The dream continues. For the 2nd straight series, the 8th seeded Montreal Canadiens knocked off a heavily favored opponent in a decisive 7th game. It’s not as if they’re playing bad teams that can’t win either. After ousting the President Trophy winners in the first round, they outplayed the defending Stanley Cup champions in Game 7 last night.
In what’s becoming a broken record of a storyline for these Habs, they scored early and got great goaltending from Jaroslav Halak to take control of this game and keep the high-flying Pens from ever really gaining any traction. Brian Gionta scored just 32 seconds into the game while Sidney Crosby sat in the penalty box, and immediately you got the feeling that Pittsburgh might be in trouble. Dominic Moore’s goal midway through the first started to kick those fears into high gear, and a pair of weak goals in the 2nd put Mellon Arena into full-on despair.
Mike Cammalleri scored his league-leading 12th goal of the playoffs after a Chris Kunitz turnover in his own end, and Travis Moen beat Fleury with a shorthanded goal less than 2 minutes later to chase the Pens’ young netminder and put the Habs up 4-0 early in the 2nd. Chris Kunitx atoned for his mistake a bit later, getting Pittsburgh on the board at the 8:36 mark of the period, and Jordan Staal’s tip of Alexei Ponikarovsky’s point shot had the Pens within 2 goals heading into the 3rd period with a powerplay to start the final frame.
Pittsburgh was unable to convert on the powerplay, and Brian Gionta scored again on the Habs’ next powerplay at exactly 10:00 of the 3rd to really put this one out of reach. Halak was stellar yet again, finishing with 37 saves, including great pad saves on both Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby while the game was still close. What helped the Canadiens even more was a lackluster start from the Pens, and a very poor game from veteran defenseman Sergei Gonchar. Gonchar finished -2, was ineffective on the powerplay, and was directly responsible for both goals scored while he was on the ice.
An interesting note to point out before moving on: when Mellon Arena opened in 1967, the Canadiens were the first guests, defeating Pittsburgh 2-1 in their home opener. With a new arena under construction now, last night’s defeat was the final chapter in a storied history at Mellon that saw the Pens win 3 Stanley Cups in the last 20 years. Montreal will now await the winner of the Boston-Philly series, and in an even more surprising twist in these playoffs, either the 6th or the 7th seed will have home ice advantage in the Eastern Conference Finals.