Home may be where the heart is, but for the Pittsburgh Penguins, it’s where the wins are. It’s also where the NHL’s golden boy, Sidney Crosby, got the Pens right back into the thick of things in the Stanley Cup Finals.
Returning home proved to be just what the doctor ordered for Pittsburgh, as Crosby scored two power play goals and Adam Hall banked a shot in from behind the net off Wings goalie Chris Osgood to propel the Penguins to a 3-2 win in Game 3 to cut Detroit’s series lead to 2-1. Game 4 will be back in Pittsburgh on Saturday night.
The Penguins improved to 9-0 at home in this year’s playoffs and haven’t lost in Mellon Arena since Feb.24th. Pens goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, who turned in his best effort in these finals with 32 stops, hasn’t lost in the Igloo since Thanksgiving. Johan Franzen’s second period power play goal and Mikael Samuelsson’s third period tally were the lone Detroit shots to beat Fleury.
Wings goalie Chris Osgood turned aside 21 shots, but suffered his first Stanley Cup Finals loss as the Wings’ starting netminder. Osgood entered with a perfect 6-0 finals record, leading Detroit to a finals sweep of the Washington Capitals in 1998, and winning the first two games of these finals via shutout.
With the Pens in a certain must-win situation and with the home crowd, it would have probably been naiive to think Detroit was going to sweep and shut out Pittsburgh in four straight games. Pittsburgh needed someone to step up, and who better than the reigning MVP in Crosby. They needed Fleury to be a lot better at home than in Detroit, and he was.
While the Wings still hold a 2-1 series lead, it seems as though now we have a series, which couldn’t make the NHL, Pierre McGuire, Ed Olcyzk, Barry Melrose, Steve Levy and the man on the moon any happier. Detroit faltered, and the Penguins pounced. Crosby got the goals and the interviews. Ah, all is right with the world. The sun is shining a bit brighter. The grass is greener. You get the idea.
So now for the first time, we saw all the bounces aren’t going to go the Wings’ way, the Penguins won’t be the only ones to hit posts and fail to capitalize on opportunities. It wasn’t as though the Wings were thoroughly dominated in Game 3. They began Game 3 just as they did in the first two games, pushing the tempo early and taking it to the Pens. They played beautifully for 14 minutes in the first period, outshooting Pittsburgh 9-1. But then Brad Stuart made a bad pass into the skates of Henrik Zetterberg that resulted in Crosby pushing hard to the net, and scoring the game’s first goal and his team’s first goal of the series.
And from that point on, the Penguins became a different team. Their confidence grew, and you just knew that if the Penguins saw the puck find the back of the net, they were going to be a different team. They finally put the Wings in chase mode, a feat Detroit was unable to overcome despite a strong third period effort. For Detroit, Hall’s fluky goal off Osgood hurt, but their power play isn’t helping out. So far in this series, the Wings are 2-for-19 with the extra man advantage, moreso their first unit of Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Holmstrom, Lidstrom and Rafalski have found little to no success thus far.
The Wings know they can play better, and to beat the Penguins at home, they’ll have no choice but to be better in Game 4. Taking care of the puck in their own end will go a long way to rectifying their tough Game 3 loss. Certainly, there won’t be any panic coming from the boys in red and white, and there’s no reason to. You expect the Penguins to be a different team a home, a better team. They benefited from the having the last change, and it got Crosby away from Datsyuk and Zetterberg.
As Game 4 looms, the Penguins are feeling confident. They believe they’re capable of not only playing, but beating the Wings. Pittsburgh showed signs of life and they’re energized now, making Game 4 even more important than Game 3. The Wings weren’t as good in Game 3 and it cost them. Now it’s up to Detroit to respond.
1 Comment
May 31, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Alex was my favorite. Had #10 on my back playing road hockey as a kid.
NICE HEADER
BAKIN