Penguins 5 - Canadiens 6: Wild and Crazy Loss

The Montreal Canadiens avoided a season sweep at the hands of the Penguins with a 6-5 win in a wild and crazy 'where-the-hell-is-the-defence?' game. If not for some bad luck, the Penguins could have had something to hang their helmets on. At the very least, the Penguins are finishing the season with some good efforts. They could easily be tanking it, but the players seem to be playing for future jobs and pride.

The Penguins won the first three contests against Montreal this season, but the Canadiens, who are fighting for an Eastern Conference playoff spot, jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first and held on for the win.

“We played hard. We worked hard and played hard and I thought we were the best team on the ice,” Penguins coach Michel Therrien said. “But, you need breaks to win games. We didn’t have any breaks. All the breaks were against us. It was one of those nights. The hockey god was not on our side tonight.”

Armstrong nearly completed [a] hat-trick when Hilbert’s shot deflected off Armstrong and into the goal with 12:22 to play. However, Armstrong was ruled to have intentionally knocked the puck into the net with his arm, so the goal was waved off.

“It was just a shot that Hilby put at the net and it hit a stick and came up and hit me – and it was more of a reaction – and went into the net,” Armstrong said.

Michael Ryder put Montreal up, 6-4, when he kept the puck on a 2-on-1 and roofed it past Marc-Andre Fleury with seven minutes to go.

John LeClair brought the Penguins within 6-5 just 1:05 later when he knocked in his 399th career goal. Konstantin Koltsov and Ryan Malone assisted on the play.

Crosby had a fairly decent night with 2 assists in 22:34 of ice time. He also had 2 shots on goal, finished +1 and went 9 for 20 on faceoffs.

Video Highlights right here.