Round 2 Game 7 Results

Penguins Win Series 4-3

This game had everything leading up to the drop of the puck.  Gonchar returned to the lineup after being injured in game four by a knee on knee hit.  Ovechkin said several times in front of reporters that this series wasn’t over yet, in a way promising that game 7 would be something not to miss.  As the puck dropped it started just that explosive.  Early on Ovechkin was able to sneak behind the defense, take a long outlet pass and get a break away on Fleury.  Ovie made one spectacular move after another to throw off the Penguin net minder but nothing he did could shake Fleury as he made one of the most amazing saves.  That’s when it started to go downhill for the Capitals.  Pittsburgh continued their dominance in first periods but this time they left the opening round with the elusive 2 goal lead and 1 second from breaking the fastest 2 goals in a playoff game held at just 7 seconds.  Everyone knew what had to happen after the intermission.  Either come within 1 or watch the game slip away completely.  Well that is what happened just over 30 seconds into the second.  Guerin made a nice play to stop the Capitals defense from get the puck deep and then set a nice outlet pass up to Crosby.  Crosby rushed into the Washington zone and stopped up at the faceoff circles, while Kunitz drove the net.  Then Crosby found Guerin coming late and fired a laser into the twine.  Then just minutes later Letang leads the rush and rockets one that never came back out.  4-0 Pens and it wasn’t even halfway through the second period.  Around the halfway point Staal chips in a centering pass by Satan and the lead became unreachable for the Capitals.  Late in the second Fleury miss played a puck behind the net and setup Ovechkin for a wide open score.  In the third the Caps and Pens seemed to know it was over but yet everyone kept up the tempo.  As Washington was throwing everybody up while shorthanded, Ovechkin makes a poor play at the point and sends Crosby on a PP breakaway toward Theodore.  Crosby made it look easy as he shot through the 5 hole.  About four minutes later Laich wrapped up the scoring as a puck on edge slipped between Fleury’s pad and the post.  It was a tragic ending for an epic series but it was perfect for the advancing Penguins.  They should have a ton of confidence after they dominated the final game in this epic series.  Now the stats…

According to some web sources, Ovechkin and Green both played this series with injuries.  Big surprise, everybody uses these excuses when they lose.  Why do you think Crosby, Sykora and Malkin hid that they had injuries at times during last year’s playoffs.  Some teams find the need to let this info out as to give an underlying reason as to why they didn’t win the series.  Let’s just face facts here, the Penguins outplayed Washington from game 1 and should have ended way before game 7.  Ovechkin is a great player but he isn’t the greatest team player.  Once they figure out how to win as a team they will be a dominant force.  This could come next year or they could still be a few years away from learning that lesson.  Either way they have their core and should look at this playoff run as a building experience.

Pittsburgh needs to be extremely happy but they also need to get right back to business.  Next round will be just as hard and they need to be prepared for what is to come.

Next Game TBD

Update:  Hurricanes win and the battle of the Staals shall begin.