Evgeni Malkin's club became the first Stanley Cup finalist

Stanley Cup

The Pittsburgh Penguins advanced to their second straight Stanley Cup Final with astonishing ease. His semifinal series against the Carolina Hurricanes lasted only four games. Yesterday in the fourth, Pittsburgh, even despite the fact that its leader Evgeni Malkin did not score a single point, defeated Carolina on its court - 4:1.

The last ray of hope for “Carolina” dawned a minute and a half after the start of yesterday’s match. Its leader, Eric Stahl, came out from behind the goal and literally brought the puck into the net. Pittsburgh goalkeeper Marc-Andre Fleury, therefore, missed the first shot of the hosts - and they may even have thought that luck would finally be on their side.

The Carolina hockey players had no idea that luck in the form of Eric Stahl's goal had simply sent them a farewell kiss. That Fleury would parry the next three dozen shots that hit his goal, although among them there were some that had to be parried by falling on the ice and moving on his stomach from one corner to another. And they also had no idea that the luck would now be exclusively for Pittsburgh.

The guests fought back in the middle of the opening period. Philippe Boucher actually fired powerfully towards the goal. But the puck, as it happened, landed right on the hook of the stick of Penguins forward Ruslan Fedotenko, who was hiding at the post. Instead of a shot, it turned out to be a perfect pass, which even a five-year-old child could turn into a goal.

And at the end of the period, Pittsburgh scored a very curious goal. Maxim Talbot burst into the opponent's zone. In front of him was Carolina's Russian defender Anton Babchuk, who missed the first three meetings of the series due to injury. After the match, Hurricanes coach Paul Maurice apparently thought it would be better not to let him on the ice in the fourth. In general, Talbot made a simple wrist shot, which would have been easy for Carolina goalkeeper Cam Ward to parry if Babchuk’s skate hadn’t been in his path. The puck, hitting him, flew up and “parachuted” over Ward, who had rolled forward a little.

In the second period, Carolina had the advantage, but did not capitalize on it. And she missed one of her opponent’s counterattacks. And again the anti-hero of the episode was Babchuk, who gave the puck to Pittsburgh at the opponent’s blue line. Bill Guerin, with the help of Sidney Crosby, converted the two-on-one.

The Penguins finished off Carolina before the final siren, when Craig Adams, with a pass from Crosby (the Canadian tied with Evgeni Malkin in the playoff scoring race: both had 28 points each), hit the empty net. And North American statisticians immediately discovered many interesting things related to this series that ended so quickly.

For example, it was the first time Carolina lost to a clean sheet in 20 years: in 1989, it - still based in another city and called the Hartford Whalers - was defeated by the Montreal Canadiens. And the last team before Pittsburgh that managed to reach the finals twice in a row was the New Jersey Devils. His achievement dates back to 2001.

But a club that lost, like Pittsburgh, the Stanley Cup final, managed to get there again next season for the last time a long time ago. We are talking about the Edmonton Oilers, who lost in the decisive series in 1983 to the New York Islanders, and then took revenge on him. By the way, Pittsburgh will apparently also have to play in its second final with the same opponent to which it lost in the first. The Detroit Red Wings played Game 5 of their semifinals against the Chicago Blackhawks at home late last night, leading 3-1.

Alexey Kommersant-Dospehov

Pittsburgh had a clean sheet.