Marc of excellence Pittsburgh's ace in the hole

PITTSBURGH - Mike Sullivan calls the energetic back-and-forth on the Pittsburgh Penguins bench "a man's argument".

If his players have something to say, Sullivan wants them to get it out. Enter Phil Kessel, the mercurial forward with the blistering shot and occasionally blistering tongue.

Kessel, frustrated by an inability to get any pucks past Ottawa's Craig Anderson, was caught on camera pounding his fists and ordering his teammates to look for him.

Consider the message delivered.

With just under seven minutes left in regulation time of Monday's Game 2 of the NHL Eastern Conference final, Kessel took a feed from Evgeni Malkin and ripped a wrist shot over Anderson's left shoulder to lift the Penguins to a 1-0 win over the Senators.

Goalie Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 23 shots for his second shutout of the playoffs and 10th of his postseason career as Pittsburgh tied the best-of-seven series at one game apiece.

Game 3 is in Ottawa on Wednesday.

Fleury's 62nd playoff win moved him ahead of Henrik Lundqvist for the most by an active goaltender - heady territory for a guy who lost his starting job to Matt Murray during the course of the season.

Now Fleury is the main reason the Penguins are three wins from a return trip to the Stanley Cup final.

This victory, however, wasn't the byproduct of 60 minutes of brilliance. Fleury spent long stretches with nothing to do as the Penguins hemmed Ottawa in its own end.

The Senators went nearly 19 minutes over the second and third periods without recording a single shot, a testament to Pittsburgh's ability to maintain puck control.

"To be honest I think I yelled more than once tonight, so I don't remember that one in particular," Kessel said when asked about his bench outburst.

If anything, his venting was simply the physical manifestation of Sullivan's order to stop looking for the perfect shot and just start peppering Anderson.

The moment came when Malkin gained the zone and slid a pass to Kessel in the slot.

The winger's first shot smacked off Jean Gabriel Pagueau and came right back to him. It happened so fast that Anderson didn't have enough time to reset before Kessel's second try found the twine.

"We were pleased with the way we dictated the terms out there," Sullivan said.

It was a marked departure from Game 1, when Pittsburgh struggled to generate any sort of extended pressure in a 2-1 overtime loss.

Pittsburgh's win was all the more impressive after forward Bryan Rust and defenseman Justin Schultz left in the first period with injuries.

Associated Press

(China Daily 05/17/2017 page23)