Snap Shots: Penguins 3, Canadiens 1 (Game 2)

Thoughts, musings and observations from the Penguins' 3-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens in Game 2 of the Qualifying Round.

NO PANIC

There might have been a lot of panic outside of the Penguins locker room after they dropped Game 1 of this shortened series. But there was absolutely no panic inside of the Penguins locker room, and that showed in their performance today.

"They're a confident group," Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan said. "They believe in one another and they control what they can. They do a real good job of just staying in the moment. They're not going to dwell on the past and they're certainly not going to get ahead of themselves. I just think they went about their business like they always do at this time of year."

Perhaps no one embodied that better than Penguins goaltender Matt Murray. I thought he was magnificent in this game, and what was so special about his performance is how he came up with big saves at key times. "For me, that's what Matt does at this time of year," Sullivan said.

The Penguins opened the scoring less than five minutes into the game on a goal from Sidney Crosby. From there, they carried play for most of the game. They defended hard and created a lot of chances offensively, but just couldn't get another one to fall in order to build more of a cushion.

It felt like one of those nights where Murray was going to have to be perfect, and he very nearly was. His biggest stop of the night came 14 seconds into the third period, when he denied Tomas Tatar on a 2-on-1 rush to protect the 1-0 lead.

He made those big saves at key times all night long to allow his teammates to keep grinding away in hopes of getting that next goal, and the dam finally broke in the final minutes, with Jason Zucker getting on the board to build a 2-0 lead. Montreal did make it 2-1 with 2:10 left, but Jake Guentzel sealed the win with an empty-netter.

For more on Murray's night, click here.

RUN SUPPORT

It was good to see the Penguins give Murray more run support in the final minutes of regulation, and hopefully that's something they can build on for Game 3.

A big focus for the Penguins entering tonight was to have more of a net presence, and they did a much better job of making Carey Price uncomfortable, crashing his crease and causing a lot of net-front scrambles - making it harder for him to find the puck and creating more rebound opportunities.

But when they got those opportunities, the Pens struggled to convert them for most of the night. They just flat out missed a number of open nets and looks, like when Zucker sailed a backhand high after deking Price out of position and Guentzel couldn't bury a rebound on the power play. The positive is that the chances are there, now it's just a matter of bearing down and finishing them earlier and more often.

Though to be fair, the Penguins never looked rattled despite missing some chances. They didn't grip their sticks too tight or try to force things. They just stuck with it and trusted that the chances would fall, and they did. That's where experience comes in, being able to have a comfort level in a low-scoring game like this.

SPECIAL TEAMS

The Penguins' power play didn't have a great night on the scoresheet, as they went 0-for-5 - including another missed 5-on-3 opportunity. But I thought overall, they looked a lot better compared to Game 1.

Sullivan said they needed to have more of that above-mentioned net presence on the power play in particular, so it made perfect sense to move Patric Hornqvist back onto the first unit, as that's his bread and butter. And on their first chance of the game, the first unit of Hornqvist, Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jake Guentzel and Kris Letang looked phenomenal. They had a lot more movement and created a lot more chaos.

They did more of the same on their third chance of the game, causing an epic netfront scramble. Letang had a couple cracks, then Guentzel had a couple and the play ended with Hornqvist whacking at the puck while lying on his back. But somehow, someway Price held the fort.

The Penguins finished with 14 shots on those five power plays, but couldn't find a way to score. To be fair, Price was the Canadiens' best penalty killer. He stood on his head as the Penguins pushed. And while it's tough to see that many missed opportunities through the first two games, the Penguins just have to try and keep building.

"I thought they had some real good looks," Sullivan said. "There were a lot of pucks laying around the crease that we couldn't get to. Some of them we did get to, Price made some big saves. On the abbreviated 5-on-3 we got a great look but couldn't execute on it, 'Tanger' fans on the one-timer but he's in a great scoring area. They're doing the right things out there. that's the way we look at it. We can still improve in certain aspects. I don't think our entries were as clean as they should or could be. We'll continue to work on that."

Overall, a lot of the game was spent on special teams as the Penguins took three penalties of their own. And I thought Pittsburgh's penalty kill - aka The Jacques Squad - put on a clinic. They absolutely smothered the Canadiens and didn't give them anything.

The Penguins kept putting Teddy Blueger and Brandon Tanev over the boards first, which was wise, as those two were a well-oiled machine. Tanev in particular was in turbo mode, as I think he single-handedly killed off 30 seconds by himself at one point.

SID AND THE KIDS

What a night for Crosby, who now has goals in both games of this series. Tonight's tally was the 188th playoff point of Crosby's career, tying him with Hall of Famers Joe Sakic and Doug Gilmour for eighth place on the NHL's all-time playoff points list.

The goal also tied him with Gordie Howe (68) for 18th place on the NHL's all-time playoff goals list. The only active player with more postseason goals is Patrick Marleau (15th; 72).

Crosby's goal came off a perfect feed from Guentzel. He carried into the zone, pulled up along the boards at the hashmarks and looked for an outlet. He had Conor Sheary close by, but instead waited for Crosby to enter the zone unnoticed and hit him with a pass. You could just see Jeff Petry's shoulders sag as he realized there was nothing he could do but watch as Crosby beat Price five-hole.

Obviously, Guentzel has been scoring goals in bunches ever since he broke into the NHL. But before he turned pro, Guentzel was known more as a playmaker than a goal scorer. We've gotten a good reminder of that all throughout all of Phase 3 and now into Phase 4. He topped it off by scoring an empty-netter to give him a goal and an assist.

Not to be left out, Sheary had a pretty feed of his own to earn the primary assist on Zucker's goal, which stood as the game-winner.