NHL: Nasty start to playoffs for Penguins, Senators

There are no reviewed versions of this page, so it may not have been checked for adherence to standards.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Senators lead series 1-0. (Best of Seven)

3

6

The young Pittsburgh Penguins were given their first taste of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs, Wednesday night. Needless to say, they didn't enjoy it. The Ottawa Senators defeated the Penguins 6-3 to take a one game advantage in the best of seven series. The game went from bad to downright nasty, with 20 penalties between the two clubs throughout the game, keeping the officiating crew busy throughout the game.

The experienced Senators exploded out of the gates, taking an early lead just 1:37 into regulation, when Andrej Meszaros scored the first goal of the series. Chris Kelly would score 5:01 later to double the Sens' lead to two goals. In the second period, Tom Preissing would give Ottawa a 3-0 advantage at 14:38. The Penguins would finally get on the scoresheet 2:20 later, when rookie Jordan Staal scored his first career playoff goal, to make it a two goal game. Dany Heatley scored the Senators' second power play goal of the night, just 0:09 into the final period, beating Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, who was under siege for most of the night. Ottawa wouldn't let up, scoring two more goals before Sergei Gonchar found the back of the net. Sidney Crosby would tally his first career playoff goal with :49 left in the game, burying the puck behind Ottawa goaltender Ray Emery.

Crosby appeared to have scored earlier in the third period to narrow the score to two goals, when both Crosby and the puck plowed into the net, but the ruling was overturned, leaving Crosby and the Penguins bench shaking their heads in disgust. In the post game press conference, Crosby said that he would have to see the replay before ruling for himself if he had scored or not.

Fights erupted several times throughout the game, and the penalties mounted for each team as the tension grew. The teams entered the game with a mutual dislike for each other, and no doubt left loathing each other. Perhaps the most exciting outcome of the game is the anticipation for the next game of the series. The Penguins and Senators face each other again, Saturday afternoon, in the best of seven series.

Have an opinion on this story? Share it!

Scoring Summary

Scoring Summary
No.	Period	Time	Team	Scorer (No.)	Assists	Score
1	1st	1:37	OTT	Andrej Meszaros (1)	Mike Fisher, Peter Schaefer	1-0
2	1st	6:38	OTT	Chris Kelly (1)	Joe Corvo, Chris Neil)	2-0
3	2nd	14:38	OTT	Tom Preissing (1) PP	Jason Spezza, Joe Corvo	3-0
4	2nd	16.58	PIT	Jordan Staal (1)	Maxime Talbot, Ryan Whitney	3-1
5	3rd	0:09	OTT	Dany Heatley (1) PP	Daniel Alfredson, Anton Volckenkov	4-1
6	3rd	5:39	OTT	Chris Neil (1)	Wade Redden	5-1
7	3rd	8:22	OTT	Mike Comrie (1)	Peter Schaefer, Anton Volchenkov	6-1
8	3rd	12:42	PIT	Sergei Gonchar (1) PP	Evgeni Malkin, Mark Recchi	6-2
9	3rd	19:11	PIT	Sidney Crosby (1) PP	Sergei Gonchar, Mark Recchi	6-3

Goaltending

Goaltending
Team	Player	Shots	Saves	Save Pct.
PIT	Marc-Andre Fleury	36	30	.833
PIT	Jocelyn Thibault	1	1	1
OTT	Ray Emery	26	23	.885

Three Stars of the Game

#1 = Daniel Alfredsson, RW, Ottawa Senators - 1 Assist

#2 = Chris Neil, RW, Ottawa Senators - 1 Goal, 1 Assist

#3 = Anton Volchenkov, D, Ottawa Senators - 2 Assists

External links

Sources

Share this:

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.

Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

The text of this article is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License