Thursday, April 22, 2010
Associated Press
PITTSBURGH
The young Pittsburgh Penguins have been through everything the playoffs can offer over the past three years, but the relatively benign scenario they face in Game 5 against the Ottawa Senators is perhaps the one they’ve been least adept at handling.
In advancing to the Stanley Cup finals each of the past two years, defending champion Pittsburgh twice came back to win series after losing the first two games. It also won Game 7 twice on the road and was 4-1 when facing elimination.
But the Penguins have lost four of six times since 2008 in their first opportunity to end a series in a game they do not face elimination themselves — and that’s what they face tonight.
Pittsburgh leads the series 3-1 after winning three straight, including two in Ottawa.
“Any time you have a chance to beat a team you want to do it,” Penguins center Max Talbot said. “Yes, we failed to do that last year. This year is obviously a new year. You learn from it. That is the good thing about the experience we have gained in the last couple years where we have been playing a lot of playoff games.
“If it was our first year then we might feel overconfident here wanting to end their season,” he added, “but we know they are going to come to play. We have learned from it. We can definitely say that we will be at our best and be ready to win this.”
Facing a similar situation in the first round against Philadelphia last season, the Penguins played one of their worst games of their postseason in a 3-0 loss at home in Game 5.
This season, the Penguins have gotten better as the series has progressed. They took a 4-0 lead six minutes into the second period of Game 4 on Tuesday and went on to a 7-4 victory, having outscored Ottawa 13-7 since losing 5-4 in Game 1.
“Playoff series are all about getting four wins and trying to get there as quickly as you possibly can,” Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said.