Canadiens 3, Penguins 2

The Pens outplayed the Habs early on in this game. They dominated the game for most of the first period. What they didn't do was pepper Price with shots. They seemed to be holding onto the puck, trying to get him to make the first move. They also didn't get many shots from the point. Gonchar wound it up a bit later in the game (though he missed the net most of the time), but that's not going to cut it.

The Habs slowly turned the tide in the second period with a power play goal. I don't blame Fleury for that one - that pass to Plekanec went straight through the middle of the box, from one side to the other. There's no way that pass should go through. I do think Fleury could have stopped the second one, but it was Kovalev, and he is really good.

The Pens made it interesting in the third, but even though they were down 2-1 going into the third, they were out shot 14-7. At home. In the third period. That seems to speak of a lack of effort, but I'm sure that some of it was the aforementioned holding of the puck to get Price to move.

In looking at the stats, Crosby had 6 shots to lead the team, but I'll be cow-kicked if I can remember any of them. I'm guessing most of them were in the garbage area.

Malkin had a sick pass from behind the net on the backhand to Talbot, who wasted no time in ripping a nice shot. Other than that and his late game drive to the net (which HAD to be a penalty, though I haven't seen any good replay), Malkin seemed to be a step slow.

Fleury still seemed a bit shaky. He made some great saves, but also suffered from poor rebound control. I think he'll be okay in the long run. The bigger picture here is that the Pens allowed 35 shots and Marc-Andre stopped 32 of them. A .914 save percentage isn't bad.

I do have some photos from the game, but those will have to wait for a separate post.

Next up: at Toronto on Saturday