Eastern Conference Finals

Pre-game Stories: Potent power play propels Penguins. Hurricanes need a big game from Staal tonight. Bill Cowher cranks Hurricanes' siren before Game 4. FINAL T Pittsburgh 4 Carolina 1 Game Preview Game Scoresheet Team Game Threadsthe PensBlogCanes Country Game Recap Game Notes: Carolina is 5-0 when facing elimination games. (Tied for 5th longest streak in NHL history). 1st Period Eric Staal opens the scoring with his 10th of the playoffs. The Canes are 7-0 in the playoffs when he scores. Carolina carried the play for the first 5 minutes. Fedotenko gets his 6th of the playoffs to tie the game on a shot from Boucher at the point to tie the game. Eric Cole has not scored a goal in the last 31 games. (5 assists in 31g) Talbot scores a weird goal. What's worse. Daryl 'Razor' Reaugh saying OMG. 1st Period Stats: Shots: Pittsburgh 9, Carolina 5 Hits: Pittsburgh 10, Carolina 13 Giveaways: Pittsburgh 2, Carolina 2 Faceoffs: Pittsburgh 10, Carolina 10 2nd Period: Canes start on the PP but have nothing doing. Battle of the goalies. Guerin scores on a nice feed from Crosby to give the Pens a 2 goal lead. 2nd Period Stats: Shots: Pittsburgh 10, Carolina 16 Hits: Pittsburgh 10, Carolina 20 Giveaways: Pittsburgh 1, Carolina 2 Faceoffs: Pittsburgh 11, Carolina 10 3rd Period: Both goalies continue to play well. Pens have a 5 on 3 with 7 minutes to go in period. Crosby unselfish as you would expect on a 2 on 1 with an empty net passes to the former Hurricane Adams to give Pittsburgh the lead and ensure that Pittsburgh advances to the Stanley Cup Finals with a sweep in the Eastern Conference Finals. Guerin making his 1st cup appearance since 1995 when he won as a rookie with the Devils. 3rd Period Stats: Shots: Pittsburgh 6, Carolina 10 Hits: Pittsburgh 5, Carolina 8 Giveaways: Pittsburgh 3, Carolina 2 Faceoffs: Pittsburgh 9, Carolina 10 3 Stars: 1st Star: Marc-Andre Fleury. He made some spectacular saves throughout the game. 2nd Star: Sidney Crosby. 2 Assists tonight and continued to show why he wear's the C. 3rd Star: Eric Staal. He did everything he could tonight without much help from his team. Post Game Press Conference: Pittsburgh Head Coach Dan Bylsma. Q. How did it feel getting through the series in 4 games? A. To be real honest, I didn't think it felt easy at all, you know I look back at the games we were down in game 2, 3-2 after 1 and 4-4 mid way thru the 3rd and ends up 7-4 but it certainly didn't feel like that throughout the game and they make it a 1 goal game in Game 3 and the place gets pretty rambunctious, and we had to battle it out to get the win and it ended up being a big number but it didn't feel that way and tonight again they got the early lead and i thought it was the game that was the hardest for us to get into the offensive zone and play there so from that standpoint tonight was there best game in terms of limiting our time with the puck....They battled in every game, came at us in every game and they never quit. Q. How did you feel about Sidney Crosby touching the Prince of Wales Trophy? A. I've won a confernece final and not touched it and lost. The team that we played touched it and won. ...Past history at least in Pittsburgh is that Mario touched it the two years they won the conference finals.Q. Where in the season do you think this team came together? A. We had a 5 game road trip and won all 5 games on that road trip, won the 5th game in a shootout, but it was the 4th game in Florida, I don't recall the total number of shots we put up but I think it was 45 or in that range and only won the game 2-1, we were persistant in our game plan to get to the offensive zone, and we won game 1 in Chicago, we won in Dallas but it was that win in Florida that the success started to breed a bigger buy-in, as this was the way to play and getting the win in Washington against a team that had beat us pretty soundly, I think in the 3rd game that I was coaching, that was a big win after the Florida game to accent the fact that now we are having success, this is the way we need to play and its about doing that for 60 minutes every night. Carolina Head Coach Paul Maurice Q. What do you say to your team in the intermission? A. I thought the fight was better tonight. We talked about staying in it as long as you possibly can. Your down 1, down 2 didn't want it to get to 3, thought we could get back. Keep fighting. Q. How demoralizing was the fluttering goal? A. At the end of the day they said all the right things on the bench, they kept trying to stay in the fight. Pittsburgh played very, very well. I don't think we had a lot left in the tank. We had gone to the well a lot of times, we spent a lot to get here and earned the right to be here...we had spent an awful lot. Q. How inspired did Stall play tonight? A. I thought he was great. Its a really good sign for his career and for this franchise. For me it was almost a season in a series in that early on and when we first got here, we have a player that cares so much and had taken the weight of the team on his shoulders and was trying every shift to be the difference for the hockey team and feeling that pressure and not having it work for him. And then really settled into his game as a leader and was simplier, harder, faster, played a better quality game for the remainder of the year and all of a sudden starts scoring starts playing and this series for him almost revisited the start of the year, pushing for offence at times thats not there, having it burn ya, feeling like your efforts there but some of the things that were happening you just couldn't explain. I thought he settled back down tonight, played a real smart, smart game. Ongoing Phoenix Saga Daily Tidbit: From Globe and Mail - Balsillie reinforces bid ultimatum: The NHL and Jerry Moyes will trade punches today in court over the timing of Moyes's disputed sale of the Phoenix Coyotes - but the main event remains a hearing next month, which will decide if the NHL team can be relocated. In the meantime, though, the lawyer for Jim Balsillie, the prospective buyer of the financially crippled team, scored the sharpest jab in documents filed yesterday with the U.S. bankruptcy court in Arizona. Richard Rodier's declaration sought to take the air out of the NHL's argument that the Coyotes cannot possibly be moved in time for the 2009-10 season. If successful in his bid, Balsillie plans to move the team to Hamilton. For complete story, click here.

Eastern Conference Finals Game 4: Carolina Hurricanes vs. Pittsburgh Penguins

Eastern Conference Finals Game 3: Carolina Hurricanes vs. Pittsburgh Penguins

Eastern Conference Finals Game 2: Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Carolina Hurricanes

Eastern Conference Finals Game 1: Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Carolina Hurricanes

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