The Bell Centre has not yet turned back into a pumpkin. The clock has not yet struck midnight. In fact, the hands of the clock appear to be traveling in reverse, transporting us back to a time when playoff miracles were the rule, not the exception, in Montreal.  The Canadiens won Game 6, 4-3, at home last night (Jeff Z. Klein’s Times story), and will play a Game 7 against an obviously frustrated Sidney Crosby and the defending Stanley Cup champion Penguins on Wednesday night.  Perhaps Crosby or Evgeni Malkin or Sergei Gonchar or Maxime Talbot will seize that moment to elevate their game and show the world how they became champions. Perhaps they will turn the series clockwise again, transforming les Sainte-Flanelles back into rags. The Canadiens mighty steeds, goalie Jaroslav Halak and forward Mike Cammalleri (who scored his first goal early in the game)…  “I dare to think Crosby has at least one more big goal in him this series,” writes Ron Cook of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He can’t see the Penguins falling victim to earlier Game 7 boogie men who haunt that team’s history: David Volek of the ‘93 Islanders and Tom Fitzgerald of the ‘96 Panthers. “There won’t be a repeat Wednesday night at Mellon Arena,” he writes. “Crosby won’t allow it to happen.”  Cook could be right. The team almost universally picked to win this round could show its superiority in Game 7 and send the Habs home from the ball. It could easily happen because the Canadiens must play near-perfect hockey to win. Make a mistake and it’s likely to end up behind Halak in the net.  Crosby’s first goal of the series is illustrative. He beat the man closest to him, Benoit Pouliot, off the wall, passed to the point and went to the net…  …where, unchecked, he scored. On the Versus telecast, analyst Darren Eliot put the blame on defenseman Marc-Andre Bergeron, who was charged with shutting down Crosby alongside Josh Gorges because Hal Gill was injured and scratched from the lineup. But while Bergeron wasn’t in front of the net — he moved higher in the zone to block the shot — the Canadiens were grouped too tightly on one side of the ice. It was Pouliot who let Crosby go, ironic because the Habs main strategic point since Game 1 has been to have someone near Crosby everywhere in the defensive zone, especially south of the faceoff dots.  It was a small mistake with big consequences and Coach Jacques Martin didn’t put Pouliot back on the ice after that.  The expected plotline would have had the Penguins building on Crosby’s breakthrough goal, cruising to a series victory. It would have been their sixth straight, putting them four wins away from their third consecutive Stanley Cup final. But there are other forces at play here.  Trailing 2-1, Cammalleri’s second goal of the game, a marvelous backhander…  …was followed two and a half minutes later with a goal by Jaroslav Spacek…  …who was playing his first game since a virus that caused vertigo shelved him three weeks ago. Spacek played a superb game, blocking shots and passes as if he had been in the playoff groove all along. Then, midway thorough the third period, Maxim Lapierre, Montreal’s yappy version of Sean Avery, Steve Ott, Matt Cooke and Dan Carcillo scored this very impressive tally…  …which turned out to be the game-winner. The Penguins drew close on a late and great tip-in goal from Bill Guerin…  …with the extra man but the Habs held steady after that. And given how unlikely everything has been for the Canadiens, it was no surprise that rookie P.K. Subban — called up last round when top defenseman Andrei Markov went down with an injury and playing in only his eighth playoff game — was out there to protect the lead in the dying moments instead of a more experienced defenseman. Subban led all players in ice time.  The siren sounded and, as Red Fisher wrote in The Montreal Gazette, “These Canadiens were saluted by the Bell crowd with almost as much noise as many of the teams that have won the Stanley Cup. So imagine if you can, the reception they’ll receive if they make it to the conference final.”  From there, the party moved out into the streets where Montreal whooped it up after merely winning a second-round game.  When a seemingly over-matched team like the Canadiens marches through the playoffs, the Cinderella label gets pasted on them. Now, the Habs don’t require a fairy godmother to conjure up a supernatural plotline, as most hockey fans know. They have their own deep mythology to explain how posts stop sure enemy goals and how injury substitutes step right into starring roles.  Still, Cinderalla provides a handy metaphor to explain something that defies logic and results in magical endings. For most of the season, the Habs played more like ugly stepsisters. But they also had 12 new faces in the lineup, a new coach, a season-long string of injuries to top players that began opening night and continues now. And the roster has obvious deficiencies, especially at forward.  But a bit more than bibbity-bobbity-boo has brought them this far. One obvious attribute is that they don’t quit, regardless of the circumstances or opponent.  And there is far less of a talent gap between these two teams than most think. “After six games, this series reveals some interesting things,” writes Serge Toucette in Rue Frontenac. “Halak is more consistent than Marc-Andre Fleury, sometimes good, sometimes less good, and the Canadiens defense is stronger than the Penguins.”  He might add that the Canadiens wings are better than the Penguins’, which is why Pens Coach Dan Bylsma noted in his post-game remarks (video) that the Habs were a dangerous team off the rush. Apart from the Penguins’ big three in the middle, Crosby, Malkin and Jordan Staal, they have little offensive oomph.  When you examine the last six goals scored by Pittsburgh, all began when defensemen put the puck toward the net from high in the zone. Bylsma feels he can best open up the Habs tight defense around the goal by getting pucks back to the blueline and blasting away from there with traffic in front. But, either because of their personnel or the Canadiens defensive scheme (or both), they are not as effective off the rush as the Canadiens seem to be.  (CBC’s Elliotte Friedman has a few other observations on the Canadiens defensive game plan in his blog post this week, including their unusual man-on-man coverage down low and their plan to prevent Crosby and Malkin from attacking with speed through the neutral zone).  Can Montreal pull off a second straight upset? “Who’s to say they can’t do it?” asked Red Fisher today. “All that’s necessary to note is that the Canadiens controlled the second half of the game.”  The Penguins know what it takes to prevail. But Bylsma acknowledged that both teams have Game 7 experience. It’s a one-game series and while logic dictates the champions on home ice should prevail, this is no longer about logic. Which is why for some in Montreal this is starting to feel a bit special.  Number 4 Flies: Here’s video of the unveiling of the Bobby Orr statue yesterday in Boston. First the TD Bankworth Garden President John Wentzel…  former Bruins coach and executive Harry Sinden…  and No. 4, Bobby Orr…  …and here’s how the unveiling looked from the crowd…
Montreal has forced a second consecutive seventh game from a league power, this time against the Stanley Cup champion Penguins.