Pens win Game 4, sweep Carolina to head to SCF

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Woohoo! The Pens are going back to the Stanley Cup Final again this year after beating the Canes for the fourth time by a score of 4-1. How awesome does this feel? We don't know how we're going to wait until the finals start. If the Wings don't beat the Hawks tonight to take the series, we're looking at waiting until June 5th more than likely. That's way too long.

Game recap

Aftermath: Penguins 4, Hurricanes 1

- Once again the Canes had all the momentum at the beginning of the game and even got a goal from their star player who hadn't scored all series not even two minutes in and they still manage to lose. Obviously we're not complaining but they had to just be out of gas. We fully expected this series to be a lot harder than it was.

- Fleury may have given up that goal early, but he was solid the rest of the game. That stick save in the first period was awesome. People like to complain about Fleury a lot, but he's shown he's clutch. And he wins games. How can you complain about that?

Fleury save about 1:20 in.

- Sidney Crosby and Bill Guerin are looking really good right now. Last night we had a pass from Crosby to Guerin on a 2-on-1 for a nice goal. The game before, basically the same thing but reversed. We have to admit we weren't all that impressed when we heard Guerin was coming here but he sure has been valuable in a lot of ways. Does anyone think he plays like he's 38? We don't. Sidney Crosby can do that to you.

- How can you argue with keeping Boucher in the lineup instead of Dupuis? He's played well and that pass to Feds last night for the Pens' first goal was nice.

- We have to give a lot of credit to Cam Ward. He was by far their best player in the entire series and, a lot of the time, the only one who showed up. He made a lot of great saves and tried to keep his team in games and he was just not backed up. He just couldn't do it all himself and when you're left out to dry like he was over and over, goals are going to get scored. He took a lot of the blame but we don't think he deserves to. Hardly any of the blame should be placed on him.

- Crosby is close to the playoff record for points and he dishes off the empty netter to Craig Adams instead of going for it himself. What a player. Now Adams has three goals in the playoffs, two of them empty netters. Although that empty netter directly off the faceoff was awesome. That's skill.

- Sidney Crosby touched the Prince of Wales trophy?! He's shocking us all this year. First the hat and now this? Is he sick? We definitely think the whole not touching the trophy thing was a little over the top. Besides, Mario Lemieux touched it both times before winning the Stanley Cup. How can you argue with that? The trophy even got a nice ride home.

Picture is from the Penguins Facebook page and thanks to Seth from EN for finding it.

The Prince of Wales trophy presentation:

Max Talbot's phenomenal interview with Dan Potash after the game:

Interviews with Sidney Crosby, Bill Guerin, and Marc-Andre Fleury:

Pens coverage at the Post-Gazette

Who's next? Bring it.

Go Pens!

Game 4

The Pens have the chance to sweep the Canes and end this series tonight. How nice would that be? Quite the turn from the Washington series. If the Pens continue to play their game and the Canes continue to have LOMS (loss of mind syndrome), this should be over tonight. It still amazes us how the Canes have allowed Crosby and Malkin to do as they wish while they stand around mesmerized at their talent. But by all means, don't stop now. It's time to end this thing.

Game preview

Game 3 Yinz Luv 'Da Guins:

Go Pens!

Pens win Game 3, up 3-0

(AP)

Did anyone think it would be quite like this and that the Pens would be up 3-0 on Carolina? We definitely did not. The Hurricanes came out pretty strong and got the first goal fairly early in the game. Things weren't looking so good early for the Pens. If we only knew what was to come. Geno would score twice, Crosby once, and there would even be a crazy empty netter directly from a faceoff. Cam Ward was by far the best player on the ice for the Canes and was the only reason this game wasn't much, much worse. Carolina seemed to be caught standing around an awful lot. We know Sid and Geno are pretty spectacular but there's no excuse for standing around. As far as we're concerned they can continue to do it and the Pens will take win four and be on their way. The amount of mistakes the Canes made was quite ridiculous, but like we said, they can do it all they want as far as we're concerned.

Game recap

Aftermath: Penguins 6, Hurricanes 2

We apologize but we'll have to finish this post sometime later as we don't have time now.

Go Pens!

Game 3

The Pens head down to Carolina tonight for game 3. The crowd should be good, Bill Cowher might be there after all (ack), and it will get the Canes going. We all know the Canes aren't going to lay down and take a beating, they've been resilient in the playoffs. It should be tough but if the Pens can play their game, we don't see why it should be any different than game 2. Although, if there's any chance we can get the crowd to do a few Crosby sucks chants or throw some popcorn on Geno, we'd be in good shape.

Game preview

Yinz Luv 'Da Guins - Game 2:

Jim's Bill Cowher is great.

Pens coverage at the Post-Gazette

Get ready.

Go Pens!

Pens take Game 2, up 2-0

(AP)

Whew! What a game. It was hard to settle down in this one, but what else is new? Crosby starting the scoring less than two minutes in felt good. But that didn't last long. It was back and forth goals until about half-way through the third period and then Geno decided that enough was enough and the Pens were going to win this game to take a 2-0 lead on this series. Who would have thought a 7-4 Pens win?

Game recap

Aftermath: Penguins 7, Hurricanes 4

- What a night for Geno. He was playing unbelievably awesome (Geno's word) hockey last night and scored a hat trick. The first goal he scored after jumping on the ice was a little nuts in our opinion. He made it look so easy. Jumps on the ice, goes hard to the net, shovels a puck past Ward and celebrates. Easy as pie. Right. And then if you thought he was done, you were so wrong. The crowd started a GENO! chant just before his second goal. Talk about perfect timing. Then right before his third goal we were like, okay Geno, time for a hattie! Oh yeaaaaah! What a shot! A no-look backhander? That's a Sidney Crosby move! We have to say it again, what a shot! The Versus announcer's call was pretty amusing, OH MY WORD! Lol. That was actually a play called "the Geno." Dan Bylsma said it isn't called the Geno for nothing. Talbot also said Geno told him what he was going to do and he did it. Lucky? No.

- How cool are Geno's parents? They get cooler every game. Geno's Dad was practically in tears after Geno's third goal and gave Mom a big kiss on the side of her head. What down to earth people. It's so nice to see something like this. Could  they fit in any better in Pittsburgh? We hope they never have to go back to Russia. Geno plays out of his mind when they're around. We couldn't find the Versus interview after the game with him but he was asked about his parents being here for this and he cited his Mom's good food. What a guy. He also said that his backhander goal was lucky. Yeah, okay Geno. His parents need to take the trip down to Carolina for sure.

- "My parents are superstars now." - Geno  Quote of the night for sure.

- Sidney Crosby: what a player. His drive is unmatched. Except maybe sometimes by Geno. He was out there doing everything and taking a beating doing it. He opened the scoring for the sixth, yes sixth, time in the playoffs. That's insane. We may be biased, but we're also not stupid. We'd take Crosby (or Malkin) over Ovechkin any day.

- Chris Kunitz finally had a goal! A nice one at that. His goal with 7.4 seconds left in the second period broke the tie and put the Pens up 4-3. We thought he had played well in the playoffs although putting in a goal or two is always good too. Now he finally gets off of people's bad list. At least for now.

- We don't know what it is with Max Talbot, but he scores big goals in big games. Geno got him the puck on a breakaway and Max decides to take a page out of Geno's book and blast a slap shot by Cam Ward. Nice.

- The Pens went 3-for-3 in killing penalties, including some 4-on-3 time. We liked how aggressive they were and they even got a couple chances to score shorthanded, including a Jordan Staal breakaway chance. Speaking of which...

- Are we the only ones that think Jordan Staal needs some confidence or something? His defensive play is great but his offense? Not so much. We're not saying he needs to bury that chance 100% of the time but geez. He's had quite a few chances to score in these first two games and the shots either haven't been good ones, he fans on it, or he decides to pass when he really should just shoot. Our answer is confidence and maybe he needs some but who knows.

- What happened to Miroslav Satan? He's looked really good in the playoffs. That one-on-one chance against Ward that he buries after some sick moves and now he's fighting?! Seriously, what's going on? He definitely deserves his spot in the lineup. We thought he always shied away from hits or fights. Not anymore obviously.

- Marc-Andre Fleury wasn't as sharp as he could have been, but he made the stops he needed to make. That big toe save early in the game was awesome. His love of his posts also obviously comes in handy at critical times. After a good shot hit the crossbar, Fleury could be seen giving it a nice pat down for it's fine work in saving that goal. You treat it well, it will treat you well back.

- Tyler Kennedy may not be scoring goals every night, but he continues to amaze us night in and night out. His energy is nuts. We have no idea where he gets it but it's pretty awesome. If he's racing to the puck, there's a good chance he's going to get possession of it. His work along the boards is great and he's not afraid to hit someone. He also had a heck of a shot on that empty netter. ;)

- Lastly, what is with the crowd? This is the Eastern Conference Finals, you need to be louder. There were plenty of times where we were like, WTF?! You're supposed to be jacked the entire game and you had plenty of goals to be jacked about. They were good at times but overall it was pretty unimpressive. Kind of embarrassing.

Geno's hat trick:

Geno's post-game comments:

Penguins at Post-Gazette

Go Pens!

Canes, Game 2

So, has it seemed like an eternity and then some since game 1? We think so. This whole schedule thing sucks for the fans. Way too long between games. But tonight is finally game 2 and it's time for the Pens to step-up their game and get a 2-0 lead to head into Carolina.

Game preview

If this doesn't pump you up for the game, we don't know what will:

If you haven't seen any of the other Benstonium videos, do yourself a favor and go to benstonium.com and watch some more. They have a lot of hilarious parody videos that you'll definitely love.

'Crosby Effect' Sets Agenda for Pens' Success

Pens coverage at the Post-Gazette

Enjoy the game. Go Pens!

Pens take Game 1

(AP)

What a way to start a series. A win and a big game from Marc-Andre Fleury. We don't think the Pens played their best game but they held on to beat the Canes 3-2. By no means are we saying they played badly, we just feel they have more in them, especially from the defense.

(AP)

The Staals would start the game on the ice together. In case you didn't know, they're brothers. Remember that. The game started out fast, no easing into this series. Both teams had chances and both goalies were good, especially MAF. He was sharp early and the game could have easily gone the Canes way by one or two goals without those awesome saves. How he does it we'll never know because we'll never have that flexibility or athleticism.

The Canes would take two penalties back-to-back to give the Pens four minutes with the man-advantage but the Pens wouldn't score. Then it was the Canes turn on the power play. Fleury would make some amazing saves to keep the score 0-0. Miroslav Satan would come out of the box and get the puck on a breakaway leaving him one-on-one against Cam Ward. We kind of held our breath and to be honest, didn't expect a goal there. But wow, what a move by Satan to score on Ward. Pens up 1-0.

(AP)

Geno decided that one goal wasn't enough for the Pens. A little over a minute later Geno would put a backhander behind Ward to make the game 2-0 just like that. Mom and Dad were proud. Please tell us they'll be in Carolina too.

(AP)

Marc-Andre Fleury was still on in the second period when he made another big save. But you knew the Canes were going to score eventually and they did with a little under seven minutes left in the second period. Pens up 2-1. But a little over two minutes later and you're getting nervous because it appeared the Canes scored again to tie the game. Not so fast. You can't come to the net and completely run over a defenseman and force him into the goalie and then score. Goaltender interference was called as it should have been. No goal. The Pens would have a power play but no goal.

This is where things get more fuzzy. We take notes or we'd be able to write nothing now because we'd forget pretty much everything. But then we start to suck at taking notes and have to think, WTF happened? Yeah, we know, fail. We should just live blog every game, we might be better at that.

As for some things we remember, Geno had a breakaway with over twelve minutes left in the third and was denied by Cam Ward. Unfortunately this wasn't much of a surprise because Geno, for whatever reason, just isn't good at one-on-one situations. Maybe he should just do the whole slapshot from in close like in last year's playoffs against Philly and work on that over the summer. We still love you Geno.

The Pens would get a power play and keep their streak of scoring a power play goal in six, now seven, straight games alive. Philippe Boucher would score to put the Pens up 3-1. The Pens would give the Canes a power play with a little over two minutes left in the game. Not a good move. This is the Canes team that likes to score big goals late, no need to give them more opportunity. Unfortunately they would get another goal to cut the lead to 3-2 with a little over a minute left. Fortunately, the Pens held the Canes off and won 3-2.

Series 1-0 Pens. Looks good to us.

Game recap

Aftermath: Penguins 3, Hurricanes 2

- The game was pretty entertaining with some fast hockey but we don't think we saw the best out of the Pens. We won't speak on the Canes because we haven't watched them enough, but it's not like they played badly. The Pens defense could be a bit better and we expect the power play to look better as the series goes on. We also felt there were a few lazy, sloppy issues but nothing alarming by any means.

- Baseball is going to drive us absolutely nuts. We had to wait for what felt like forever for the Pirates game to end and then the post-game show to end. It's now midnight and the Pens post-game show just got over. We know people still like the Pirates and we always watch how they're doing, but when there's playoff hockey going on, we don't want to see Pirates baseball. Yeah, they beat the worst team in the NL, congrats. And even better yet, there's baseball Thursday and Saturday for the next games. Yee-haw! Just turn over to FSN after the game for the Pens post-game. Yeah right.

- Were we the only ones who saw a few "dirty" things going on? It wasn't a lot and we suppose it happens all the time but we guess we're in the mindset that we're not playing the Flyers or even the Caps. We should probably feel lucky for that.

- A little bit on the same line, Eric Staal decided to shove Fleury's stick away more than once before they scored their goal. Most people, including Fleury, thought that should have been a penalty. Yeah, we know, they can't catch them all but if it leads to a goal it's a little upsetting.

- We'll have to find the video of Marc-Andre Fleury in the post-game press conference. What an accent first of all, and second he was a little confused on whether to use the word bum when describing that late save on Eric Staal. No guarantees on tonight though, we have to go soon.

- Big Ben was in the house praising Sidney Crosby. Was it just us or did Ben look...a little chubby in the face? Someone been eating too much cheesecake? James Farrior was also in the house but of course Versus wouldn't show you that. Seth said in his live blog that Ben got a nice applause but Farrior received the better of the two. Hmmm? The Steelers, minus James Harrison, will head to the White House on Thursday. If you haven't read his quotes on this, we'll try to find them later. Kind of weird and doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Pens coverage at Post-Gazette

How are we supposed to wait until Thursday for the next game?! What a cruel schedule.

Go Pens!

Pens to face Canes in Eastern Conference Final

(Getty)

What an end to the Bruins and Hurricanes game. The Canes pulled it out in overtime and they'll be headed to Pittsburgh to start the series on Monday. We weren't really on one side or the other in this game at all, we saw pros and cons to both. But now it's bring on the Canes. And of course we can't forget that the Staals are brothers. Be prepared to be reminded 11.2 million times per game.

The schedule:

2009 EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS

Monday, May 18 at Pittsburgh, 7:30 p.m. VERSUS, TSN, RDS

Thursday, May 21 at Pittsburgh, 7:30 p.m. VERSUS, TSN, RDS

Saturday, May 23 at Carolina, 7:30 p.m. VERSUS, CBC, RDS

Tuesday, May 26 at Carolina, 7:30 p.m. VERSUS, CBC, RDS

* Friday, May 29 at Pittsburgh, 7:30 p.m. VERSUS, CBC, RDS

* Sunday, May 31 at Carolina, 7:30 p.m. VERSUS, CBC, RDS

* Tuesday, June 2 at Pittsburgh, 7:30 p.m. VERSUS, CBC, RDS

What is up with this schedule? Why so many two day breaks? More Yanni concerts? That has the potential to make us go nuts.

On a brighter note, the Pens don't have any games on NBC while the Hawks vs. Wings series has two. Yeah! That means no Pierre McGuire and the big screen will be up and running outside Mellon Arena. Double yeah!

Get ready.

Go Pens!