Montreal tallies 3 unanswered goals to hand Penguins 3rd loss in a row -- all on road
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Maxim Lapierre, rear, gave the Canadiens a 3-1 lead late in the second period against Marc-Andre Fleury.
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MONTREAL -- The Montreal Canadiens seemed vulnerable. Injuries, losses and discord hung around them going into last night's game. Leave it to the Penguins to provide a panacea.
Despite a strong NHL debut for winger Luca Caputi, who got the first goal of his career and the game, the Penguins gave the Canadiens a reason to feel relief as they lost, 4-2.
"We need more desperation from a lot of players. It was a no-show from a lot of players," Penguins coach Michel Therrien said.
The loss meant the Penguins took just one of a possible six points during their stretch of three consecutive road games. The eight-place cutoff line for the playoffs in the Eastern Conference remains out of their grasp.
They held a 3-1 lead going into the third period Friday at New Jersey, yet lost, 4-3 in overtime. Saturday, they trailed by the same score at the second intermission at Toronto, came back to forge a 4-4 tie but lost, 5-4.
"We're in a battle and we need points," Penguins center and captain Sidney Crosby said. "We've got to find a way to get leads, especially on the road. We can't give teams momentum and try to play catch-up. We've got to get a lead and keep it."
Last night, the Penguins again trailed, 3-1, after two periods. This time, there again was some intrigue as forward Evgeni Malkin pulled them to within 3-2 at 10:33 when he blasted a shot under goaltender Carey Price for a power-play goal.
But Canadiens winger Sergei Kostitsyn banged in a puck at 15:45, which goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury had stopped on the goal line a second earlier, to make it 4-2.
"If we're going to make the playoffs, there's no question about it: We've got to pick up some points and get some wins," said Fleury, who made 31 saves in the loss. "It's tough when you get one point out of six."
Montreal had lost five of its past six games and over the weekend had been hit with injuries and an undercurrent of tension after veteran winger Alex Kovalev was benched Sunday in the third period of a 3-1 loss to Boston.
The Penguins' injury problems are mostly in the past, although they were playing without suspended forward Tyler Kennedy.
There do not seem to be rifts in the Penguins' locker room, just thick layers of frustration from not being able to muster points in the standings.
"Everybody knows we've got to win," Fleury said. "Everybody's tired of losing. We all know we need those points.
"Other than that, everything's fine in the [locker] room."
Caputi got his first taste not only of the NHL but also of the way things have gone this season for the Penguins, who entered the game in 10th place in the conference.
"They were pretty upbeat on the bench," he said. "I thought the effort was there."
But not the win.
Welcome to the Penguins, 2008-09 vintage.
Caputi gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead at 2:30 of the first period. He carried the puck to the crease from the left corner and swept a rebound past Price.
"I got two or three whacks and it worked out for me," Caputi said. "It's a special day for me, especially with it coming in my first game, on my first shift. It's something I'll always remember."
The Canadiens tied it, 1-1, at 4:31 of the first period on defenseman Roman Hamrlik's shot from the top of the slot after Kostitsyn stripped Fleury of the puck behind the Penguins net and fed Hamrlik.
A Penguins power play backfired when point man Kris Letang lost control of the puck just inside the blue line, affording Montreal's Christopher Higgins a short-handed breakaway. He drove the slot and whipped the puck past Fleury's glove hand for an unassisted goal and a 2-1 Canadiens lead at 11:05 of the second period.
"We got beat by speed," Therrien said.
Crosby said the back-breaker was yet to come.
"We had a lot of time after that," he said of the short-handed goal. "The third one hurt, for sure."
That came when Montreal pushed the lead to 3-1 as center Maxim Lapierre converted a feed from winger Max Pacioretty at 15:07 of the second period.
"We came hard in the third, but it's a little too late," Crosby said.
First Published February 4, 2009 12:00 am
