Senators' Regin winging it on Ottawa's top line
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Penguins captain Sidney Crosby tries to work around Senators forward Peter Regin in the second period of Game 1 at Mellon Arena, Wednesday.
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OTTAWA -- Surely even the most analytical observers didn't foresee this as a formula the Ottawa Senators would fall into in their first-round playoff series against the Penguins, and it remains to be seen whether it's one that will lift them out of a 2-1 deficit and into the next round.
Peter Regin, a rookie who went from playing center for sometimes less than 10 minutes a game early in the season to serving as the top-line left winger, has been Ottawa's top offensive player in the series.
At the same time, his star linemates, Daniel Alfredsson and Jason Spezza, the team's leading scorers in the regular season, have been outpaced by Penguins stars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.
Ottawa coach Cory Clouston was quick to dismiss the comparison.
"It's not a competition between Spezza and Alfredsson against Malkin and Crosby. It isn't," Clouston said. "You've got to make it more of a team emphasis -- for us, anyway."
Still, it's difficult to overlook the differences.
Crosby has been the dominant player in the series -- if not the NHL postseason -- with two goals and seven points, at least a couple of them on breathtaking plays. Malkin has three goals and four points and has shown signs of the form that earned him the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP a year ago.
Alfredsson and Spezza have not scored but have three assists each.
Regin leads the Senators with two goals -- he opened his team's scoring in the first two games of the series -- and picked up an assist in Game 3 with a superb feed from behind the net to Mike Fisher. He also had a goal disallowed in that game Sunday when he attempted to kick the puck up to his stick but missed with his stick as the puck snuck between the knees of Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.
"He's played really well in the playoffs," Alfredsson said of Regin. "He made a great play on Fisher's goal.
"Overall he's been strong on the puck. He's been using his speed. He seems to like the spotlight."
First Published April 20, 2010 12:00 am
