Quest For The Cup 09-10

[Black Panther]

"We're in it to win it".
Everyone respects the Pens

When a franchise wins 23 Stanley Cups you've earned more than respect.

[mister b]

I agree, the Pens need to stay on the throttle or the Habs will win it. Let them get #24 some other year, not this year.

Game is on Verses Saturday night and the Pens have got home ice back.

LETS GO PENS!!!

[Black Panther]

The Pens win Game 5,2-1. Another sparkling performance by Fleury tonight.We still need Sid to step up in game six.So we can close the kitchen on the Habs...If we dont we may get our faces shaved with rusty razors..

[d-5]

I couldn't watch ,had to work.. oh well game six is next Go Habs

[mister b]

LETS GO PENS!!!

[d-5]

Habs 4 Pens 3 Game seven is next sweet Molson's for all tonite on me Go Habs

[mister b]

Habs 4 Pens 3 Game seven is next sweet Molson's for all tonite on me Go Habs

darn! Pens are going to lose this. 3 goals against Halak is a gold mine and should have been enough.

Bad night for the 'Burgh, Pens and Bucs both lose by 1.

Iron City hangover in the morning to forget the night.

LETS GO PENS!!!

[d-5]

Any fan of any Pro team in any sport can only wish that year in and year out there team (s) can or will compete and make the playoffs .with a chance to win it all .(IE see all Ohio pro teams ) these Habs have already overachieved win or lose it's been a good season ,That is all a fan can ask for Go Habs

[d-5]

MONTREAL -- This postseason, Montreal goalie Jaroslav Halak has saved his team on more occasions than it would like to admit.

Monday, in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals against Pittsburgh, Halak’s teammates returned the favor. Specifically, it was Michael Cammalleri that bailed out his goaltender.

Shortly after Halak allowed his weakest goal of the entire playoffs, failing to squeeze a harmless wrister from Kris Letang that dribbled between Halak’s arm and body on the blocker side, Montreal scored a pair of goals 2:30 apart in the second period to take control of the game and lay the foundation for a 4-3 victory that sends this best-of-7 series back to Pittsburgh for a winner-take-all Game 7 on Wednesday night.

Halak also rebounded from his gaffe against Letang, making 34 saves to allow Cammalleri’s heroics to stand up.

Now, for the second-straight series, Montreal finds itself leaving the Bell Centre to play an improbable Game 7.

In the first round, Montreal erased a three-games-to-one deficit against top-seeded Washington before winning Game 7 at the Verizon Center by a 2-1 margin.

This time, they head to Mellon Arena with designs of springing another monumental upset by denying the defending Stanley Cup champions their third-straight trip to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Montreal was never supposed to have a chance in this game; not with defenseman Hal Gill -- their secret weapon against Sidney Crosby -- unable to answer the bell.

Gill, who had done the lion’s share of the work in keeping Crosby without a goal in this series, suffered a lacerated leg in Game 5 and, despite skating in the pre-game warm-ups, could not play in this game.

But this never-say-day team has had little use for supposed death sentences.

So they just plugged Jaroslav Spacek -- out for the past 9 games -- into Gill’s spot and went motoring right along.

In fact, the normally offensively challenged Canadiens opened the scoring on this night, just 73 seconds into the game when the unstoppable Cammalleri played a little give-and-go with Tomas Plekanec to gain some separation from Sergei Gonchar on a 2-on-1 before firing a wrister that beat Marc-Andre Fleury high to the glove side.

But a little more than six minutes later, Crosby answered with his first goal of the series, a bat-in of a puck sent airborne when Marc-Andre Bergeron blocked Mark Eaton’s point shot.

Pittsburgh took the lead 5:21 into the second period when Letang, who made the turnover that led to Montreal’s first goal, was granted the gift goal by Halak that made it 2-1.

Suddenly, the Pens were in the driver’s seat. They had the lead against a team that had yet to reach double digits in shots and had less than a handful of scoring chances in the game’s first 25 minutes. Let’s not forget, the Penguins are a team that has closed out its last five playoff series away from home. This is a veteran team that knows how to win on the road.

But no obstacle seems too big to overcome by these Habs, especially with Cammalleri leading the way.

Cammalleri tied the game with 10:45 left in the second period, scoring on a sick backhander that began an almost unheard of three-goal barrage by a team that had just 9 goals in the first six games. That goal was Cammalleri’s NHL-leading 11th of the playoffs and sixth of the series. He had just one playoff goal to his credit in six games before this postseason.

But it was Spacek, out for this whole series and pressed into duty when Gill couldn't go, who authored a magical moment in the already rich playoff history of this team.

Stationed at the top of the zone, he took a patient pass from Scott Gomez and waited a split second himself before firing a low shot through traffic that eluded Fleury.

"It was tough to watch all this hockey -- I would like to be out there with the guys trying to get it done," Spacek said of his time on the sidelines. "But I'm so happy to come back tonight."

Grinder Maxim Lapierre gave the Canadiens some breathing room midway through the third period when a great individual effort got him free of defenseman Alex Goligoski and allowed him to barge out into the slot and power a shot past Fleury, who made 21 saves.

That goal turned out to be the game-winner after Bill Guerin tipped a Gonchar drive past Halak with 1:24 remaining.

But the Canadiens held on and now head to Pittsburgh full of confidence ready to meet their latest date with destiny -- a Game 7 against the defending Stanley Cup champions.

"I think we played great today," Spacek said. "If we play the same way like we played tonight in Pittsburgh, I think we have a chance to have success there."

[rivercat]

Wow, what a series! Fan's in both arena's have been amazing. Can't wait for game 7.

[d-5]

Habs 5 Pens 2

[mister b]

Bloody hell.

Halak is a WALL. He has carried this team to 2 wins against very good offensive teams, Pittsburgh and Washington. This is what any team needs to win the Stanley Cup, a goalie who is seeing the puck so well, he seems to anticpates the play before it happens.

If the Habs win the Cup, Montreal better put up a bronze statue of him in front of the Bell Center.

I tip my cap to him and wish the Habs all the luck in getting Cup #24. I'll be rooting for them.

Still love my Pens. They had every chance to win this series but couldn't finish. 300 games in 3 years is a fine achievement. We are young and will be back.

LETS GO PENS!!! and good luck Habs.

[Black Panther]

This game was way too emotional to comment on right now.All I can say is congrats to the Habs on a well earned series victory.

[Black Panther]

D5,You have a PM from me..

[d-5]

The Canadiens were the first NHL opponent to play in the Igloo with a 2-1 victory over the Penguins on Oct. 11, 1967, and built a 4-0 lead to get a bookend victory to close the oldest building in the National Hockey League.

[Black Panther]

From your PM I know who you would like to play in the next round. I myself would have liked to have played the clowns in Orange. But alas it wasn't meant to be..Good Luck!

[d-5]

the clowns in Orange can still win game seven is Friday Go Habs

[Black Panther]

They'll win ...If the Pens would have won it would have been the Bruins..lol

[d-5]

2010 EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS

SERIES M #7 vs. #8
Network
Sunday, May 16 at Philadelphia, 7:00 p.m. VERSUS, CBC, RDS
Tuesday, May 18 at Philadelphia, 7:00 p.m. VERSUS, CBC, RDS
Thursday, May 20 at Montreal, 7:00 p.m. VERSUS, CBC, RDS
Saturday, May 22 at Montreal, 3:00 p.m. NBC, CBC, RDS
*Monday, May 24 at Philadelphia, 7:00 p.m. VERSUS, CBC, RDS
*Wednesday, May 26 at Montreal, 7:00 p.m. VERSUS, CBC, RDS
*Friday, May 28 at Philadelphia, 7:00 p.m. VERSUS, CBC, RDS
GO HABS

[d-5]

Philadelphia 6 Habs 0 , I have seen this before