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NHL: Pens in finals after series sweep

The Carolina Hurricanes’ Sergei Samsonov, left, and Joni Pitkanen pressure the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Sidney Crosby during the third period of Game 4 of their Eastern Conference finals in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Tuesday. PHOTO: AP

The Pittsburgh Penguins booked their return trip to the Stanley Cup finals on Tuesday, sweeping aside the Carolina Hurricanes with a 4-1 victory in Game Four of the NHL Eastern Conference finals.

The Penguins, who blanked the Hurricanes 4-0 in the best-of-seven series, will meet either defending champions Detroit, who beat Pittsburgh 4-2 in last year’s finals, or the Chicago Blackhawks.

Detroit, who lead their Western Conference series 3-1, had a chance to set up a rematch against Pittsburgh with a victory over the Blackhawks at home yesterday.

“It’s relief we have another opportunity,” said Penguins captain Sidney Crosby, who had two assists in the win over Carolina.” [But] we haven’t accomplished what we wanted.”

Crosby said he had no preference for Pittsburgh’s opponents in the Stanley Cup finals.

“To go what we went through last year was tough, but we’ve got a chance here and we want to make the most of it,” he said.

He even picked up the Eastern Conference trophy in a change from last year.

“We didn’t touch it last year and things did not go the way we wanted to, so we switched it up,” Crosby said.

Eric Staal broke a six-game scoring drought after only 96 seconds to give Carolina a 1-0 lead in the first period before Pittsburgh took command.

Ruslan Fedotenko, Max Talbot, Bill Guerin and Craig Adams scored the Penguins’ goals, with Crosby assisting on the final two.

“It just doesn’t feel very nice knowing that tomorrow we’re all done,” Staal said.

Penguins netminder Marc-Andre Fleury made 30 saves, shutting out the Canes after Staal’s tally. Carolina goalie Cam Ward had 21 saves in losing the first post-season series of his career.

The Penguins, who finished the regular season fourth in the Eastern Conference, knocked out Philadelphia, Washington and now Carolina to get to the final. It was a big turnaround for a team once 10th in the conference and struggling to make the playoffs.

“As we built confidence, as we won more games, we changed our goals,” Crosby said.

The Washington series, which went seven games, was a major boost, he said.

The Penguins last won the Stanley Cup in 1992, the second of back-to-back titles.

After Staal’s early goal, Fedotenko hit back seven minutes later and Talbot made it 2-1 for Pittsburgh, with a cruel bounce off Hurricanes defender Anton Babchuk sending the puck over the glove of Carolina netminder Ward with 1:29 left in the first.

Guerin pushed the score to 3-1 off an assist by Crosby in the second and Adams wrapped it up with an empty netter in the third after another Crosby assist.

“The third goal was a huge goal for us,” said Penguins coach Dan Bylsma, who took over for the fired Michel Therrien in February. “It gave us some breathing room.”
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