Flirting with Fleury

Marc-Andre Fleury’s flawless goaltending and a Pittsburgh power play were all the Penguins needed to defeat the Canadiens 2-0 at Bell Centre Tuesday night. The Penguins lead the Eastern Conference playoff semifinal series 2-1 after shutting out and shutting down Montreal at home. The accomplishment was the first time since 1983 the Canadiens have been blanked in a playoff home contest. Fleury turned away 18 shots on goal and Evgeni Malkin provided his fourth power play goal, and fifth of the post-season, to lift the visiting defending Stanley Cup Champions to a Game 3 victory. Game 4 is Thursday night at Bell Centre with Game 5 slated for Saturday in Pittsburgh’s Mellon Arena.
The game remained scoreless through two periods until Malkin broke through with a goal at 1:16 in the third. The Canadiens controlled play during the opening period, ringing up seven shots to the Pens’ three on goal. The Pens buckled down on defense and committed to blocking shots in the next two periods. Pittsburgh’s offense also dominated the final two periods, outshooting Montreal 22-11, despite skating without Jordan Staal and Bill Guerin. The offense cleared rebounds and relied on their energetic goaltender. Mark Letestu replaced Staal. He won ten faceoffs while logging over twelve minutes. The Penguins went on the power play when Canadien defenseman, Hal Gill, was whistled for holding Sidney Crosby. The Penguins immediately put the one-man advantage to use. Sergei Gonchar found Malkin from the left point and the 23 year old Russian rifled the puck past Jarsoslav Halak to put the Pens in front 1-0. Alex Goligoski assisted on the goal and Malkin used Crosby as a screen in front of the net. Malkin has 10 points in nine playoff games this year. Last night ended a four game scoreless drought for the Penguins’ center.
The Montreal netminder made some brilliant saves and had to be at his best when the Candiens trailed late in the third period. Halak stopped 23 shots for Montreal but the Canadiens were 0-for-2 on the power play and couldn’t squeeze anything by Quebec native, Fleury. Former NJ Devil, Brian Gionta, took seven stabs at the goal, with little success. Fleury made eight saves after Malkin gave the Penguins a one-goal edge, including a right pad stop on a Gionta slap shot from the right point. Pascal Dupuis dropped an empty netter in the final 15 seconds to seal the 2-0 win for Pittsburgh. Fleury flirted with a shutout and succeeded. The shutout was Fleury’s fourth NHL playoff shutout. The Penguins snatched back home advantage with the Tuesday’s triumph in Canada.
Parting Points: Sad news about the passing of legendary broadcaster, Ernie Harwell.
In other Detroit area sports stories--It looks like the Sharks are on the verge of eliminating the Red Wings.
Song of the day- Beck’s “E-Pro”