Charles LeClaire – USA TODAY Sports
Tonight’s game between the Pittsburgh Penguins (32-10-0, 64 points) and the Montreal Canadiens (26-11-5, 57 points) will be televised locally on ROOT Sports – Pittsburgh and nationally on RDS and TSN. Face off is set for 7:00pm (est) at the CONSOL Energy Center.
This is the third and final game between the two teams. The Penguins lead two games to none and will be looking to sweep the series tonight, but that may prove to be difficult with the Canadiens coming off of a two-game loss. They will likely be looking to redeem themselves, so tonight’s game should be an interesting and pretty physical one.
The Penguins held an optional skate this morning, so the projected line combinations are based on the previous morning skate and yesterday’s practice:
FORWARDS: Chris Kunitz-Evgeni Malkin-Jerome Iginla, Brenden Morrow-Jussi Jokinen-Pascal Dupuis, Matt Cooke-Brandon Sutter-Tyler Kennedy, Tanner Glass-Craig Adams-Beau Bennett; DEFENSEMEN: Brooks Orpik-Mark Eaton, Douglas Murray-Matt Niskanen, Robert Bortuzzo-Deryk Engelland, Simon Despres-Kris Letang.
The starting goalie in net for the Penguins tonight is Marc-Andre Fleury.
MONTREAL INJURY / LINE INFO
The Canadiens will be without a few players tonight against the Penguins. They are forwards Colby Armstrong (knee injury) and Brandon Prust (undisclosed injury); defensemen Raphael Diaz (concussion) and Alexei Emelin (knee injury).
PROJECTED LINES -
FORWARDS: Rene Bourque – Tomas Plekanec – Brian Gionta, Max Pacioretty – David Desharnais – Brendan Gallagher, Alex Galchenyuk – Lars Eller – Michael Ryder, Travis Moen – Jeff Halpern – Ryan White; DEFENSEMEN: Josh Gorges – PK Subban, Andrei Markov – Francis Bouillon, Nathan Beaulieu – Davis Drewiske.
Peter Budaj is the projected starting net minder for Montreal tonight.
Stephanie Lewark is an NHL and Pittsburgh Penguins Senior Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow her on Twitter (@steelcitysports), check out her Facebook page, or add her to your Google+ circle.
