MONTREAL, QUEBEC. – Sidney Crosby finally found a way past Jaroslav Halak, but it wasn’t enough to see the Penguins home as the Canadiens grabbed a 4-3 win to take the series to game 7.
Halak was outstanding again, making 34 saves while Mike Cammalleri scored his tenth and eleventh goals of the play-offs to keep the Habs’ hopes alive. Despite being somewhat battle worn, missing Hal Gill, Andrei Markov and Paul Mara through injury, Jaroslav Spacek returned after missing nine games with a virus to score a decisive goal and guide the Canadiens defence through the storm as they were outshot 37 to 25, with rookie D PK Subban continuing his meteoric rise with almost 30 minutes of ice time on the night.
Maxim Lapierre added another marker to his play-off tally, while it was Cammalleri again who popped up with the game winning goal. The former Los Angeles and Calgary forward now leads the play-offs in goals, as well as being fourth in points with 16 behind Jonathan Toews, Johan Franzen and Crosby.
‘Sid the Kid’ grabbed his first goal in six games as he enjoyed new found freedom without hulking defenceman Gill shadowing him, with Kris Letang also scoring and Bill Guerin grabbing a late marker with the goalie pulled. The Pens had chances to win the game, seeing Evgeni Malkin and Sergei Gonchar both hit the post to highlight why it is referred to as ‘the goalies best friend’.
But now the defending champions face a difficult prospect against a resilient Montreal team, who have already knocked out top seeds Washington during the post season after taking them to a seventh game also.
The Pens sat out Ruslan Fedotenko and Alexei Ponikarovsky for the second straight game, while Montreal saw Hal Gill skate in the warm up, but he was unable to play in the game. Gill left game 5 with a cut behind his knee which is still giving him some difficulty. It is also highly unlikely either Markov or Mara will return for the decider at the Mellon Arena, despite both participating in some light skating earlier in the week
Contact the author: rob.mcgregor@prohockeynews.com
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