PITTSBURGH -- After scoring his 12th goal of the postseason, Montreal Canadiens forward Mike Cammalleri now joins some pretty heady company.
He is now tied with Maurice "Rocket" Richard, Jean Beliveau and Guy Lafleur for the fourth-highest postseason goal total in Habs history. Newsy Lalonde had 17 in 1918-19, Yvan Cournoyer had 15 in 1973 and Frank Mahovlich had 14 in 1971. The good thing for Cammalleri is he might be only halfway done this postseason.
"We've heard since July 1 that we're too small and we won't be able to compete the whole season, we won't be able to make the playoffs," Cammalleri said. "'When the playoffs come, how is [this] small team going to be able to compete?' What can I say? We're having a little bit of success and we're only halfway there."
Special teams
If there was one area that was particularly off for the Penguins on Wednesday night, it was their potent power play. Coming into Game 7, they were the most prolific of the remaining playoff teams and yet came up empty, constantly misfiring on passes and making ill-advised decisions with the puck. They were 0-for-6 in Game 7."We had a few plays that are uncharacteristic of the skill level of the guys we had out there," Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said. "It was uncharacteristic and again was part of that first period we didn't expect."
Shutting down Sid and Geno
How did the Habs feel about limiting Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin to two goals in the series? Pretty good, as you might expect."That's a credit to this team. Those are two very, very talented players who I think pushed us to be better," said Josh Gorges, who emerged as a leader along the injury-riddled Canadiens' blue line in this series. "I think we knew what kind of challenge it would be to play against those guys. We didn't shy away from that challenge.
"You can't stop those guys if you don't have five guys playing defense, which we did. Our forwards were unbelievable coming back; they didn't give anyone any time."
Say goodbye to Mellon Arena
It may have been a melancholy feeling for the Pens and their fans to say goodbye to Mellon Arena, but not everyone shared the same nostalgia for the battered, decaying, old building."We've been talking about it all series, let's make sure this is the last game in [Mellon]," Cammalleri said. "Let's do everybody a favor and make sure nobody has to come in here again."
