Snap Shots: Canadiens 4, Penguins 3 (Game 3)

Thoughts, musings and observations from the Penguins' 4-3 loss to the Montreal Canadiens in Game 3 of the Qualifying Round.

• Well, this one hurt.

Obviously, it hurts because the Canadiens now have a 2-1 series lead in this best-of-five Qualifying Round, which means the Penguins have to find a way to get back-to-back wins if they want to advance.

But what hurts most is that everything had been going right for the Penguins before the game turned on its head. They had found a way to get three goals past Carey Price by early in the second period. Two of them came on the power play, which had been a big topic of discussion as it was 1-for-12 heading into tonight. And the third came from Teddy Blueger finishing off a pretty play from his line to provide some depth scoring.

And then…the script just completely flipped as the Canadiens scored three unanswered goals to stage a huge comeback. As Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan said, you have to give credit for Montreal for the game that they played, but that's still no excuse for letting the game slip away like it did.

"We just took our foot off the gas," Blueger said. "Then momentum shifted and they were able to get those goals. It's tough to pinpoint one thing. I just think we didn't defend hard enough and we allowed them to get into the blue paint and get those chances in and around the net."

All three unanswered goals came shortly after the Penguins had killed off penalties. The Penguins took five penalties tonight alone after taking five total in Games 1 and 2.

"We've just got to be diligent there," Sullivan said. "Those are situations where I think we could have done a better job. Overall, we were on the wrong side of the puck a little too much tonight. We've got to make sure we defend hard, create some of our offense off of our defense."

After the Canadiens turned a 3-1 deficit into a 3-3 tie heading into the second intermission, the Penguins didn't create much of anything in the third period, especially after Jeff Petry scored the game-winner just 5:33 in. Blueger said they just couldn't find a way to climb back into it, even with a third power play in the final minutes of regulation.

"It's definitely very, very disappointing," Blueger said. "I thought we had a pretty good first half of this game, had a two-goal lead. At this time of year, we've got to find a way to close those games out. We just didn't do it. We weren't hard enough. It should be a good lesson for us going forward. But obviously a not a whole lot of room for error here. We're going to have to bring our best game for Game 4."

The Penguins captain is confident that they'll be able to do so.

"When you get into this situation, you have things throughout the year that prepare you for it, adversity that you face," Sidney Crosby said. "I think you draw on that, but ultimately it's just about going out there and focusing on one game. We've done a lot of good things through the first three here. It's about making sure that we get to that and trust that we'll get the result we want."

• Both power-play units stepped up with two goals in a 59-second span to turn a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead during the first period.

The Penguins went with a first unit of Justin Schultz, Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jake Guentzel and Patric Hornqvist. After the Penguins regrouped, Malkin was given a pass in stride and he galloped into the zone like a bull chasing a flag. From there, the Penguins got a cycle game going.

Guentzel whacked it to Hornqvist in the corner, who drew a cross-checking penalty on Shea Weber as he cycled it around the back boards to Crosby. Crosby then cycled it down the wall to Malkin. He had plenty of space to make a shot-pass across the slot to Hornqvist, who had popped up and snuck behind Weber. Hornqvist buried it from a sharp angle.

Instead of getting a 5-on-3, the Penguins ended up with a 5-on-4 for a full two minutes as Weber went to the box, and Sullivan deployed a second unit of Letang, John Marino, Jason Zucker, Bryan Rust and Patrick Marleau.

Sullivan likes to say that nothing breaks up coverage better than a shot on goal, and that's exactly how this particular play started. From the center point, Marino lobbed the puck on net, causing a scramble. The rebound popped up to Rust, who sent a turning pass over to Zucker. He slammed it home before Price could even react.

"We were just quick to pucks," Crosby said. "We won a couple battles. Made some great plays. Geno had a great look to Horny there and same with Rusty to Zucks. We also executed really well with some nice plays. Probably a combination of working hard and using our skill."

Zucker's tally was his second in as many games. He now has 11 tallies in 15 career games against Montreal, regular and postseason combined.

Crosby earned an assist on Hornqvist's goal to give him 189 career playoff points, surpassing Joe Sakic and Doug Gilmour for the eighth-most playoff points in NHL history. Crosby is now one shy of tying Brett Hull for seventh place.

• The Penguins have talked a lot about how they wanted to limit Montreal's top-three defensemen of Weber, Petry and Ben Chiarot, who log a lot of minutes. After Game 1, Brian Dumoulin said that a focus for the Penguins was putting more pucks behind them so that they had to work extra hard to gain offensive territory.

And while the Pens did a good job of limiting them in Game 2, those guys came to play for Game 3. Weber opened the scoring and added two assists, Chiarot got two helpers and Petry - who had the overtime winner in Game 1 - got the game-winner tonight.

• After sticking with the same lineup for Games 1 and 2, the Penguins made a switch for Game 3. Rookie forward Sam Lafferty made his NHL playoff debut, centering Patrick Marleau and Patric Hornqvist in place of Jared McCann, who was a healthy scratch.

"We didn't feel like we were getting enough of an impact from that line," Sullivan said. "We thought we would make a change. We really like Sam's speed and his physicality, and so that's why we made the decision that we did."

Lafferty made his presence felt on the first shift of the game, when he crushed Dale Weise in the neutral zone. Lafferty ended up with four hits in 7:40 of ice time.