GAME FOUR RECAP (Penguins 4, Red Wings 2)

Well, now there's something different from last year. After four games last year, the Penguins were down 3-1; this year it's knotted up at 2. It's premature to draw anything out of that, given that if the Penguins lose tonight, they'll be at the same place they were last year-- down 3-2 and returning home.

But if the fans and the media are getting ahead of themselves a little after Game Four's win, it's difficult to blame them, because the team really does seem different from last year to this. Malkin's dominant play is obviously the biggest part, but the teamwide commitment to forcing the Wings to make mistakes is nearly as important.

I wrote after Game Three that the Penguins needed to get a goal out of the Staal-Kennedy-Cooke line at least once every three games. I hadn't really looked at their stats, but prior to Game Four, the Penguins' twenty-first goal in the playoffs, their aggregate was six goals-- three for Kennedy, two for Staal and one for Cooke. So they were due.

Staal's second-period tying goal didn't come with his linemates, though, but it was way, way better. Staal took a lead pass from Max Talbot while the Penguins were killing a second consecutive minor penalty, went straight up the ice and fought off Brian Rafalski long enough to get off a wrist shot that beat Chris Osgood. Some goals are worth more than a single point, short-handed goals chief among them.


The goal that made the remainder of the game a little less nail-biting was the prettiest one scored thus far in the playoffs, and The Incredible Malk wasn't even on the ice. Typically, highlight reel goals celebrate great individual efforts, but if the Red Wing Machine has taught us anything, it's that hockey is a team game. And the Penguins' fourth goal, youtubed herein, was the best team goal scored this postseason. Whether through an incomplete line change or a hunch by Dan Bylsma, Tyler Kennedy got part of a shift with Sid Crosby and Chris Kunitz. Kunitz can't bury anything these days, but he's become the Adam Oates of the postseason. Henrik Zetterberg and Nicklas Lidstrom have earned their reputations for shutting down the opposition's offense, but they'd either been out too long or they weren't ready for the Penguins' inventiveness. Kennedy harrassed Zetterberg into giving up the puck near the left point in his own zone, then passed the puck to Kunitz and went straight for the corner of the net. Kunitz sent the pass across the ice to the top of the right circle, where Crosby was skating in. Crosby took the pass and one-timed it across the slot again to where Kennedy was parked, and he one-timed it into the empty net.

Beautiful, beautiful goal. But it's only 2-2.