Penguins Tough It Out, Win 3-2
Thursday, May 29, 2008
The Pittsburgh Penguins kept their undefeated streak at home intact with a nail biting 3-2 victory over the Detroit Red Wings. Led by their captain, Sidney Crosby, and a very vociferous and enthusiastic hometown crowd - which I felt acted like an extra man for the Penguins - the Pens were able to capture their first win of the Stanley Cup Finals.
Early in the game it seemed to be “Uh-Oh!”, the same old thing with Detroit taking it to the Pens. In fact, I believe the Pens were being out-shot 7-1 at the midway point of the 1st period. That’s where I believe the hometown crowd kept the Penguins’ spirits alive with numerous loud crescendos of noise an basically would not allow the players to get down! Sidney Crosby finally broke Chris Osgood’s shutout streak late in the 1st (137:25 of shutout hockey). Crosby’s goal was assisted by who? That’s right, Marian Hossa (He finally showed up). Crosby again found the net on a rare PP goal assisted by… you guessed it! Marian Hossa and Ryan Malone.
It looked like from there Pittsburgh was in total control and would breeze through the rest of the game. But then, Detroit cut the lead on a PP goal on a great individual play by Johan Franzen. We now had a game (One I was waiting for). In the 3rd when Adam Hall made it 3-1, you would think the Pens were again in good shape - however Detroit cut the lead to 1 when Mikael Samuelsson’s wrist shot found the back of the net with plenty of time remaining.
Detroit seemed to put it in another gear and had the Penguins on their heels for most of the 3rd period. The Pens started to look a little tired, where the Red Wings looked like the much fresher team. However, the Penguins were still able to hold on and capture a much needed victory - swiftly avoiding the dreaded 3-0 playoff deficit. In the end, I believe there was a sigh of relief on two fronts: One, the Penguins now know they can win against Detroit (The Machine) and two, the NHL itself can breathe a little easier… we might have a series after all.
The Penguins silenced the critics for at least one night (me included). But remember, it’s only one game. Get your rest Pittsburgh, you’re gonna need another huge effort next game.
*Pictures in all blog posts are taken from Yahoo! Sports & Getty Images
5 comments:
Finally a real game!!The skill guys were good(Iknow 71 played I saw him looking to the refs every time he didn't draw a call when he had to battle for the puck). Some play by the Mule!!jeeze that was nice! The nicest part of the game for me wasn't the skill guys play, or the fact that the Wings still seemed to be under control whie they were down on the scoreboard and on the road.--No for me it was that guys like Gill and(this is painful cause he is such a cheap shot type of player)and Roberts were the reason the Pens had the chance to win.Tough play when it was needed. Seemed like 96 didn't like to be banged around when he went in front!When Hall scored Roberts was using his years of playing the game the right way in front of the net. Anyway it was a great game to watch no matter who you wanted to see get the win. Can only hope for more of the same in the next game. Let em play, let em battle in the corners and on the boards let them clear the front --Let em play HOCKEY !!!
mr. hockey: I agree 100%. Let the players play like hockey players are supposed to. This is not glorified figure skating!
Yes it was a great game and I kind of had the feeling Pittsburgh would win the game with the way they played in the first period.
If they had played that way the first two games in Detroit we might be looking at a different series right now.
I agree the hometown crowd was a huge factor and did keep them in the game when they needed to.
Fransen should have never been able to walk in the way he did to the net like that from the blue line in along the boards.
What they needed was a defenceman like Kotsy to check the guy like they would of when old time hockey was old time hockey. In the old days Johnny would have never been able to walk in like that !!!!
I agree it was a nail bighter and that is one thing about the Red Wings they are coming at teams and coming at teams no matter what the score is.
They have had very few break downs in all the series they have played in. They had a break down against Nashville and in the Dallas series.
Champion type teams are able to do that, have a bad game and the next game back to normal.
Pittsburgh had been playing that kind of hockey throughout all their series up until the start of this series.
I hope they can do it again on Saturday night so we can see this thing go six games at least and hoping for seven.
You are right Kotsy. Pitt needs to get their rest for the biggest game of their lives. Pitt cannot afford to lose cause going back to Detroit 3-1 you can bet the Red Wings will want to get er over in game 5.
I hope not trust me. Go Pens .....
Thanks for the great vision Kotsy of all these games.
Crock
Maybe we are going to have a final after all. The first period of game 3 could easily turn in the other way. The first goal was important for both team and especially for the Pens who finally got it (better late than never...).
Now I will be very curious to know if they do it again on saturday. If you look at the third period, the wings were close to tie the game.
Can't wait for tomorrow's game.
crock: Yes. Hometown crowd can give players a little bit of an adrenaline boost. I believe that happened the other night.
As for Franzen's goal, you gotta give him credit. I probably would of gotten a hooking penalty or a slashing penalty trying to stop him.
Let's hope for a long series!
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jeff: It was definitely good for the Penguins going back to "home cooking" and scoring the first goal which "broke the ice". The Penguins are definitely going to have their work cut out for them... Detroit definitely seemed to be the fresher team at the end of the game.
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