The Penguins are on such a roll, right now, it doesn’t seem to matter who is missing from the lineup. Once again, Pittsburgh won in dominating fashion despite missing their two top players, top winger, and best defenseman.
Instead, the trade acquisitions went to work and contributed six points and four of the Penguins’ six goals. Brenden Morrow score two while Jarome Iginla and Douglas Murray each added a goal.
Now, the magic number is four for the Penguins to clinch the top seed in the Eastern Conference.
After trading penalties, the Penguins broke a scoreless tie with a goal 7:24 into the opening period. Brandon Sutter led a two on two rush and snapped a shot past Peter Budaj, beating the goaltender on the glove side.
Two minutes later, the Penguins got a goal from Brenden Morrow. Craig Adams went to the net but lost control of the puck. After bouncing off a few sticks, the puck found the tape of Morrow who blistered a shot past Budaj from the left wing circle.
Exiting the first period with a two goal deficit would have been manageable for the Montreal Canadiens. But a goal from Jarome Iginla with 21 seconds remaining in the period appeared to be a backbreaker. Kris Letang sent the puck to Chris Kunitz down in the corner. Letang cut to the net expecting a return pass but the puck went past him and landed on Iginla’s stick before going in the net for a power play goal.
Carey Price would start the second period for Montreal.
Brenden Morrow got on the board for a second time with a goal four minutes into the second period. Beau Bennett took a stretch pass from Matt Niskanen at the blue line and started a two on one with Morrow. Bennett waited for Davis Drewiske to go down before dishing a saucer pass to Morrow for the tap in goal.
Brian Gionta scored for Montreal three minutes later, but the Penguins quickly countered with a power play goal from Brandon Sutter.
Alex Galchenyuk got the Canadiens within three when he roofed a shot in front of Fleury with 2:25 remaining in the second period.
Brenden Gallagher took a double minor for high-sticking Matt Cooke but the Canadiens killed the penalty then scored the next goal. Gabriel Dumont scored his first career goal less than a minute after the Canadiens killed the double minor. Dumont took a pass from David Desharnais and fired a wrist shot from the right face off dot to beat Fleury’s glove hand.
The Canadiens couldn’t celebrate for long as Douglas Murray scored to break the longest active goal-less streak at 146 games. Murray released a wrist shot and the puck went through three Montreal players before getting past Price.
From there, the Penguins wore down the Canadiens and essentially sealed their fate as the top seed in the Eastern Conference.
Brenden Morrow fought PK Subban, then was sent to the box for coinciding roughing minors with Brandon Prust. As the final minutes ran down, Chris Kunitz took a run at Max Pacioretty and missed. Subban jumped in after the play and went after Kunitz, leading to a game misconduct.
All the message sending for the Penguins was taken care of with the score. Andrei Markov scored with 10.4 seconds left but Pittsburgh would finish with a 6-4 victory and a perfect 3-0 record against the Montreal Canadiens this season.
- The Penguins are 14-1 in their last 15 home games.
- Jarome Iginla’s goal marked his 1100th NHL career point.
- The Canadiens have lost three in a row, giving up 18 goals in that period.
Three Stars
- Brenden Morrow
- Brandon Sutter
- Douglas Murray
Photo courtesy of NHL.com
