Penguins 6 - Canadiens 3: Mon Dieu!

Sidney has surely sunken the slump, and had another 2 goals (and +2) as the Penguins doubled up the sinking Canadiens by a 6-3 score. The Penguins, and Sidney, are finding their groove at the right time as the Habs slip and slide out of the playoffs.

Check out the video of Sidney's FIRST goal on the night. He cuts through the Habs defense like a hot knife through margarine. MMMM.

From NHL.com:

The Pittsburgh Penguins are having a lot of fun these days.

Sidney Crosby and Erik Christensen score two goals apiece, and the Penguins beat the Montreal Canadiens 6-3 Friday night. Pittsburgh is 6-0-1 in its last seven games and pulled within four points of Atlantic Division-leading New Jersey.

"We just come to the rink every day and try to have fun and get better," Christensen said. "We're not so much worried about the numbers. Sometimes it's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play. We're focused on just coming to the rink every day and having fun and working hard and getting better."

Gary Roberts and Michel Ouellet also scored, and Evgeni Malkin and Mark Recchi had two assists apiece for the Penguins, who reached a deal for a new arena on Tuesday to assure their future in Pittsburgh.

"It's definitely a big team effort and all of us should be happy with the way things are going," said winger Colby Armstrong, who had an assist. "But we have to keep our nose to the grindstone and keep things going."

Chris Higgins, Sheldon Souray and Andrei Markov scored for Montreal, which remained in 11th place in the East. Michael Ryder had two assists.

Crosby's 30th goal, 4:28 into the game, was the latest of his highlight-reel scores this season. Crosby took the puck in the neutral zone, stickhandled his way through three Montreal players and flicked a wrist shot past goalie David Aebischer while falling to his left to elude a fourth.

"You just shake your head because you see that all the time from Sid," Christensen said. "It seems like he's performing miracles. I wouldn't be surprised if he walks on water one of these days. Amazing goal ... what else can I say? You can't say anything else, it was ridiculous to watch."

Well, Sidney does SKATE on (frozen) water, which is even more impressive.

Penguins 3 - Canadiens 4 (OT): Plekanec is Plenty

Poor Sid...
Sophomore Tomas Plekanec has been quite hot for the Canadiens during 2007, and he was the biggest reason why the Canadiens got revenge with a 4-3 OT win.

Sophomore Sidney Crosby was a factor with two assists in 25:17 of ice time, but was on the wrong end of crowd taunting by jealous, bitter Habs fans. Can we say unclassy, kids? tsk tsk tsk.

From Yahoo! Sports:

Sheldon Souray scored the winning goal, then dished out the credit to teammate Tomas Plekanec.

Souray scored 2:01 into overtime and the Montreal Canadiens snapped the Pittsburgh Penguins' six-game winning streak with a 4-3 victory on Sunday.

Plekanec scored twice in regulation before setting up Souray in overtime during a 2-on-1. Souray, ejected from Montreal's 5-4 shootout loss in Pittsburgh on Wednesday for fighting with Colby Armstrong, one-timed Plekanec's pass and drove the puck past Marc-Andre Fleury into the right side of the net.

"He played a really excellent game and he's done that over the last few games," Souray said of Plekanec. "He's stepped up offensively and we need that. You look at his two goals, they were just the result of hard work and being in front of the net. He was willing to pay the price, and he got rewarded for it."

Sidney Crosby, who had an eight-game point streak broken Saturday in Pittsburgh's 2-0 win over Washington, assisted on power-play goals by Jordan Staal and Ryan Whitney. The 19-year-old forward leads the NHL with 59 assists and 84 points.

He also was stripped of the puck in the Canadiens zone by Plekanec on the play that led to the winning goal.

"I was just making a move, and when you make a move that high in the zone you know it could be trouble if you lose it there," Crosby said. "That's a bad area to lose the puck, so obviously I have to learn from that one."

The Penguins' streak was their longest since they won six in a row from Jan. 17-26, 2002. Pittsburgh has recorded points in 10 straight games (8-0-2).

Michel Ouellet tied it at 3 on the Penguins' third power-play goal, scored with 2:34 remaining in regulation. Ouellet deflected Ryan Malone's centering pass over David Aebischer's left pad for his 11th goal.

Plekanec tied the game twice, including his power-play tally 1:10 into the third which evened it at 2. Mark Streit converted Montreal's second power-play opportunity at 5:59 when he put a rebound of Michael Ryder's shot between Fleury's pads to give the Canadiens their first lead.

"I'm really happy that we turned around that game," Streit said. "It was such a big game for us."

Aebischer, making his third start in four games, stopped 31 shots. He is 2-0-1 over that stretch, including a 5-4 shootout loss in Pittsburgh on Thursday.

Crosby, a Nova Scotia native who grew up dreaming of playing for Montreal, set up Staal's 18th goal during a 5-on-3 midway through the first.

He added his second assist of the game on Whitney's 10th goal which restored Pittsburgh's lead 5:35 into the second.

The talented teenager was booed virtually every time he touched the puck, mostly because of his reaction to being struck by the butt end of Maxim Lapierre's stick during the game's opening faceoff.

Chants of "Faker! Faker!" rained down from the cheap seats amid the sellout crowd of 21,273 as Crosby slowly made his way back to the bench after he lingered on the ice while trying to draw a penalty in the third period.

"It's a road game," Crosby said. "I grew up liking this team and there's a reason they're passionate fans. That's how it goes. My like for the team's probably changed since then."

Ooooooh, that last quote has got to hurt a certain Habs blogger than wants Crosby in a Canadiens sweater :)

Penguins 5 - Canadiens 4 (SO): Sidney's Little Helpers

Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins managed to hold on and eek out a 5-4 shootout win over the Montreal Canadiens last night on a nationally televised game (TSN).

Sidney was, once again, the catalyst with 3 assists and a lot of inspired play.

The game wasn't without a bit of embarassment for El Sid. Besides missing in the shootout, AGAIN, Sidney seemed to think he was a Habitant.

Huh?

Well, check out Mr. Reality Check for le details.

How can you forget that your team has just one moments ago?

If I recall correctly Sid did shoot at the Habs net in the shootout didn't he?

Crosby: "Yeah, well it would have been nice to get the two, but you know, things happen sometimes, you just have to roll with it and make the best of the situation. I think we did that tonight"

Reporter: "You did get the two by the way."

o_0 *facepalm*

Sid's totals on the night: 1 post-game slip-up, 3 assists, -3(!), and 10 for 18 on faceoffs in 21:29 of ice time.

Game recap from NHL.com:

The Pittsburgh Penguins were introduced to playoff-style hockey by the Montreal Canadiens. The youthful Penguins like the way they responded against an opponent that looked to be trying to intimidate them from the start.

The Penguins squandered a two-goal lead late in the third period, but Evgeni Malkin won the shootout by deftly faking out David Aebischer with an inside-out move as Pittsburgh beat Montreal 5-4 on Thursday night for its fifth consecutive victory.

Erik Christensen also put the puck past Aebischer as the Penguins won their second shootout in a row - they beat Dallas 4-3 on Friday - after losing five of their first six. Montreal dropped its fifth in nine shootouts as Marc-Andre Fleury stopped the final two Canadiens shooters, Chris Higgins and Tomas Plekanec, after Alex Kovalev had matched Christensen's score. Fleury made 40 saves in regulation and is 9-1-2 in his last 12 starts.

"I've never seen the (Eastern Conference) playoff race so close, five or six teams are so close, and it was a playoff atmosphere," said Sergei Gonchar, who scored twice on the power play and had another slap shot deflected in by Malkin. "You could see their intensity was there. But we're playing with more confidence."

The Canadiens trailed 4-2 after Gonchar scored twice during a rare seven-minute Pittsburgh power play in the second period. But Montreal tied it on goals by Mike Johnson and Mathieu Dandenault in the final 5 1/2 minutes of the third, with Johnson's shot deflecting in off Gonchar and Dandenault's shot bouncing in off defenseman Rob Scuderi's skate.

"Those were tough bounces to take, but we stuck with it and got the two points," Penguins forward Sidney Crosby said.

Crosby, drilled in the midsection by Maxim Lapierre immediately after the opening faceoff to set the tone for a physical and feisty game, assisted on each of the Penguins' first three goals. Crosby became the first player to break the 80-point mark this season with 82, including 25 goals.

Montreal tried to establish its toughness from the start. But the Canadiens' aggressiveness cost them when Sheldon Souray was ejected for jumping on Colby Armstrong, punching him several times and slamming him to the ice after Armstrong leveled Saku Koivu behind the Montreal net.

"You expect teams to be intense, and they had that (checking) line out there to start the game and wanted to set a tone early," Crosby said. "That's part of playing in the second half of the season. Teams want to win hockey games and we're more than willing to play and do whatever we have to do to win games, too."