Malkin, Crosby lead Penguins
The Pittsburgh Penguins are tough enough to handle when one of their young stars is playing his best. When both are clicking, they’re nearly unbeatable.
Evgeni Malkin had two goals and an assist, Sidney Crosby had a goal and an assist, and the Penguins pushed the Carolina Hurricanes to the brink of elimination by routing them, 6-2, on Saturday night.
The Penguins scored twice in the final minute of the first period, then scored two more goals in 40 seconds of the third to seal their fourth straight victory and take a 3-0 series lead.
Crosby and Malkin each scored for the second straight game, helping the Penguins improve to 3-0 in these playoffs when both notch goals.
The defending Eastern Conference champions can sweep the best-of-seven series Tuesday night and make a return trip to the Stanley Cup finals, where last year they lost to Detroit in six games.
Ruslan Fedotenko, Craig Adams and Bill Guerin each had a goal and an assist. Adams was credited with his goal when Carolina’s Jussi Jokinen won a draw but sent the puck down the ice into an empty net.
Matt Cullen and Sergei Samsonov scored for the Hurricanes, who haven’t lost a playoff series since Detroit beat them in the 2002 Cup finals. In their only other postseason appearance since, they won the Cup in 2006.
Only twice has a team rallied from a 3-0 series deficit to win a series, and it hasn’t happened since the New York Islanders did it against Pittsburgh in 1975.
“Our challenge: We’ve got to find a way to beat them once,” Hurricanes Coach Paul Maurice said. “And then we’ll try to revisit that.”
Malkin has 16 points in six games, including nine points in this series. He followed up his first career NHL playoff hat trick by threatening to do it again with his sixth straight multipoint game. Crosby has 10 points in his last five.
Those two helped the Penguins pepper Cam Ward for a third straight game. The Carolina goalie turned aside 34 shots but was overwhelmed again by a Pittsburgh team that held a 40-34 shots advantage. Marc-Andre Fleury made 32 saves for the Penguins.