Montreal Canadiens Stun Penguins in Series Win, Advance to Playoffs

Carey Price kept the Pittsburgh Penguins off the board, and Artturi Lehkonen scored the game-winner as the Montreal Canadiens stunned the Pittsburgh Penguins in their series win.

At the time of the NHL’s shutdown in March, the Montreal Canadiens were ranked 24th overall in the NHL standings. Today, they had a chance to close out their series against the Pittsburgh Penguins as a result of an expanded playoff format.

Prior to today’s tilt, some notable lineup changes were made by Montreal Canadiens head coach Claude Julien. Due to going hard into boards in game 3, Alex Belzile subbed in for Jake Evans. However, the lineup change that stood out MST was Nick Suzuki starting between Tomas Tatar and Brendan Gallagher. The 20-year old rookie has clearly induced a sense of trust into his coach and is earning a position that would have eventually been given to him as he matured. However, it came earlier than expected after a strong start to the series.

First Period

Neither of the two teams were able to take control of the game in the first period, only exchanging a small handful of opportunities by its conclusion.

For the Montreal Canadiens, the Penguins not getting their star players on the scorecard was beneficial. For the Penguins, on the other hand, going scoreless in the first twenty minutes of play in an elimination game was far from ideal.

The shots were 8-5 in favour of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Frustration had seeped into them as they have been unable to solve Carey Price for long stretches during the series.

Second Period

The second period was more or less uneventful as both teams were kept scoreless, strongly resembling the first in both pacing and offensive chances.

Third Period

The pace of the game had quickly picked up by the start of the third. Both the Montreal Canadiens and Pittsburgh Penguins exchanged convincing chances. Tristan Jarry, in his playoff debut, impressed early by stopping a breakaway from Montreal Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher.

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Evgeni Malkin‘s struggles continued on the Penguins’ first powerplay, hesitating to shoot on a clear pass for the one-timer. It will be interesting to hear if Malkin was dealing with any underlying issues that was affecting this play or if it was a simple reason for going cold at the wrong time.

The Pittsburgh Penguins began to control the pace of play with good chances from some of their best, but the goal post was their biggest enemy on those chances. Later on, the Montreal Canadiens took complete control of the game. Veterans and youth alike carried the team to outplay the Penguins, giving them little room to respond in the process.

After Paul Byron and Ben Chiarot were unable to finish their plays, Artturi Lehkonen was the one to break the scoreless tie late into the third period. The Montreal Canadiens took the 1-0 lead, forcing the Penguins to pull Tristan Jarry from his net with little time remaining. Shea Weber, guaranteed the Montreal Canadiens win with an empty-net goal.

Final Score: Montreal Canadiens (2) – Pittsburgh Penguins (0)

The Montreal Canadiens accomplished something that almost none thought they were capable of. The question of whether they can go further or not remains to be seen, but with what they have shown as of late, they may not make it easy for their next opponents. However, after pulling off this upset, they may not be underestimated by their next opponents.

The Montreal Canadiens will play the top seed, the winner of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Philadelphia Flyers Round Robin game, in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.