The Ottawa Senators are putting up a battle against the reigning Stanley Cup champs.
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The Senators eliminated the Bruins in Round 1, ousted the Rangers in round 2 and now play the defending Stanley Cup champion Penguins in a victor take all Game 7 Thursday night in the NHL’s Eastern Conference Final.
However, another pretty unexpected final develops in the east.
On Tuesday, Pittsburgh Penguins coach Mike Sullivan, Ottawa Senators coach Guy Boucher and referee Kelly Sutherland were mic’d up to capture the sounds of Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Final between the Penguins and Senators in Ottawa. Although the Predators are in their first conference final, they come in with one of the deepest lineups, with C Ryan Johansen and RW Viktor Arvidsson among the unsafe players on a team that does offense by committee. “Andy was huge tonight again”.
“That’s fine with us”. Guys are competing for their ice, which is much expected at this time of year.
“We have to win the same way”, Boucher said. Ottawa has been channeling their best defensive play and goaltending from Craig Anderson, to stay strong in the post-season. Only Evgeni Malkin was able to score for the Penguins.
I’m not sure what exactly was said between the second and the third period, but Ottawa looked like a very different team to start the final frame.
“I wouldn’t say I closed my eyes”.
“I think Anderson was the reason that they got this one, he played big for them”, Murray said.
Second, Sullivan put a physical presence on each line – forwards Chris Kunitz, Rowney, Wilson and Josh Archibald – and they helped fuel an aggressive forecheck that has created turnovers, zone time, prime scoring opportunities and goals.
Had it not been for Anderson, the Senators wouldn’t have stood a chance going into the third. They outshot the Senators by 16.
“We played a good game”, captain Sidney Crosby said.
In Game 7, anything can happen. “From that moment on you have to look forward and get ready for the next one”.
The Senators and Penguins will face off for game 7 tomorrow, Thursday, May 25, at 8 p.m.
We tried to win another way, and we got our butts kicked, Boucher said. “It was honestly just a good, positive talk”. As Ottawa’s Clarke MacArthur puts it, “We want to bore them out of the building”. That second-period tally gave the Penguins a brief lead, but the Sens tied it on Bobby Ryan’s power-play goal, and they took the lead on a Mike Hoffman slap shot in the third period.
Could Ottawa slow down a Pittsburgh power play that had scored on its last three opportunities with seeming impunity? “It’s wonderful what not holding on the puck will do”.
Standing just beyond Game 7, potentially, is another Cup and maybe even another Conn Smythe. Murray and Fleury can both hold it down, but right now, all eyes are on Matt Murray to take us all the way.
“It’s a roller coaster all series, not just this one, but all the previous ones”.
Preds beat the Blues in Game 1 4-3. In fact, Sunday’s game five was the first game in which the Penguins scored over two goals in the first period.
After a review it was determined that Daley had kept pushing Anderson, preventing him from making the save.
“You crash sometime in November, December or January”, said former Pittsburgh Penguins coach Dan Bylsma, who led the Penguins to a Stanley Cup in 2009.
Those Red Wings, by the way, fell to the Penguins in seven games.
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The Penguins appeared to score the game’s first goal at 3:04 of the second, when Sidney Crosby set up Trevor Daley in the slot and the Penguins defenseman took a shot, then a couple of follow-up whacks at the rebound that Anderson could not smother.
