Pens take commanding 3-0 series lead in Carolina

The Pittsburgh Penguins are one game away from advancing to their second consecutive appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals, as they dominated the Carolina Hurricanes throughout Game 3 of their Eastern Conference Finals matchup. Evgeni Malkin turned in another incredible performance, notching two goals and an assist to bring his league-leading playoff point total to 28. Adding to the Canes’ misery was the fact that Pens captain Sidney Crosby chipped in a goal and an assist. Perhaps the most devastating aspect of the Penguins’ superstars’ efforts was the fact that all three goals came in the first period, two of them in the last 45 seconds, helping the Pens put a stranglehold on the game very early.

Interestingly enough, the Hurricanes were the first to strike in this, their first home game of the series. Matt Cullen beat Fleury just four minutes into the first, and it appeared that Carolina might have had the necessary drive to stretch this series out. But a little over two minutes later, while on the powerplay, Malkin got open for a pass from Crosby and dangled his way to the net, beating Cam Ward with a quick wrister from in tight. With under a minute left to play in the period, Crosby redirected a beautiful pass from Bill Guerin over the outstretched Ward. Half a minute later, Malkin somehow managed to stuff the puck in, and give the Penguins all the offense they would need to win.

The second period was played tightly, with both goalies making quality saves throughout. Ward would finish the game with 34 saves, while Fleury turned aside 32 Carolina shots. In the 3rd, Carolina again appeared to gain some life when Sergei Samsonov scored less than 2 minutes into the period, cutting the lead to 3-2. In the second half of the period, however, it was all Pittsburgh again, as Ruslan Fedotenko, Craig Adams and Guerin chipped in goals. Adams’ goal proved to be the backbreaker, although he had little to do with the puck going in. On a faceoff just outside the Pittsburgh zone with Ward on the bench in favor of an extra attacker, Jussi Jokinen won the draw straight back, but it eluded both Carolina defensemen and somehow found a path all the way down the ice into the vacant net with under two minutes to play. Guerin added a powerplay goal with a little over a minute to play, adding insult to injury.

While Carolina has played extremely well throughout the playoffs, the Penguins have proven themselves to be too deep offensively for Carolina to matchup with consistently, and the Penguins have now scored 12 goals in their last two contests. Malkin and Crosby have been major factors, with Malkin recording 9 points so far. The primary advantage that the Penguins have over Carolina is the fact that they have two top-quality scorers on different lines, making it nearly impossible for Carolina to adequately defend against them.