MALKIN STARS AS PENGUINS TOP ‘CANES

The Carolina Hurricanes have been unable to slow down the Pittsburgh Penguins’ high octane offense in the first two games of the NHL’s Eastern Conference finals, and that’s why they’re in a 0-2 hole.  On Thursday night, it was Evgeni Malkin who gave them the most grief as he scored three goals for ‘the hat trick’ and the Penguins romped to victory by a final score of 7-4.  The series will resume on Saturday at the RBC Center in Raleigh, NC. 

Pittsburgh was a -185 home favorite in game two, while the combined 11 goals scored easily surpassed the posted total of 5’.  The Penguins have now gone OVER the total in five of their last six games and seven of their last ten, while Carolina played OVER for only the third time in eleven contests.   The OVER also contradicted the recent head to head history between the two teams—only two of the past eight at Pittsburgh and four of the past thirteen over all have exceeded the total. 

Five goals were scored in the first period, and after the opening twenty minutes of play the Hurricanes held a 3-2 lead.  Sidney Crosby opened the contest with his 13^th goal of the playoffs at 1:51 of the period assisted by Chris Kunitz and Bill Guerin.  Carolina would answer at 3:07 when Chad LaRose lit the lamp set up by Ray Whitney and Eric Staal.  Evgeni Malkin would get the first of his three goals at 8:15 assisted by Tyler Kennedy and Matt Cook, but Carolina would almost immediately tie the score on Jussi Jokinen’s goal from Scott Walker and Rod Brind’Amour.  The Hurricanes’ Dennis Seidenberg would find the net for an unassisted goal at 12:10 to give the ‘canes the advantage heading into intermission. 

Despite holding the lead heading into the second period, Carolina was playing at the Penguins’ preferred tempo so it was only a matter of time until their opponents’ superior offensive firepower would prevail.  Maxime Talbot tied the game with his goal at 3:11 of the second period assisted by Malkin and Crosby, and Chris Kunitz’s goal at 19:52 gave the Penguins a 4-3 advantage at the break.  Carolina tied the contest early in the third period when Patrick Eaves scored from Ryan Bayda and Patrick Dwyer, but after that Evgeni Malkin took over the game.  Malkin scored his 2^nd of the night at 8:50 from Chris Kunitz, Matt Cooke, and followed up with an unassisted goal at 12:55.  Tyler Kennedy would put the puck into an empty Carolina net at 18:11 to give the Pens their final margin of victory.

Afterwards, Malkin was nonplussed by his big effort, but said that he was happy to get the hat trick with his parents visiting from Russia:

"It was a great game for me It was good to do that for my parents. I was very happy I could do that for them."

Teammate Bill Guerin added:

"He played a determined game. He's got that size and skill."

Carolina defenseman Tim Gleason predicted that his team would rebound on their home ice:

"This isn't going to be a four-game series, I'll tell you that."

If the Hurricanes are going to extend this series, they’ll need goaltender Cam Ward to bounce back from his game 2 debacle.  The usually solid Carolina netminder allowed six goals, the most in his NHL playoff career.  Ward had never before lost a playoff game he’d started with his team trailing in the series going 7-0 in that spot with a microscopic 1.41 goals against average.