Pitt closes out series sweep, advances to Cup Finals

The Pittsburgh Penguins have now become the first team since the ’84 Islanders to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals after missing out on a chance at Stanley Cup glory in the previous season. Despite Carolina’s anchor, Eric Staal, finally getting on the scoreboard, Pittsburgh rolled to a 4-1 victory, ending the series and setting the Penguins up for a potential rematch of last year’s Cup finals, as Detroit currently holds a convincing 3-1 series lead over the youthful Blackhawks in the Western Conference Finals.

Staal scored his first goal of the series on Carolina’s first shot of the game, which must have given the Canes some sense of relief, as they had won every game in which their superstar had scored throughout the playoffs. However, seven minutes later, Ruslan Fedotenko scored for the second straight game, tying the contest at 1 apiece. Ten minutes later, the Pens got a little bit of luck when Maxime Talbot’s shot flipped up off of a Carolina defensemen’s skate and over the glove of Cam Ward to put the Penguins up for good.

In the second, Bill Guerin stripped the puck from Anton Babchuk, the same defenseman that deflected Talbot’s shot in, and quickly turned the play into a 2-on-1 opportunity with Sidney Crosby. A few short seconds later, Crosby slid the puck back to Guerin, who promptly buried it in the back of the net. Craig Adams scored his second empty net goal in as many games with a little over a minute left to play in the game.

While there was plenty to talk about as far as how both teams played in this series, one of the most talked-about incidents occurred after the series was over. In a move largely considered to be unlucky, while accepting the Prince of Wales trophy as the Eastern Conference champions, Crosby grabbed the trophy and held it up for all to see. Most hockey fans and players are superstitiously cautious about even touching any trophy prior to winning the Stanley Cup, but Crosby decided to shake it up a bit. His explanation: “I thought we’d change it up this year.” After last year’s Conference Finals win over Philadelphia, Crosby had followed hockey code and left the trophy squarely in its place on the presentation table, and Pittsburgh went on to lose to Detroit in six games. With a probable Cup finals rematch on the horizon, Crosby made it clear that this is a new season and that the Penguins don’t plan on repeating their performance from last year.