PITTSBURGH (AP) -The Montreal Canadiens followed up a monumental upset by pulling off another, and now the Pittsburgh Penguins are joining the Washington Capitals in sitting out the rest of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Brian Gionta had two power-play goals, Mike Cammalleri scored his seventh goal of a series in which he upstaged Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin and the Canadiens built a stunning four-goal lead before beating the Penguins 5-2 in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals Wednesday night.
Montreal accomplished what no team has done since the current playoffs format was adopted in 1994. And that's beat the Presidents' Trophy winner and defending Stanley Cup champion in successive rounds as an eighth-seeded team.
When it ended, the Canadiens crowded Jaroslav Halak, who made 37 saves in a performance not quite as dominating as that in Montreal's 2-1 elimination win of Washington, but one that sent the Penguins home and shut down the NHL's oldest arena.
Gionta opened the scoring at 32 seconds on a power play with Crosby off for boarding, Dominic Moore made it 2-0 later in the period and Cammalleri scored his playoff-leading 12th goal at 3:32 of the second. Travis Moen added a short-handed goal at 5:14, with Marc-Andre Fleury then giving way in goal to Brent Johnson.
Chris Kunitz and Jordan Staal scored for Pittsburgh in the second, but Gionta made it 5-2 midway through the third period.