The Penguins embarrass the Senators in Game 4

The Pittsburgh Penguins turned Game 4 around after lagging in the first period to the Ottawa Senators.  First period play was plagued with mistakes, particularly by Kris Letang who was either not paying attention or in the way.  Scoring early on, the Senators took an opportunity to make a short handed goal while Letang was distracted by the lack of a penalty call. The Senators were playing defensively; even goaltender Anderson was aggressively defending the goal.  James Neil takes an opportunity off of a puck drop with virtually no defense from the Senators, tying the score 1-1.  Then the Senators come back with a shot on goal, which rebounds out when Letang knocks over his own goaltender Vokoun and the Senators were able to score in a virtually empty net.  For the first time in this series, the Senators held a lead during the first period.  In the second period the momentum began to change in favor of the Penguins as Kuntis made a break away goal, taking the puck right to the net to tie the game for the second time last night.  Forty second later the Penguins took the lead via a goal from Iginla, he shot the puck right into the crease with no Senators in sight to cover.  Crosby had made a lot of momentum for the Penguins during the game and his efforts paid of in the third period as he gained a two point lead.  Early in the third period shots were already favoring the Penguins 32-22. Then a flurry of goals for the Penguins happened: Dupuis and Crosby score, driving up the score 6-2. Late in the third period the Senators opt for a goaltender change benching Anderson in favor of Lehner but they had a lot of ice to cover to come back in this run away game.  The Penguins are a team that just never let off of the gas and that is evident in the game last night. The Penguins continue their push to the net with a score by Iginla and the Penguins gained a commanding lead of 7-2 late in Game 4.  The Senators did not have much time to come back but they managed to score, still with a run away game and less than 5 minutes left of play the Penguins won Game 4 with a 4 point lead, 7-3.

Ottawa started Game 4 with great momentum.  They had just come off of a shutout double overtime win during Game 3.  The Penguins had a rough start to their game but as soon as the momentum shifted early in the second period they ran away with the game taking a commanding lead.  With the depth of play that the Penguins have it is going to be hard for the Senators to end Game 5 with a different outcome. The series is now 3-1 with the Penguins holding the lead. It’s not an impossible situation for the Senators but team captain Alfredsson doubts that the team can come back from such a deficit in the best of seven series.   Alfredsson is one of the most respected veteran’s in the NHL, when he talks people listen and his recent comments about the Senators not being able to come back in this series match up has not been easy to hear.  The Senators will face the Penguins in Game 5 on Friday in Pittsburgh.