Mid-April Fleuries: Pens lead series 1-0

The puck never had a chance.

The city of Pittsburgh was antsy all day today with everyone anxiously awaiting the first game of the playoffs against the Tampa Bay Lightning.  In a mere 5 years, Penguins fans have learned to enjoy mid-April hockey as a right and an annual ritual (in all fairness, we learned that as a ritual 2 decades ago, but there was a little break in the dark years).  Tampa Bay came into this game with a much different feel.  This would be the first playoff game they played in 4 years, with less than half of their roster making it to the playoffs before.  So where would this take us?

The first period started as you would expect for the home team.  The crowd was electric, undoubtedly the loudest it has ever been at Consol.  The Kovalev-Letestu-Neal line got off to a quick start with Neal getting a quick shot on Roloson.  Coming back the other way, Brooks Orpik absolutely leveled Steven Stamkos to set the tone...or at least we thought it would set the tone.  Tampa fought through a tough first minute and then threw an onslaught on the Penguins.  Pittsburgh chose to throw the body and Tampa Bay chose to throw the puck.  The Lightning got off to a quick 7-1 lead in shots half way through the period despite Pittsburgh hitting everything that moved.

The period was pretty much back and forth hockey with Tampa Bay holding an offensive edge.  The big story of the 1st period was the...sigh...failure of the Penguins powerplay.   The Pens went 0 for 3 on the powerplay, getting a measly 1 shot.  Tampa was lining up all 4 guys on the blue line and forcing the Penguins to dump it in, where they would proceed to lose the race to the puck and watch it get cleared.  Tied at 0 after a period.

"Oh, we'll get them in the shootout...wait, there's no shootout anymore?!"

The Lightning came out with half of a powerplay left to go to start the 2nd.  Vincent Lecavalier found himself on the doorstep and took a nifty shot that was flat out robbed by Marc-Andre Fleury.  The Penguins had the opportunity to go on the powerplay a few minutes later, and actually made it look like they cared for once.  They managed 6 shots on the chance, but Dwayne Roloson was playing tremendously in net.  The rest of the period saw an increase in hitting and an even bigger shot total with the Penguins leading that 28-21.  But both goalies stood tough, finishing the 2nd period tied at 0.

Alex Kovalev...formerly Alexei, but was too lazy
to sign beyond Alex

The 3rd period started much more tentatively than the first 2, but the Penguins continued to have a decided edge in play.  Finally, Roloson was broken on a flat out lazy play by Alex Kovalev.  Kovalev was tripped (a non-call) by the net and proceeded to get up slower than Bob Dole pre-Viagra.  Luckily, Pavel Kubina's stick was stuck in Kovalev's legs, so Kubina could not clear the puck.  The puck ended up getting to Paul Martin, who made a nifty tip pass to James Neal, who fired a pass across the slot to Kovalev, who had not moved at all.  Kovalev fired the puck into a wide open net to make it 1-0.

Just 18 seconds later, Arron Asham made it 2-0 as he drew Roloson out of the net and wrapped it around the other side for an easy empty net goal.  From this day on, it will be deemed that Roloson learned his technique from watching the goalies in NHL '94.  The Penguins had a chance to pile it on, but failed to score on a 5 on 3 powerplay in which the Lightning put Lecavalier and St. Louis on the penalty kill to create an offensive break.  The final tally was scored with less than a minute left as Chris Kunitz put in an empty netter to finish the game.

Final score:  3-0 Pens
Goals:  Kovalev (1), Asham (1), Kunitz (1)

3 Stars:
#3 - Staal (1 A)
#2 - Kovalev (1 G)
#1 - Fleury (32 saves)

Notes/Thoughts:

- If the Penguins could make their powerplay look even somewhat formidable, this series would end incredibly fast.  However, Tampa Bay still has no reason to fear taking penalties.

- Similarly, Lightning coach Guy Boucher wasn't exactly happy that Tampa had 6 penalties and Pittsburgh had 1.  A lot of the strategy in playoff hockey is to get into the ref's heads as well, so don't expect a similar difference in Game 2.

- Jordan Staal played a solid game, but missed 3 wide open one-time chances.  It didn't matter so much at the end of this game, but he's gotta make contact with those in close games.

- Marc-Andre Fleury's shutout was his 5th career playoff shutout, one shy of Tom Barrasso's team record of 6.  Good thing Ray Shero was "crazy" and didn't trade him in October, right?

- Orpik and Letang did an absolutely fantastic job of going against Ryan Malone in front of the net as neither defensemen gave up body position and both were physical on Malone.  That will be a big key in keeping the path clear for Fleury to make saves.

- Dan Bylsma passed Scotty Bowman for playoff wins with his 24th of his career.

- Martin St. Louis had a double root canal after the game for the "high stick" from Michalek that wasn't called.  Just when you thought a 3-0 loss couldn't get any worse...

Game 2 on Friday, LET'S GO PENS!!!