It’s the battle of the Staal brothers! That line will never match the epic battle between Ovechkin and Crosby… and it clearly demonstrated that last night as both Eric and Jordan Staal were mostly silent throughout the game.

Carolina 2 @ Pittsburgh 3 – The Pittsburgh Penguins are quite the force to be reckoned with. Check out all the firepower they got: Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal, Sergei Gonchar and… Philippe Boucher?

Boucher was the hero of the game as netted the game winner and added an assist in Pittsburgh’s victory over Carolina last night. That’s quite the accomplishment from a guy that hardly made a blimp over his 60 career playoff games. In fact, he barely made the Penguin’s playoff squad this year. However the eight minutes of ice time he had last night was more than enough as he contributed just enough to win the game.

The Penguins got off to a quick start last night as Miroslav Satan, who has been offensively absent in the playoffs, scored the first goal of the night with a little less than ten minutes into the game. That got the team up and running as Evgeni Malkin took a pass from Philippe Boucher to score the Pens second goal of the night just 36 seconds after Satan’s goal. The Hurricanes finally woke up in the second period as Chad LaRose snuck the puck past Fleury. Midway through the third period, Matt Cullen took a penalty for delay of game and the Penguins took advantage of that as Phillipe Boucher wired a shot past Cam Ward, in what would be the game winner, to give the Pens a 3-1 lead. The Penguins also showed that their penalty kill was equally ineffective as the Hurricanes when a Brooks Orpik elbowing penalty lead to a Joe Corvo goal with a minute to go in the game. That was the closest the Hurricanes got as the Penguins snags an early lead in the series.

The Hurricanes effectively shut down Sidney Crosby as he didn’t even register a shot in the game. However, the added focus on Crosby was their downfall as they didn’t prepare for the other Penguins to step up their game.

Cam Ward was surprisingly rusty during the first period, allowing 2 goals in 9 shots. He didn’t shift into gear until the second period of the game. In a losing effort, Ward stopped 28 of 31 shots while the Pens’ Fleury made 23 saves from 25 shots.

Don’t count the Hurricanes out just yet. After a slow start in the first period, it was actually a close, intense game for the remaining 40 minutes. If that is any indication of what the rest of the series would be like, the Penguins will have to work really hard to win the conference finals. 

Pittsburgh leads the series 1-0

Three Stars of the Night:
1. Philippe Boucher (Pittsburgh)
2. Evgeni Malkin (Pittsburgh)
3. Miroslav Satan (Pittsburgh)

Tuesday’s Schedule:
Chicago at Detroit (TV: TSN, Versus)