GAME THREE RECAP (Penguins 6, Hurricanes 2)

The Hurricanes got exactly what they wanted to get in the early stages of Game Three. They scored an early goal in the first four minutes to take a lead and get the crowd involved. They had been undefeated when scoring first. Some sloppy penalty-killing allowed the Penguins to tie the game, but Carolina killed another penalty and Ward continued to play very, very well in keeping the Penguins off the board with about a minute to go in the first period. You take a tie into the first intermission, then regroup and try to come out harder in the second period.

And then it happened. The Crosby line started a rush with Guerin taking a lead pass that was behind him, then shuffling the puck between his skates and onto his stick. He took a few strides, then sent a long backhand saucer pass across to the far post, in a path to intersect where Sidney Crosby would be in a moment. Joni Pitkanen had played the diffuse 2-on-1 to break up the pass, but he swung and missed on the floating disc, and it came right to Crosby's backhand, and he deflected it past Ward. Then Bylsma puts Malkin out to close out the remainder of the period. The puck is dumped into the Carolina zone and instead of rattling around the boards, it hits a linesman and stops. The closest guy to the puck is Malkin, and he retrieves the puck, cuts along the goal line and puts a shot between Ward's pads. And puts the game out of reach.