Penguins Oust Senators 3-2 in Double OT Thriller

Elation. Relief. The purest of joy.

Those were my emotions as I raced through the Pennsbury Pub and Grille last night like a little kid who’d just gotten that special toy he wanted for Christmas, fist pumping the air and high-fiving friends in frenzied celebration.

“God bless Chris Kunitz,” I yelled. “Sign him to another three-year deal!”

Okay, maybe I got a little carried away. But has anybody ever come up bigger on a bigger stage, especially in the twilight of a career, than “Kuny” did last night? I can’t think of anyone.

So many images. The Penguins literally exploding off the bench after Kunitz’ rising knuckler floated past Jean-Gabriel Pageau’s elbow and found perhaps the one smidgen of space between Craig Anderson’s upraised arm and the crossbar. The Sens’ goalie, momentarily frozen in place, as if transformed by the harshest of fates into a Biblical pillar of salt.

Speaking of Anderson, in all my years of watching hockey I’ve scarcely witnessed a more heroic effort in a losing cause. I truly thought the hockey gods would favor the 36-year-old netminder, who endured so much over the course of the season with wife Nicholle’s courageous battle with cancer.

God bless him.

Credit his teammates, too. Rarely have the Pens encountered a grittier or more worthy foe. Talk about pushback. I was stunned to the core when Mark Stone scored a mere 20 seconds after Kunitz and Conor Sheary worked so hard to stake us to a lead midway through the game. Then the Sens tied it again in the third period following Justin Schultz’ power-play goal, with spare part Ryan Dzingel doing the honors.

Truly, there were no losers last night…only one team heading home while the other advances to the Stanley Cup Final. So glad we’re the latter.

You see, I had an uneasy feeling about this game…all day long. I tried to comfort myself with the knowledge that my senses had been off virtually the entire postseason. When I was sure the Pens would win, they lost. When I thought they’d lose, they won.

Still, it seemed the ghosts of Game Sevens past—the crushing loss to the Islanders in ’75, Ken Wregget stoning us in ’89, Kevin Stevens’ gruesome facial injury and the Pens’ subsequent fall in ’93—had taken hold of my subconscious. Each time I closed my eyes, I saw the Senators celebrating. I couldn’t shake it.

When the game finally began the Penguins—save for Sidney Crosby—looked tight. Not good. While they gradually relaxed and got into the flow, I remained on edge.

I started looking for signs, indicators of how the game might go. Except for a crummy slashing call on Scott Wilson, the breaks appeared about even. The bounces, too. Matt Murray was sharp, but so was Anderson. The line of Crosby, Kunitz and Sheary showed great chemistry, especially on the game-opening goal. But Olli Maatta was having a dreadful time on the back end. I cringed every time No. 3 played the puck—or misplayed it as often was the case—during a pins-and-needles third period.

Then, with four minutes left in regulation Phil Kessel ripped a shot off the skate of Evgeni Malkin. The puck made a bee line for the wide-open Ottawa net…and glanced harmlessly off the post. Brian Dumoulin had a chance to score on the carom, but shoved the puck right into a spread-eagled Anderson.

“That’s a bad sign,” I told anyone within earshot, as if verbalizing my fears would somehow dispel any bad juju. Gotta pull out all the stops, especially in a Game Seven.

Fortunately, that’s what our Pens did, too. Lord knows, they must’ve been tired. Yet they refused to sit back in overtime, instead carrying the play to Ottawa with all the energy their weary legs could muster.

Thank goodness they did. I don’t think the Pens could’ve handled a repeat of the Washington series, when they were trapped in their own end for huge chunks of time.

Then came the glorious finish. After all the whooping and hollering, I sat quietly at my table and nursed a beer, benumbed smile on my face. The cool of the evening.

Twelve down.

Puckpourri

With two goals and an assist, Kunitz figured in on all three Penguins goals to earn the No. 1 star. A plus-2 for the evening, the veteran winger finished with a game-high six shots on goal and four hits.

Schultz, the second star, had a goal and an assist to go with a plus-2. He replaced Mark Streit, who was a healthy scratch.

Sheary (plus-2) bumped Josh Archibald to the press box and provided a real spark. Conor collected an assist and four shots on goal. Carter Rowney (four shots) paced the locals with seven hits—three behind game leader Marc Methot. Wilson and Bryan Rust had five hits apiece.

Anderson stopped 39 of 42 shots to earn the third star. Murray made 27 saves on 29 shots.

The black and gold held an edge in virtually every category, including shot attempts (71-60), shots on goal (42-29), hits (44-25), faceoffs (43-39) and blocked shots (20-16).

The Pens open their Cup defense against Nashville on Monday night at PPG Paints Arena.