Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 by Adam Wagner
Fleury, Ruutu help Penguins sweep
The Penguins ended their series with the Ottawa Senators as quickly as they possibly could, completing a four game sweep on Wednesday night to advance to the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals and finalizing their revenge against the Senators for eliminating them last year. The game, which ended 3-1, was an intense, physical one just like every other contest in the series. In the end, however, Marc-Andre Fleury and the Penguins pulled through, preventing their fans from seeing them clinch on home ice, but giving themselves a well-deserved respite until their next series.
Fleury was undoubtedly the most important player for Pittsburgh, making the difficult saves turning away 21 of 22 shots in the victory. Showing a flair for the dramatic at times, Fleury just didn’t let the puck slide into the net, even though there was one reversed goal call that had Ottawa fans incensed. Late in the second, Antoine Vermette received the puck by the goal and seemingly put it in the net. Officials ruled that Vermette had made a clear kicking motion and brought the goal back, preserving Pittsburgh’s 2-1 lead.
In order for the Penguins to remain successful, Fleury needs to maintain his current level of play, which can keep the team competitive with any other club in the league. On any given night, Fleury is the dependable, star goalie that the Penguins need him to be right now.
Also imperative to the Penguins’ success is the scoring ability of third and fourth line players. It was, therefore, crucial that Jarko Ruutu scored his spinorama goal at the end of the second period. The goal was extremely impressive in form and execution, as Ruutu put the puck past Martin Gerber who was, for the most part, excellent throughout this whole entire series. Ruutu’s scoring shifted the momentum of the game fully in the Penguins’ favor and it remained that way throughout and a contribution from the “lesser” lines, especially one such as Ruutu’s could change another game, or even a series, in the later rounds.
Marian Hossa played an excellent game again tonight, doing all of the little things necessary to win a hockey game to perfection, just not scoring a point. The Big Three of Hossa, Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby, however, managed to score twice in the win with Malkin’s goal coming early in the second period to put the Penguins up 1-0 and Crosby’s empty-netter sealing the game. As long as these three players are contributing and Fleury is playing as he has this series, the Penguins can go toe-to-toe with just about any team in hockey and have a reasonable hope of winning.
Next up on this march of the Penguins is probably Washington or the New York Rangers, but hopefully both of those series go six or seven games just so the Penguins have the time to rest up and take on tired opponents.
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