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PITTSBURGH — Given the dazzling displays of hockey put on in every game by Evgeni Malkin and, to a lesser extent in this series, Sidney Crosby, it was easy to overlook Marian Hossa.
If he was noticed at all in this year's NHL playoffs, it was when someone was sneering at how even playing on the right wing beside Crosby did not stir Hossa to any postseason scoring exploits. Long a prolific scorer during the regular season, Hossa went into this year's playoffs with 13 goals in 55 playoff games with two different teams.
Going into Sunday's game, Hossa, 29, had three goals in eight playoff games playing with Crosby. This produced more of the naysaying, since Penguins general manager Ray Shero sent a boatload of young players and draft picks to the Atlanta Thrashers at the trade deadline on Feb. 26 to get a sniper to play with Crosby. The critics pointed out that if Hossa had converted even a third of the tremendous scoring chances he had this spring, he could be leading the NHL in scoring.
Well, Hossa had the final word Sunday. He scored twice, including the overtime-winner, to lead the Penguins to the Eastern Conference final against their cross-state rivals, the Philadelphia Flyers. The series will begin in Pittsburgh on Friday.
Sidney Crosby celebrates the Penguins' overtime win against the New York Rangers with teammate Hal Gill after Game 5 in Pittsburgh. (Jason Cohn/Reuters)
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Hossa stepped into the slot 7 minutes 10 seconds into overtime and beat Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist with a shot for the first overtime-winner in his 10-year NHL career. It gave the Penguins a 3-2 win in a breathtaking up-and-down game and a 4-1 win in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semi-final.
"Well, I had some bad playoffs and I had some good playoffs," Hossa said. "I cannot control what other people say about my playoff performance, but I always try and I'm with a great team right now. Things are much easier and I just enjoy the ride."
Those who carp only about the goals do not understand what Hossa brings to the Penguins, according to his coach, Michel Therrien.
"With Hossa, it's not about him scoring," Therrien said. "It's how he plays both sides [of the ice]. I'm glad to see he got rewarded."
Both sides of Hossa's game were on display in his first goal, a power-play effort that started the Penguins on a dominant stretch of hockey in the second period.
Hossa can take most of the credit for that goal. He made a diving stab at the puck that kept it in the Rangers' zone on the power play. That started a sequence in which the Penguins kept the puck on a string. Then he finished off a great three-way pass play with Crosby and Ryan Malone by scoring his fourth goal of the playoffs into an open net.
"That's one of those details that shows how much he wants it right now and what he's willing to do to win," Dupuis, who came with Hossa in the deadline-day trade, said of his teammate's puck-saving dive.
Four minutes later, at 12:40, Malkin worked his way into the Rangers' zone with the puck and put a backhand shot over Lundqvist's shoulder for a 2-0 Pittsburgh lead.
By the end of the period, the Penguins had complete control of the game. Such was the Penguins' domination of the period that the Rangers did not get a shot on goal for the final 14 minutes 50 seconds of the period.
"[Hossa] is so strong on his skates, he's strong on the puck, too," Dupuis said. "He had a little monkey on his back when people say he's not getting the clutch goal in the playoffs. I'm really happy for him. He scored a big one for us."
First, though, the Penguins had to fight off a Rangers rally that forced the game into overtime. Early in the third period, the Rangers fought their way back into the game with two goals in 1 minute 22 seconds from Lauri Korpikoski and Nigel Dawes to tie the score 2-2.
In overtime, the Rangers gave themselves a big lift by killing off a four-minute penalty for highsticking given to Chris Drury with 1:18 left in the third period. The call was a bitter one for the Rangers, since Drury was cut badly on his cheekbone early in the second period when Malone clipped him with his stick. No penalty was assessed on the play, even though Drury had to go to the dressing room for repairs.
"In overtime, we thought that was something we could actually step up upon and use to our advantage," Rangers head coach Tom Renney said. "We thought, obviously there should have been a penalty called on [Malone].
"It's interesting. If there's one thing that's been consistent it seems night after night there are different teams wondering about calls and non-calls. Maybe it's a backhanded testimony to the speed of the game and the talent that people play with, I'm not sure."
