WEEKEND SPORTS
Canadiens shut down, shut out and eliminate Penguins in four games
Montreal’s Artturi Lehkonen scores the only goal the Canadiens would need to send the Penguins home Friday. Tristan Jarry started in place of Matt Murray, who was in net for the first three games of the series in Toronto.
TORONTO — The Penguins entered their qualifying-round matchup against Montreal healthy but wary. Optimistic but guarded. While they had shown plenty of grit in a regular season that featured extended absences by high-profile names on their star-laden roster, in a short series facing a goaltender such as Carey Price, they took nothing for granted.
In the end, they ended up taking nothing at all.
Artturi Lehkonen flipped a shot past Tristan Jarry with 4:11 remaining to steer the Canadiens to a stunning, 2-0 victory Friday at Scotiabank Arena to clinch Montreal’s first playoff berth in three years.
Montreal’s Paul Byron took advantage of a turnover, darted behind the Penguins net and then slipped a pass to Lehkonen in front. Lehkonen, 25, found enough space between four Penguins — all of whom had their eyes on Byron — to slip the puck into the open net.
The Penguins mustered little down the stretch and defenseman Shea Weber added an empty-net goal in the final seconds as the 12th-seeded Canadiens captured the best-of-five qualifying round over the fifth-seeded Eastern Conference team, 3-1.
“Everybody was kind of counting us off, so, of course, it feels good to get to win this series,” Lehkonen said. “But it was one series and now we’ve got to enjoy this for a moment and then move on.”
Carey Price stopped 22 shots to collect his sixth career playoff shutout. Montreal will advance to the first round of the playoffs against Tampa Bay or Philadelphia.
Three years removed from becoming the first team in a generation to win consecutive Stanley Cups, the Penguins now are just 1-9 in their past 10 playoff games dating to the second round of the 2018 postseason.
“Listen, it’s a three out of five,” said Penguins captain Sidney Crosby, held scoreless on his 33rd birthday. “Anything can happen. We did some good things. We didn’t do enough. Give them credit. They played really well. Got some big plays throughout the four games.”
After taking a 3-1 lead in the middle of Game 3, the Penguins didn’t put another puck past Price over the final 94:26 of the series.
“We know he’s a great goalie,” Crosby said of Price. “I don’t think it was a matter of trying to play around him. He did what we expected him to do. He gave his team a chance to win and unfortunately we didn’t do a good job of putting pucks in the net or when we got a lead like last game, building on it.”
His team badly outplayed in the final minutes of a 4-3 loss in Game 3, Penguins coach Mike Sullivan turned to Jarry in search of a spark.
The 25-year-old was an unlikely All-Star in February thanks to a stellar first half that helped the Penguins stay afloat despite a series of injuries, Crosby chief among them. Yet, Jarry had struggled before the shutdown created by the COVID19 pandemic, losing each of his final four starts. He tried to keep sharp while back home in Western Canada, using his two English Mastiffs as training partners during the extended layoff.
While Jarry was sharp in his first start in five months, for long stretches there was little jump from the Penguins against the last team to enter the expanded 24team tournament.
The Canadiens, in the process of playing out the string before the pause and the ensuing fallout put them in postseason position, were only too happy to slow down
the game. Still, they generated most of the quality scoring chances.
Now the Penguins head into another extended offseason. Last summer, they jettisoned veteran forward Phil Kessel and preached the need for more defensive responsibility by their talented forwards. They got it during the regular season. Not so much in the playoffs against a team they were expected to breeze past. Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and defenseman Kris Letang each are well into their 30s. Still, they are confident the window on them being Cup contenders has not closed.
“I think these guys are still elite players,” Sullivan said. “I believe in this core. I just think they’re such character guys. They’re elite hockey players, and I still think there’s elite play left in them.”
●
NOTES — The Penguins tweaked their lines, moving right winger Patric Hornqvist to the second line, dropping right winger Conor Sheary to the third and re-inserting center Jared McCann into the lineup after he sat out Game 3 . ... Penalty-killing was no issue for the Penguins, who killed all 12 penalties they faced.