Home Sweet Mellon

Pittsburgh returns home tonight on Thanksgiving eve carrying a bit of momentum after their third period heroics on Monday in Atlanta. In spite of the injuries taking their toll on the team and the slow starts in a number of games this year, the Pens are on top of the Atlantic division and just four points behind the San Jose Sharks for the league’s best record. With the rash of injuries so early in the year the Penguins have been forced to rely on secondary scoring and that hasn’t been such a bad thing of late. Mike Rupp has been a huge contributor along with Pascal DuPuis as their tenacious attitudes lend them to playing any style of hockey. The unsung heroes are undoubtedly going to play a large role in another Cup run if the Penguins are looking to repeat in this still young season. For Montreal, their strong play has been much due to the success of Mike Cammalleri and Tomas Plekanec who have been on fire recently. Cammalleri has been on a tear with five goals and two assists over the last two games and Plekanec has added one goal and nine helpers over that same time period. The Pens advantage on the Habs will most definitely be at the offensive end as they have scored twelve more goals than Montreal thus far on the year so Pittsburgh will most likely look to push the pace early in this one to open the scoring.

The Pens received some good news today as defenseman Kris Letang has been cleared for contact in practice so it shouldn’t be long before he is back out on the ice contributing to the team. Pittsburgh won’t waste any time getting their forecheck going tonight as that was as large factor in the Penguins runaway 6-1 victory when these two teams met last month. This one gets going with Carey Price in net for Montreal for the second night in a row as the Canadiens are coming off of a game last night against Columbus. A few minutes into the action the Penguins finally get some substantial possession in the Montreal zone was the fourth line works the puck around well with Mike Rupp, Craig Adams, and Eric Godard doing some investing in the zone as Dan Bylsma likes to term it. Marc-Andre Fleury has made a few alert pad saves for the Pens on some relatively surprising chances for the Habs in the Penguins zone. Flying over the blue line, Sidney Crosby moves into the Montreal zone and zings a shot over the glove hand of Price who was nearly frozen by the quick shot from Sid to give the Pens a 1-0 lead midway through period number one. More heads up play by Fleury as he is tested on a shot by Glen Metropolit and the pace continues to be fast and furious in the opening frame. A fantastic opportunity for Montreal as the period nears its end with Fleury flopping around on the ice to stop two shots by Travis Moen as he covers for a much needed whistle.

Period one comes to a close with the Penguins maintaining their 1-0 advantage, but the Canadiens are starting to come alive a bit on offense as they evened the shots on goal to eight a piece in the 1st period. With the great play of the fourth line thus far tonight there has to be a lot of optimism in the Pens locker room heading out for the drop of the puck in period two. The second gets started and the Pens get a great chance off of a D to D pass as Sergei Gonchar rips a shot from the point the comes off of the pads of Price but the Pens are unable to bury the rebound. Montreal gets a two on one chance as Fleury stops the shot by Plekanec and the rebound just hops over Cammalleri’s stick. The Pens earn a power play as some hard work by Maxime Talbot draws a tripping call on Tom Pyatt. The Penguins get some rubber on the net on the power play and even though the penalty expired, the puck never left the Montreal zone as Bill Guerin takes the puck to the net and finagles the biscuit behind Price to take Pittsburgh’s lead to 2-0. Montreal is getting some good pressure on the Penguins net as Fleury makes two nice stops on Ryan White. Another nice bit of pressure for the Canadiens forces Fleury to come up with a gem of a glove save on a Montreal shot from the circle. A brilliant no look pass by Crosby from down below the circle area into the high slot to Gonchar is directed past Price and the Pens move further ahead to 3-0. A penalty late in this second period is the first called on the Penguins as Adams takes a high sticking minor.

The Pittsburgh penalty kill takes care of the first half of the Adams penalty as Montreal will carry the remainder into the start of the 3rd frame. This up-tempo game is really starting to wear on the Canadiens as the Pens just look to be a step ahead of them out on the ice on every occasion tonight. Period three starts with the completion of the penalty kill for the Pens as Adams comes out of the box. Some frenetic play continues from there as neither team is able to establish much of a rhythm in the early moments of the final frame with no shots registered for either team in the first five minutes of the 3rd. The Canadiens fight shows up as the Pens commit a costly turnover in their own end and pay the price as Max Pacioretty puts the puck behind Fleury off the rush to get the Habs on the board down now just 3-1. A penalty to Roman Hamrlik for tripping helps give the Pens a power play but the Canadiens get the best chance shorthanded on that power play as Fleury makes a phenomenal glove save on Ryan O’Byrne to maintain the two goal advantage. The crowd appreciates the effort from The Flower as they erupt with applause and begin a “Fleury” chant. Pittsburgh is beginning to clog things up in the neutral zone now to try and run some seconds off the clock as time is the enemy of the Canadiens at this point. Montreal does not even attempt to get the extra man on the ice as they elect to leave goalkeeper Carey Price on the ice until time expires.

A great effort from the role players on this Penguins team is the headline after this game as some quality shifts by the fourth line established a presence for the Pens early and often in this one. Rupp, Godard, and Adams put in some top notch ice time in this contest and they often go unnoticed for their valuable contributions to this team. Montreal put up a game effort tonight in a back to back situation but they were just unable to keep up with what the Penguins had to offer at either end of the ice as Fleury built on his momentum of late playing a solid game in net and Crosby was equally impressive on the night making things happen in the offensive end. Overall this was yet another team effort from one end of the bench to the other as the Penguins all put in valuable ice time on the night. Friday will be the after Thanksgiving trip to Long Island as the Pens battle the Islanders and then the Rangers on Saturday in a back to back situation which could mean some ice time for backup goaltender Brent Johnson.

Tags: Bill Guerin, Brent Johnson, Carey Price, Craig Adams, Dan Bylsma, Eric Godard, Glen Metropolit, Jordan Staal, Kris Letang, Marc Andre Fleury, Max Pacioretty, Mike Cammalleri, Mike Rupp, Montreal Canadiens, New York Islanders, Pascal DuPuis, Roman Hamrlik, Ryan O'Byrne, San Jose Sharks, Sergei Gonchar, Sidney Crosby, Tomas Plekanec, Travis Moen