It was a bit rough around the edges, to be generous, but the Pittsburgh Penguins found a will and a way to beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-2, in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals. The win assures that the Pens and Wings will meet in Game 5 on Saturday night at Joe Louis Arena, and needless to say, that the series is far from over. Had Detroit pulled it out, they'd have gained an insurmountable 3-0 lead in the series, but it was not to be.
After Jonathan Ericsson was whistled for a classic new NHL interference on Matt Cooke, the Penguins' powerplay went to work at 9:06 of the final frame. The Pens put together a string of excellent puck possession, and they were finally rewarded when Sergei Gonchar's missle found its way through a hole and past Chris Osgood to give them a 3-2 lead.
The Penguins staked themselves to an early lead when Evgeni Malkin found Max Talbot in the high slot for a one-timer in the opening minutes, but that was answered quickly by Henrik Zetterberg and Johan Franzen, who snuck shots past Marc-Andre Fleury. Franzen's goal came with a man advantange.
Kris Letang tied the game at two on another powerpaly near the end of the period, setting up Gonchar's theatrics in the third. Max Talbot also had an empty netter for Pittsburgh
Emblematic of the physical brand of hockey the Pens played in this one, Chris Kunitz, Matt Cooke and Brooks Orpik both notched several monster bodychecks. Darren Helm and Niklas Kronwall seemed like the two primary targets on those.
Notes-
-Sidney Crosby played well, but was held to just one assist.
-Great bounceback effort by Fleury.
-If they don't win Game 4, the Penguins' effort tonight will be rendered meaningless.
-Kunitz, Orpik and Cooke are a firing squad.
-In fact, Kunitz had 11 hits. Orpik and Cooke had five apiece.
-Malkin is a stud.
Go Penguins.
2 comments:
Great comeback win Pens! They win Thursday night, and we have a series my friends.
If we put together 60 mins just like the last 20, Detroit will be the ones in trouble!
Is this it? Was Max Talbot the catalyst once again? Is that the start of history? We will surely find out. I am going to say one word. Momentum. It is vital to winning and losing in high pressure, extreme situation games. After two games back to back, where we never really had too much of it, but still somewhat dominated the games, we finally have it. We know we can outplay them, but until tonight, we couldn't beat them.
Read more » http://www.everythingpittsburgh.net/blogs/EP.php/2009/06/03/the-start-of-something#more152
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