As P.K. Subban celebrated with his new teammates in the wake of the Montreal Canadiens improbable Game 7 victory in Pittsburgh Wednesday night, just a few minutes shy of his 21st birthday, the tremendous young defenceman may have earned himself a drink.

"We're halfway there." Those were the words of one Michael Cammalleri in the aftermath of a second-straight Game 7 victory on the road, the first coming over the Presidents' Trophy winners and the second at the expense of the defending Stanley Cup champions.

There was a ray of optimism in the Montreal Canadiens room prior to Game 7 as both Hal Gill and Andrei Markov took to the ice with their teammates.

The Montreal Canadiens have flipped several of the factors favouring the Pittsburgh Penguins to their own advantage and forced Game 7 at Mellon Arena on Wednesday night (CBC, CBCSports.ca, 7 p.m. ET).

When Bell Centre public address announcer Michel Lacroix announced that Mike Cammalleri scored his 11th of the post-season, the sellout crowd of 21,273 erupted into an ovation that is at least comparable to other memorable ones this building has seen in recent years - Saku Koivu's dramatic return from cancer being the most vivid of them.