The Pittsburgh Penguins shredded Montreal’s penalty-killing unit that the Canadiens used so well in the opening round of the NHL playoffs, beating the visitors 6-3 on Friday in the first game of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Defensemen Kris Letang and Alex Goligoski each had a goal and an assist, Sidney Crosby set up two goals and Jordan Staal and Sergei Gonchar also scored as the Penguins’ power play went 4 for 4.
That is three more goals than the Washington Capitals scored with the man advantage across seven games in Montreal’s stunning first-round series win, when the Canadiens killed 32 of 33 Washington power plays.
Bill Guerin added an empty-net goal and had an assist as the Penguins won Game 1 for only the second time in five playoff series.
The Stanley Cup champion Penguins, winners of eight of 10 playoff series since 2007, are in position to take a 2-0 lead in Game 2 at home today.
Pittsburgh used a very different power-play strategy against Montreal than did Washington. They screened Canadiens goalie Jaroslav Halak in front and, rather than carrying the puck through traffic and into Montreal’s collapsing defense, they instructed their undefended point men to keep pumping one-timers at the net.
The Penguins’ first three goals — by Gonchar and Staal in the first period and Letang early in the second — all came from center point and couldn’t be stopped by Halak, who turned aside 131 of the Capitals’ final 134 shots in the first round.
Halak let in five goals from 20 shots on Friday and was pulled early in the third for Carey Price, several minutes after Goligoski made it 5-2.
The Canadiens, playing two days after finishing off one of the biggest first-round upsets in NHL history, didn’t look to be off their game or fatigued despite the quick turnaround. They held Pittsburgh to 16 shots in the first two periods and 24 overall and kept stars Crosby and Evgeni Malkin from scoring.
The rested and patient Penguins, playing for the first time in six says, simply looked better.
Brian Gionta had a goal and an assist, and the Canadiens led when P.K. Subban scored unassisted on a shot from the right point with four minutes, 30 seconds gone. Pittsburgh’s Gonchar tied it about four minutes later after Gionta’s tripping penalty. Staal put the Penguins ahead to stay by cutting across the middle and beating Halak with a wrist shot at 13 minutes, 27 seconds of the first.
Staal, who has never missed a game to injury in his four NHL seasons, hurt his right leg after being undercut by Subban behind the net near the midpoint of the second period and didn’t return.
The Canadiens played the final two-and-a-half periods without defenseman Andrei Markov, who sustained an unspecified lower body injury while being upended by Penguins forward Matt Cooke.
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