing to put people in positions to be successful. He makes certain demands of a player. He tries to set them up with the best opportunity, works them hard in practice and getting ready for games. The biggest thing is he's willing to play players that allow them to be successful."

MacLean said he didn't get this recognition by himself. He gave full credit to Murray, assistant Tim Murray, chief scout Pierre Dorion and player development head Randy Lee along with all of the club's hockey staff for providing the tools for success.

"In reality, I'm the organizer, and they were the ones that carried it out," MacLean said. "I'm just a representative of that because I'm the head coach."

Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma respects the work of his opponent.

"He deserves it," Bylsma said. "You talk about last year with his team, coming into a team that he didn't know what to expect or where they would be at, he did a great job last year.

"But this year, different challenges for his team and his group, and they dealt with some injuries and still [were] consistently a good hockey team without some of their key guys and with some of their key guys. I would have cast a vote for him."

Apparently Bylsma wasn't alone on that front.

Crosby puts on clinic for Karlsson

By Don Brennan

PITTSBURGH — After the morning skate, Sidney Crosby took out a pound of butter.

Then he spread it all over Erik Karlsson.

Later, he would have the Senators’ Norris Trophy winner for lunch.

“He kind of carries the play throughout the game,” Crosby said of Karlsson, whose sub-standard play in Game 1 was a great topic of discussion in the days that followed. “He has the puck a lot, skates well. It’s just puck possession with him. Whenever he’s out there, the puck kind of follows him whether he’s carrying it or supporting it closely. He’s smart and his speed allows him to be all over the ice.”

Karlsson wasn’t on the ice very much in the first period. Eight Senators had more ice time than his 5:33. And when he was on the ice, it wasn’t in the right spot. Crosby completely undressed

him before putting a shot between the legs of Craig Anderson’s for the first goal of the night. When that shot entered the net, Karlsson was back just inside the blue line with a bird’s eye view.

Minutes after the Senators tied it up with a Kyle Turris goal on a very beat-able Tomas Vokoun, Crosby again skated in on Karlsson. Not knowing what the Penguins captain was going to do this time, Karlsson was on all fours trying to cut off a possible pass when Crosby again beat Anderson, this time from near the goal line.

What was “all over the ice” were the hats thrown to celebrate Crosby’s third goal — which again had Karlsson’s finger prints on it. After committing a giveaway in the neutral zone, Karlsson hooked Matt Cooke on the ensuing odd man rush.

Twenty-six seconds after he plunked himself in the box, Crosby was scoring No. 3.

Of all the great games he’s had and the greater games still to come, this one might very well be remembered as the worst of Karlsson’s career.

The timing kind of sucked, too.

STARTS AND STOPS

Is this a Pennsylvania team thing or what? For all the right moves they made at the trade deadline, the Penguins probably should done something about their goaltending. Can’t imagine they’re ever going to win the Cup with a 36-year-old and shaky Vokoun, or a Marc-Andre Fleury who has misplaced his game. In fact, they still might not get by the overmatched Senators ... For the second game of this series, Turris took the first minor of the night. This time, the Senators survived the potent Pittsburgh power play.

BETWEEN PERIODS

The Ottawa sportswriters that ran over a deer on the way to Pittsburgh for these games will be more careful on the way back Saturday morning. But such a mishap could happen to anyone, remember. “My parents did, once,” Guillaume Latendresse said Friday morning. “I was waiting for them at the rink, and they had my equipment. So I was a little late on the ice.” ... Killing a penalty with the puck in the offensive zone, Daniel Alfredsson couldn’t find anyone to pass it to, so he sent it the length of the ice to Craig Anderson. With the way the night was going for the team’s No. 1 goalie, the Senators are lucky that one didn’t sneak by him ... During a TV timeout after Chris Neil took a penalty, Robin Lehner appeared to be shooting words of encouragement to his teammates on the bench as he skated by them, banging the boards with his big stick ... Colin Greening was listening. If he scores on the shorthanded breakaway that followed instead of flew into the net, it would have been the most spectacular goal of his career ... Talk about a tasteless front page. Ottawa’s broadsheet had an add featuring Neil, with a fork full of sausages, and the words “Smoked Penguin, anyone” coming out of his word balloon. Never mind that Neil shrugged off the perceived taunting (“We’re here, they’re there. Wasn’t me that said it’) .. but smoked penguin is so bland ... Greening was just hit by Douglas Murray and didn’t go down? What did he have for breakfast Friday?

THINGS I THINK I THUNK

Milan Michalek still has a knee problem? That both of them survived a Brooks Orpik hit in the second suggest to me they’re re-made of steel ... Sign of the times: “Our Neal is better than theirs.” The Senators don’t have a Neal? .. If Lehner makes any more saves like the acrobatic bit of thievery he performed on Jarome Iginla, maybe TV people everywhere will learn his name isn’t Lerner.

BUTT ENDS

While he and other Russians were still getting over the shocking 8-3 loss to the Americans at the world championships, Sergei Gonchar was asked if the return of Jason Spezza (bet on Sunday) will make a big difference. “Obviously the talent is there, the set of skills is there,” said Gonchar. “It doesn’t matter what kind of shape you are in, you’re going to come out and have that set of skills. It’s not going to go anywhere. But the thing is, you have to understand the guy hasn’t played for a long time and he’s jumping right into the middle of the playoffs. It’s not going to be easy. If Jason is going to come back, emotions can be high. He’s going to play on those emotions. But you have to understand, he hasn’t played the game in a long time. He’s definitely going to help us, but I don’t think we should go into the game expecting him to come back, and if he is coming back, to do everything by himself. It’s just impossible. I’d love for him to come back, he’s definitely going to help us, but to put all the pressure on him, that he’s going to score the goals for us, I wouldn’t do this. I don’t think people should put all that pressure on him to score all the goals for us right away.”

Ottawa Senators lose a few pounds

By Don Brennan

PITTSBURGH — Needing to get more physical, the Senators were forced to downsize for Game 2.

In suiting up Andre Benoit for the injured Eric Gryba, they lost five inches and 31 pounds on their blue line. Dressing Guillaume Latendresse for Matt Kassian only cost them two more inches and two more pounds.

“You’ve just got to be in the right areas and not be afraid to make a check, or make a physical play, go hard to the net and be physical in front of the net,” the 5-foot-8, 179-pound Cory Conacher said before the game. “I think everyone on this team will do that. Just finishing checks, especially on their top line and make it hard for them to play against us.”

Just about all the Senators talked about between Games 1 and 2 was the importance of bumping the Penguins at every opportunity.

“You play against them for possibly seven games, and after a couple of games (they’re) going to feel the injuries,” said Conacher. “The more you can hit and make it hard for them, the better it will be as the series goes on.”

Crosby's hat trick pushes Pens past Ottawa Senators

By Bruce Garrioch

PITTSBURGH - The caps came off for Sidney Crosby as the wheels fell off for the Senators.

The Penguins superstar led the charge with his second playoff hat trick to stick a dagger in the heart of the Senators as they packed their bags and headed home in a 2-0 hole after a 4-3 loss to Pittsburgh at the Consol Energy Center.

"You want to play well at home, make sure you're good here, and we did that," said Crosby. "But I don't think your mindset changes. I just think we turn the page on this one and move on to the next."

While this night wasn't a total disaster as J.G. Pageau, Colin Greening and Kyle Turris were able to make Pittsburgh goalie Tomas Vokoun look like a backup, Craig Anderson was chased from the net and rookie Robin Lehner took over.

Brenden Morrow scored the winner as the Senators head home for Game 3 Sunday trying to get off the mat. They could have centre Jason Spezza back, but the concern has to be the play of all-star blueliner Erik Karlsson, who struggled.

The Senators pulled to within a goal in the third, but that is where the comeback stopped as Ottawa was outshot 42-22.

"The third period we gave ourselves a chance, but in this case it was too little too late," said Greening.

Coach Paul MacLean decided he couldn't take it and gave Anderson the hook after Crosby completed his hat trick 1:15 into the second. That was the third goal on 21 shots that Anderson had given up and it came on a blast on the power play.

It was Crosby's first playoff hat trick since May 4, 2009 and the first time an Ottawa goalie has been pulled because of performance all season.

"It changed the momentum of the game," said Anderson. "The tone of the game changed and we started to play a lot better. Maybe it was a wake-up call for everybody.

"There's several ways to change momentum in a game: You can call a timeout, you can pull the goalie. You can do a lot of things. (Friday) it was changing the goalie."

Though Lehner made a spectacular save on Jarome Iginla later in the period, the Penguins were ahead 4-2 after 40 minutes when Morrow tipped a shot by Paul Martin from the point home at 8:04, only moments after a Pittsburgh power play ended.

Outshot 33-14 through 40 minutes, all that was keeping Ottawa in this game was Vokoun. He hasn't looked like he has confidence and surrendered the second goal Greening has had in this series only 40 seconds after Crosby scored.

"We're not ready to match (their start). Catch-up hockey is losing hockey," said MacLean.

It should be noted Cory Conacher and Greening were both halted on breakaways in the second, but the Senators certainly didn't deliver on a promise to be more disciplined and get a better start than they did in a 4-1 loss in Game 1 Tuesday.

Well, a quick start didn't materialize for the Senators. They were on their heels most of the first. If it hadn't been for a bad goal surrendered by Vokoun on the power play, then the Penguins could have been in control of this game big time.

Crosby's second of the night didn't look good on Anderson either as a shot from the circle appeared to bounce off his pad and into the net on the stick side at 16:07 to give Pittsburgh a 2-1 lead after the first.

"We've got to find a way to slow them down," said captain Daniel Alfredsson. "(Anderson's) not playing bad. We make it tough for him and he makes some great saves on too many wide open chances. Once Robin came in we got settled down.

"We're not giving our (defencemen) any time to get it out and make plays."

FIRST PERIOD

Pens take early 1-0 lead as Crosby rips shot top shelf ... Malkin tries to go upstairs and rings shot off crossbar ... with Sens short-handed, Anderson makes stop and puck sits tantalizingly in crease before being cleared ... Turris somehow sneaks puck past Vokoun on PP. Brutal goal to give up ... Coming down left wing, Crosby flicks shot past flat-footed Anderson.

SECOND PERIOD

Crosby completes hat trick on PP, ripping shot past Anderson, who is then pulled with Lehner taking over in net ... 40 seconds later, Greening finds net to get Sens back in game ... Lehner robs Iginla on in-close attempt ... Morrow tips Martin shot past Lehner just after Sens penalty expired ... second period comes to end with Penguins outshooting Sens 33-16.

THIRD PERIOD

Pageau closes gap to 4-3 early in period with a backhander that beats Vokoun ... Not enough scoring chances for Sens, puck in neutral zone a lot ... Conacher sent to box with a bit more than five minutes left as his stick catches Crosby in face, but Sens kill penalty ... Sens finally manage to get Lehner out of net with 40 seconds left, but can’t generate any good scoring opportunities.

THREE STARS

Sidney Crosby. After not doing much in Game 1, The Kid came to play. His hat trick was difference.

Daniel Alfredsson. Old is a state of mind. Senators captain upped his game.

Kris Letang. Not only an offensive force, solid in his own end of ice.

TURNING POINT

All three of Sidney Crosby’s goals. But the second stands out. Crosby cruised in down left wing, looking to pass, looking, looking ... bang ... puck was in net, past Anderson

THUMBS UP

Daniel Alfredsson. Will he ever slow down? High compete level to keep Sens in game when they could have folded up the tent early?

THUMBS DOWN

Shoot, shoot, shoot. The Senators didn’t get enough shots on Tomas Vokoun, who looked at times like he would have difficulty stopping a beach ball.