NEW JERSEY VS. PITTSBURGH COLORADO VS. ST. LOUIS

Tuesday, May 15 Updated: May 16, 11:49 AM ET Penguins deliver short-handed surprise By Brian A. Shactman ESPN.com EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- It wasn't exactly like going to bed with "Dewey Defeats Truman" and waking up with Harry Truman in the White House. But when the Stanley Cup champion Devils went on a second-period power play, already up two goals and dominating the game, all 19,040 fans and a few dozen media members thought Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals was as good as over. The obligatory "Penguins are done" column was all but written. However, instead of burying the Penguins, the Devils' power play turned the game in Pittsburgh's favor. Just 10 seconds after Rene Corbet went to the penalty box at 9:10 for holding, Penguins forward Aleksey Morozov scored Pittsburgh's first short-handed goal of the playoffs, making it a 2-1 game and setting off a chain of events which led to the Penguins' 4-2 victory. Toward the end, there were enough empty seats to give the Continental Airlines Arena the feel of a midseason Hurricanes game. Robert Lang, center, and the Penguins were pleasantly surprised by their second-period surge in Game 2. "The first period was picture perfect," said defenseman Ken Daneyko of New Jersey vaulting to a 2-0 lead and outshooting Pittsburgh 13-7 after 20 minutes. "They were down and out of it. We gave them a short-handed goal and it got them some life." If that wasn't enough to change the game's tenor, before New Jersey's power play was over, Pittsburgh's Johan Hedberg stopped Scott Gomez on a breakaway. A Gomez goal would have given the Devils another two-goal lead and probably negated Pittsburgh's momentum. "I thought I had him," Gomez said. Instead, Hedberg reacted to a good Gomez move to his glove side and made the stop with his toe. Soon after that save, Daneyko turned the puck over in his own end, putting it right on the stick of Mario Lemieux, who fed Alexei Kovalev for a one-timer and another Penguins goal. Tie game. From then on, the Devils looked listless and were error-prone. Six minutes after the short-handed goal, Corbet gave Pittsburgh the lead for good. In six minutes, the team with the regular-season's best power play went from being on the verge of a three-goal lead to letting the Penguins tie the best-of-seven series at a game apiece. "I'm pretty sure we thought it was going to be easy to win the hockey game because we were two goals up," New Jersey's Patrik Elias said. "There is no excuse for that. We played with no desire and let them do whatever they wanted. They don't need too many chances to score a goal." Center Bobby Holik was less charitable when describing his team's effort: "We gave them the game." So, what was a more important play in the unlikely comeback, the short-handed tally or the breakaway stop? "Anytime you get a short-handed goal, it really gives a team a lot of confidence," Pittsburgh's Ian Moran said. "You could see after Sykora's goal there in the first, they were flying and we couldn't get it out of our end. With the way we were able to answer their short-handed goal, it was a huge lift for us." It was no surprise that Lemieux was in the middle of the Penguins' surge. For the fourth time in the postseason, Lemieux followed up a pointless game with a two-point night. His shot on the short-handed 2-on-1 led to Morozov's goal, and Lemieux hopped right off the bench to pick off Daneyko's unfortunate whiff on a backhand clearing pass. "It didn't look too good, the first 20 minutes," Lemieux said. "But we came back, and we were upset about it, obviously, and made some adjustments." Since it's the playoffs, no Penguins player elaborated on the adjustments, other than to say they wanted to take space away from the Devils and get more pressure on goalie Martin Brodeur, who allowed four goals on just 23 shots. But one thing the Penguins were clear on was the fact that no one entered the locker room after the first period preaching fire and brimstone. "We don't yell at each other this time of year," Lemieux said. "At this time, everybody is saying something that really matters to the outcome of the game." Whatever was said, it worked: The Penguins outshot New Jersey 11-6 in the second period. The Devils, meanwhile, thought it was more of a case of their own mistakes and not Pittsburgh's turnaround. "Most of the goals were mistakes on our part," Daneyko said. "And I was a little bit flabbergasted, that's for sure." Brian A. Shactman covers the NHL for ESPN.com. He can be reached at brian.shactman@espn.com. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories

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