Ottawa Senators at Pittsburgh Penguins
Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins may have taken advantage of their opportunities, but the Ottawa Senators really beat themselves in Monday night’s 7-4 loss by committing turnovers and racking up the penalty minutes. This allowed Pittsburgh to score five second-period goals and escape Scotiabank Place with a 3-1 series lead.
After the game, a frustrated Ottawa club pointed the finger at the referees for making bad calls.
“You guys all saw the game”, Senators coach Cory Clouston told the Ottawa Sun after the game. “I just think there were some inconsistencies. We have to be better at handling adversity, but it seemed like what was being called in one situation wasn’t being called in another.”
That may be true, but the Sens couldn’t afford to lose their cool in this must-win Game 4 and they did. The main culprit was Chris Neil, who spent a whopping 16 minutes in the penalty box including two minutes for hitting Kris Letang right after scoring a goal.
We should be in store for another wild and crazy game when these teams head to Pittsburgh for Game 5 Thursday. A total of 29 goals have been scored so far in this series with the over cashing in three of those four games.
Pick: Over
Chicago Blackhawks at Nashville Predators
The Nashville Predators proved they can win without leading scorer Patric Hornqvist, who missed his second straight game with an upper-body injury Monday night. The Preds dominated Chicago throughout their 4-1 Game 3 victory and had seven guys show up on the score sheet.
“It’s a change”, defenceman Shea Weber, who scored Nashville’s third goal, told the Tennessean. “Obviously he’s our best scorer this year. It hurts missing him. He’s a tough piece to fill, but guys did a great job stepping up and scoring in all situations.”
Nashville was able to neutralize the Hawks with physical play and strong defence. The Preds out-hit Chicago 32-18 and set the tone early when Weber crushed Patrick Kane less than two minutes into Monday night’s action.
And the Hawks’ usually potent offence just wasn’t able to get anything going. Kane and Jonathan Toews only managed one shot on net each while Marian Hossa had one assist and remains scoreless in the series.
“We can’t be pleased with the way we played”, Hawks coach Joel Quenneville told the Chicago Tribune. “They were definitely the harder working team, more resilient (and) more desperate. For whatever the reasons, (we) definitely didn’t achieve what we wanted to going into the game.”
Expect the Hawks’ stars to bounce back and take control of Thursday’s game to tie the series before heading home for Game 5.
Pick: Blackhawks