Series-leading Pens eye Canadien closeout

Associated Press

MONTREAL

In a playoff series where neither team has won consecutive games, the Montreal Canadiens need to begin a two-game streak in Game 6 against Pittsburgh to continue their surprising bid for a 25th Stanley Cup.

And with the Penguins fashioning a huge home win in Game 5 to take a 3-2 series lead, the reigning Cup champions want to take full advantage of their first opportunity to close out the Eastern Conference semifinal Monday night at Bell Centre.

“They’ve won three, we’ve won two, and it could have been easily the reverse,” Canadiens coach Jacques Martin said Sunday. “I mean, it’s been an outstanding series. You’ve got some great players and so I think that we’ve just got to continue battling, realizing that we don’t have a second chance. [Tonight], it’s do or die.”

Montreal’s injury-depleted corps of defensemen was dealt its latest blow when Hal Gill was forced to leave Saturday night’s game after he was sliced on the back of his left leg by Pittsburgh center Chris Kunitz’s skate.

Gill remained in Pittsburgh overnight for treatment. He flew back to Montreal with team physician Dr. David Mulder on Sunday.

“What he has done for the Canadiens this year in the playoffs is not a surprise to us,” said Penguins coach Dan Bylsma, who gave his players a day off before flying to Montreal.

Gill, who left Pittsburgh as a free agent and signed with Montreal last summer, was put on the ice by Bylsma for the final play of the Penguins’ 2-1 win in Detroit in Game 7 of last year’s finals.

“We knew we were playing a guy who had won four series last year as a shutdown guy,” Bylsma said. “He has been all of that. He has been all of the 6-foot-7 that he is out on the ice.”

Andrei Markov, who has been sidelined since suffering a right knee injury in Game 1, was dressed in a track suit as he tested his skating ability at the Canadiens’ suburban practice facility Sunday. Paul Mara, who is recovering from shoulder surgery and hasn’t played since Jan. 22, skated with Markov and was dressed in a full uniform.