Penguins Even It Up At The Igloo

April 25, 1998 / 11:47 PM EDT / CBS/AP

The Montreal Canadiens spent all week working on a gimmick defense to contain Jaromir Jagr. Maybe they should have worried more about the other two guys on his line.

Stu Barnes scored twice once when Montreal's Vladimir Malakhov knocked the puck into his own net and had an assist as the Pittsburgh Penguins evened their first-ever playoff series against the Canadiens by winning 4-1 Saturday night.

"Sometimes he gets overlooked playing with Jagr and (Ron) Francis but Barnes is a big part of their team and he showed it," Montreal's Shayne Corson said.

Barnes, often finding himself with open ice as Montreal's three-defenseman line occupied itself with Jagr, the NHL scoring champion, also set up Pittsburgh's first goal as the Penguins followed a familiar playoff pattern.

They are 8-1 in Game 2 when they lose Game 1, as they have in seven of their last nine playoff series.

"We knew we had to come out of here with at least one win after losing Game 1," said forward Robbie Brown, whose big hits on Pittsburgh's checking line helped swing the momentum in the second period. "We couldn't go up there behind 2-0. We felt when the series started it would go seven games, and we still do."

Game 3 will be Monday night in the still not sold-out Molson Centre, where the Penguins were 2-0-1 this season half as many victories as they managed in more than a quarter-century of visits to the now-shuttered Forum.

Montreal again relied heavily on its modified left-wing lock defense which features a defenseman rather than a forward at left wing that neutralized Jagr in Game 1. But this time, Jagr's linemates, Francis and Barnes, took advantage to figure in all four Pittsburgh goals.

"It's not like we made any big adjustments, at least consciously," Barnes said. "We just got a few more bounces this game."

Both teams scored on two-man advantages in the first period before the Penguins took a 2-1 lead in the second on a shot they didn't take.

With defenseman Igor Ulanov occupied up ice with Jagr, Barnes skated unimpeded across the left circle and was tripped by Malakhov as he went sprawling across the goal line.

But Barnes managed to put his stick on the puck and Malakhov, attempting to swipe it away, inadvertently shot it into his own net for the go-ahead goal at 10:42 of the second.
"You get lucky sometimes, it had some bounces, didn't it?" Barnes said. "This time of the year, you take them any way you get them. I didn't even know he had touched it until Ronnie (Francis) told me."

Malakhov refused comment, but goaltender Andy Moog said, "I just came off the post a hair and that's all the puck needs, an inch, and it slid in there. He (Malakhov) was making the right play, it was wobbling and it came ut funny. I just have to squeeze the post a little tighter."

After that, the Penguins took advantage of referee Kerry Fraser's reluctance to call penalties after giving each team a two-man advantage in the first period.

Fraser called only four more penalties, and Pittsburgh benefited from the relaxed officiating to repeatedly disrupt Montreal's up-ice rushes.

Montreal managed only three shots on Tom Barrasso in the second period and were outshot 24-13 over the first two periods a reversal of Game 1, when the Canadiens outshot Pittsburgh 14-5 early while taking a momentum-swinging 1-0 lead.

This time, Pittsburgh scored the first goal, which Penguins coach Kevin Constantine calls even more critical than home-ice advantage in what figures to be a low-scoring series.

Ed Olczyk, scoreless in 24 games since Feb. 6, scored 25 seconds into what would have been a 47-second two-man advantage at 11:13 of the first. He worked free into the mid-slot area among Montreal's three-man defensive triangle to direct Barnes' pass from the left-wing boards past Moog, who is 1-9 in his last 10 playoff starts against Pittsburgh.

"The lead is so crucial in this series because both teams play the exact same style," Brown said. "When you get a lead you can fall back and play your system."

Pittsburgh is unbeaten this season when taking a lead into the third period.

Vincent Damphousse later scored 14 seconds into Montreal's two-man advantage, threading a bad-angle shot from the edge of the right circle between Barrasso's stick and the near post at 18:29. Olczyk and Barnes were off for penalties whistled 47 seconds apart.

Barnes scored again at 1:12 of the third, cutting in from the lower right circle as Ulanov whacked at his ankles to put a backhander by Moog, a goal that forced the Canadiens into a much faster offensive pace than coach Alain Vigneault preferred.

Francis scored into an empty net with 57 seconds left.

"It's going to be this way, we're going to have peaks and valleys," Moog said. "We have to find a way to generate some energy and be ready for the next one."

Montreal played again without first-line center and No. 3 scorer Saku Koivu (broken wrist), who was ordered not to shoot over the weekend and likely won't play Monday.

The teams have been rivals for 31 years, sometimes even in the same division, yet had never met previously in the playoffs. Pittsburgh hadn't played a Canadian team in the playoffs since losing to Toronto in 1977.