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Eastern Conference Champions |
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The Pittsburgh Penguins are returning to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since their championship run in 2009.
They defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning by a score of 2-1.
Bryan Rust was the hero scoring both goals. He was a player who I thought was more Tyler Kennedy but at the end of the day did his best Max Talbot impression. Back to back games with big moments for the young man.
The Pittsburgh Penguins dominated through two periods and probably deserved more than the one goal lead that they had to nurse through the third period. There were a lot of close calls but at the end of the day they survived.
Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin were excellent.
Crosby did not find the scoresheet but was tremendous all night long. Through two periods he had a fitting possession number of 87.5%.
Evgeni Malkin had two assists and he now has a five game point streak.
Chris Kunitz did his playmaking thing on the first Rust goal to give the Penguins the lead. He also has a five game point streak.
Matt Murray stopped 16 of 17 shots to secure the win. He wasn't busy but he wasn't beat either.
How nice was it to be on the right side of a crappy bounce on a game winning goal? Andrei Vasilevskiy was amazing in this series and it must be a tough pill to swallow to have that be the goal that decides the series.
It may surprise some but the Sidney Crosby/Evgeni Malkin era has gone to one more Stanley Cup Final and one more Eastern Conference Finals than the Mario Lemiuex/Jaromir Jagr era. That isn't meant to be critical of Mario or Jaromir but just to highlight how tough it is and how ridiculous a lot of the criticism weighed at the two current stars have been.
Phil Kessel is going to the Stanley Cup Final one year after leaving Toronto.
Much more in the days to come.
The Pittsburgh Penguins are the Eastern Conference Champions.
Thanks for reading!
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • 
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