As reported in the Vancouver Sun.

[BKLYNH2]

Penguins rout Flyers, advance to Stanley Cup final

Mark Spector
Canwest News Service

Sunday, May 18, 2008

PITTSBURGH - When the Pittsburgh Penguins last went to the Stanley Cup final, Ryan Malone was a 12-year-old fan. He would watch the road games at home with his brother, then don a Penguins uniform to attend home games with his father, former Penguin Greg Malone.

This spring, Malone will get to go to the road games too.

The Penguins closed out the Philadelphia Flyers, taking the Eastern Conference final four games to one and booking passage to their first Stanley Cup final since 1992 with a decisive 6-0 win Sunday.

Malone - the only Pittsburgh native ever to play for the Penguins - scored the first goal, assisted on the second, and tipped home a point shot to give Pittsburgh a 4-0 lead midway though the game.

In a striking display of leadership, Penguins captain Sidney Crosby was dominant from the opening shift. He finished with two assists, and no doubt the genuine respect of a group of opponents who simply were not good enough to take down their cross-state rivals.

Marian Hossa had a goal and three assists, as any question of his ability to produce in the playoffs seems now a foolish angle, with 19 playoff points. The shutout was the third this spring for Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.

It is one thing for a team like Philadelphia to grab a win when they're down 3-0 in a series and playing at home. Walking into Mellon Arena, however, and displacing the Stanley Cup hopes of these Penguins is an entirely different endeavour.

Pittsburgh has now won 16 games in a row at home, eight of those coming during these playoffs. The Pens have not lost in regulation at Mellon Arena since Feb. 13, while Fleury - who missed 35 games this season while injured - has not lost a game at home since Nov. 21, 2007.

On Sunday, with the Flyers hoping to follow the Dallas Stars' lead and get this series back home for a Game 6, the Penguins would have none of it. In a series that has seen the first goal of the game come by fluke more often than not, it was a hard Crosby pass that glanced off of Malone's skate and in behind Philly netminder Martin Biron for an early power-play goal just 2:30 into the game.

Seven minutes later the Steeltown boy Malone forged a goal for linemate Evgeni Malkin when he got a body on Biron, who was handling the puck behind the Flyers net. The contact both distracted Biron and caused him to lose his stick, leaving him unaware when Malkin grabbed a loose puck behind the net seconds later and stuffed it into an unattended corner.

In the second period, 2-0 turned into 5-0 in a 10-minute span that crowned Pittsburgh as Eastern Conference champions and sent packing a game Flyers team, the first club since 1987 to finish last in the league one year and advance to a conference final the next.

First, Crosby issued a lovely pass that Hossa wired past Biron on the short side at 8:24. Then less than three minutes later Malone deftly tipped home a Sergei Gonchar point shot to put the final stake into Philly. Jordan Staal and Pascal Dupuis added singles to cap the Penguins most lopsided win this spring.

Pittsburgh now awaits the winner of the Western Conference final, led 3-2 by Detroit. Game 6 in that series goes tonight in Dallas.

? Canwest News Service

Pen's are going to the cup!!!

[DennisAJC]

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Go Steeltown!