1991 Wales Final Game 1: Bruins 6, Pens 3

Sloppy turnovers cost the Penguins in Game One at Boston Garden, their first semi-final game since 1970. The Pens were as close as 4-3 in the third period but goals by Dave Christian and Ray Bourque put the game out of reach.

Defenseman Gordie Roberts sounded a note of optimism after the game, however.

“You can’t give Boston’s key players a chance to make big plays. But we’ll get better as the series goes on. We’ll get used to this building.”

It was a building that had not been kind to the Penguins historically. Heading into the game, they sported a woeful 7-42-6 record, regular season and playoff games combined.

What would develop into an rather intense coaches war throughout the series got rolling right off the bat. Pens bench boss Badger Bob Johnson was none too pleased with the Bruins’ delay tactics aimed at – in Johnson’s view – allowing star defenseman Bourque to get sufficient rest between whistles.

“They want Bourque out there all the time,” he said. “They’re talking to the referee, sending six guys out all the time. Watch ‘em. When Bourque gets tired they have a delay. The job of the referee is to keep the game moving.” 

Coach Wilson under attack!

The day of Game 3 in Pittsburgh, this analysis piece of the series thus far by Post-Gazette Pens beat writer Bob Whitley strongly called into question the coaching tactics of Pittsburgh bench boss Johnny Wilson. In a scathing attack, the scribe took Wilson to task for supposedly not unleashing a fleet-footed offense on the Bruins, among other errors. This despite the Penguins pulling off one of the playoffs' early surprises by coming out of the tough Boston Garden with a split.

They never said being a coach was easy!

Game 2: Pens can't "bar the door" vs. Bruins

After their surprising victory against the mighty Bruins in Game One, the Penguins came out trying to play the same style that got them that impressive win two nights earlier: play tight defense, try to capitalize on the odd offensive chance, and - most of all - pray that goalie Greg Millen can keep standing on his head.

Well, it worked OK for the first period, but not much longer, as the Beantowners evened things up rather easily, skating off with a 4-1 win and a 1-1 series tie in their best-of-five 1980 preliminary series round.

Here's a wire article with some reaction from Pens D-man Ron Stackhouse and Bruin goalkeeper Gerry Cheevers.

1980 Playoffs: Penguins-Bruins

Over the next few posts I'm going to look at the Penguins 1980 Preliminary Round battle with the Boston Bruins, which turned out to be anything but what most fans expected it to be: a quick Bruin whitewashing.

This article from the April 7, 1980 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, written on the eve of the series opener, looks at the state of the Igloo-dwellers at the end of a disappointing regular season that saw them finish seven games below the .500 mark. The team could hardly have felt great about itself after finishing the campaign with a 9-1 abomination at home against the Buffalo Sabres.

Add in the fact that the Big Bad Bruins had: a) finished a whopping 32 points better than the Pens; b) swept Pittsburgh four-straight in the playoffs the year before; and c) had gone deep into the playoffs the previous two seasons (Finals and Semi-Finals), and the Penguins' fate seemed sealed.

But, as all sports fans know, anything can happen. And something close to "anything" was about to...

Pens trailed 2-0 in 1991 - and won!

The Pens return to the Igloo down 2-0 to the Washington Capitals tonight. They lost two close games in which it would be patently wrong to say they were outplayed to any large degree. In fact, these young Pittsburghers come home filled with as much optimism about their chances as any team down 2-0 ever has.

The situation is quite similar to that of the 1991 Pens, who came back to the Civic Arena down 2-0 to the Boston Bruins in their Wales Conference Final series. Despite the losses, including a hard-fought overtime affair in Game 2, the Penguins felt they had been anything but dominated by the Bruins and liked their chances quite well, thank you very much. In fact, winger Kevin Stevens predicted they would come back and win the series...which they did, rhyming off four straight victories and moving on to their first Stanley Cup Final appearance.

This article from the May 5, 1991 New York Times presents a nice summary of the management changes in Pittsburgh that started the ball rolling on the team's resurgence, as well as a nice quote from coach Badger Bob Johnson about some whistle-happy referees in Game 2.

And for all of us Pens fans hoping for a turnaround in 2009 like we saw in '91, check out this small piece in the May 14, 1991 Post-Gazette about one of the many nice things that can happen when your team wins!