After a stunning loss in Game 1, Sidney Crosby wasn’t about to let the defending Stanley Cup champs fall behind 2-0 on home ice. A goal, an assist and a diving save on a loose puck in the Pittsburgh goal crease was what Crosby’s stat line read after the Penguins held on to a 2-1 victory at Mellon Arena last night. According to Ottawa coach Cory Clouston, “It’s impossible to stop him, especially every night.”
The Senators jumped out to an early lead, with Peter Regin scoring the Sens’ lone goal of the night on a quick wrist shot from just inside the blueline that beat Marc-Andre Fleury up high. That was all that Fleury would give up for the rest of the night, however, as he stopped the other 19 shots from Ottawa down the stretch.
Crosby evened the game at 1-1 with a good hustle play later in the first, crashing the net on a Chris Kunitz shot, and out working Jason Spezza to get the rebound and bang it home. Spezza’s work ethic was called into question a number of times throughout the game by the Versus announcers, and he was the victim of the Pens’ hard work a couple of times, leading to a couple real quality scoring chances. Evgeni Malkin beat him off an offensive zone faceoff and nearly banged home a loose puck in front, and Crosby would beat him again in what resulted in the game winning goal. Crosby gathered a pass from Bill Guerin behind the Ottawa net late in the third period, and with about four stop and go reverses in direction, lost Spezza behind the net, falling to his knees as he came out front and feeding the puck to Kris Letang at the point. Letang bombed a perfect slapshot in under the bar to beat Brian Elliott and give the Pens a crucial win.
The game was noticeably physical as both teams came out playing hard, and no one felt the physical nature of this one more than Jordan Leopold, who was knocked out of the game by a huge hit from Andy Sutton. Leopold was battling around an Ottawa forward as he lugged the puck up ice and somehow didn’t see the 6‘7 Sutton lock in on him from the blueline. With Leopold’s head down, Sutton’s body made direct contact with the Penguins’ defender’s helmet, and it looked as if he was knocked out cold on the spot. It wasn’t a blindside hit, and while Sutton’s elbow appeared to come up after the play, it was a clean check that shouldn’t receive any disciplinary action from the league.