Pittsburgh star Evgeni Malkin notched his first playoff hat trick as the Penguins beat the Carolina Hurricanes 7-4 on Thursday to open a 2-0 lead in the NHL’s Eastern Conference finals series.
Pittsburgh’s other big-name player, Sidney Crosby, scored a record-tying sixth goal to start a playoff game this season, yet was upstaged by NHL regular-season scoring leader Malkin, who scored twice in the third period to give him a 25-24 goals edge over Crosby in playoffs.
In its two previous playoff rounds, Carolina had bounced back from losing the opener to square it in Game 2, but couldn’t manage it this time, even though the Hurricanes tied the game three times.
PHOTO: EPA
Carolina will host Game 3 today.
Crosby scored with less than two minutes gone and Malkin just more than six minutes later.
Carolina responded on both occasions, with goals from Chad LaRose and Jussi Jokinen. A Dennis Seidenberg goal put Carolina up 3-2 after the first period.
Pittsburgh got the only two goals of the second period through Max Talbot and Chris Kunitz. Kunitz goal with only seven seconds remaining was his first in 24 games
The Hurricanes turned to their fourth line to get the goal back as Patrick Eaves scored 2:35 into the third, tying the game 3-3.
Carolina stalled after that, unable to match Pittsburgh’s speed or the repeated ability of their stars to find open ice for repeated scoring chances.
Malkin, seemingly motivated by Carolina’s attempts to be more physical with him than usual during the second period, made it 5-4 with 8:50 gone in the third period.
Malkin, who set up several scoring chances in the final period, made it 6-4 less than four minutes later with a one-man goal. He picked up the puck in the corner, carried it behind the net and used a spin move to put a backhander past goalie Cam Ward from a sharp angle for his 10th of the playoffs.
“It was a great shot,” Carolina defenseman Seidenberg said. “I don’t know who saves that. He’s a great player and great players, eventually they break out. Today was his day it seemed like.”
As dozens of hats littered the ice, Malkin’s father, Vladimir, repeatedly kissed his mother, Natalia — the parents are visiting from Russia — as Penguins fans cheered them almost as loudly as they did their son.
“It was good to do that for my parents,” Malkin said. “I was very happy I could do that for them.”
Ward couldn’t handle the repeated flurries by the Penguins, who have scored 29 goals in six games. Tyler Kennedy completed the scoring later in the third for Pittsburgh.
The Penguins are trying to become the first team since the 1984 Edmonton Oilers to lose in the Stanley Cup finals one season and win it the next.
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