PITTSBURGH (AP) -Evgeni Malkin on a breakaway, just missed. Miroslav Satan with an open net in front of him, just missed. Sidney Crosby off the post, just missed.
The Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 1 of their Stanley Cup finals rematch against Detroit? Just missed.
The Penguins were certain they had shed the inexperience, the shakiness, the lack of confidence and the unfamiliarity with the championship setting that marked their 4-0 and 3-0 losses in Detroit during the first two games last year.
After goalie Marc-Andre Fleury gave up a soft goal less than seven minutes in to Brad Stuart, they were a much different team than that in those two forgettable losses last May, controlling the play for most of the next 25 minutes.
mostly missing from Malkin and Crosby, the two leading scorers in the playoffs, and so was their finishing game.
Repeatedly, the Penguins were an inch or two off on a shot, a split-second or two behind on a play and, in Fleury’s case, a bit too slow to react. It made all the difference as they lost for the first time in six games and only the second time in 11 games during a playoff surge that was beginning to resemble that of their last Stanley Cup run in 1992, when they won their final 11.
Even co-owner Mario Lemieux could feel it, saying 90 minutes before the opening faceoff that, “We have a different mind-set, a different style of play (from 2008) and hopefully this year is our year.”
It may still be, but Game 1 – again – wasn’t their game, and they now find themselves playing from behind against the NHL’s most accomplished group of winners, and without home-ice advantage. The Penguins have only about 21 hours to regroup before Game 2 on Sunday night, unless they want to go home down 2-0 like they did last year.
Unlike those two defeats, however, this was a winnable game for the Penguins, who appeared to find their game after Ruslan Fedotenko’s tying goal late in the first. They controlled much of the second period, but they couldn’t convert on the game’s first two power plays and repeatedly missed chances to take the lead.
goals in four games against Carolina, scooped up the puck off a Niklas Kronwall giveaway only to be stopped by Chris Osgood about 3 1/2 minutes into the second. If the Penguins go on to lose the series, they may regret this failed breakaway the way Washington did after Alex Ovechkin was similarly stopped early in Game 7 of the conference semifinals.
Later in the period, coach Dan Bylsma – sensing the next goal might be decisive – played Crosby and Malkin together, something he rarely did even when the Penguins fell behind in the Washington series. Not long after he did, Satan was in perfect position in front to convert when Pittsburgh caught Detroit in a bad line change, but he couldn’t put it in.
Maybe the misses wouldn’t have made that much difference if Fleury had played better, but two of Detroit’s goals deflected in off the goalie’s skate and he also didn’t react in time to stop fourth-line forward Justin Abdelkader’s first playoff goal early in the third.
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