Hockey is largely no longer one of the "Big 4" sports that it used to be in my youth, but at least when one of the teams I care about is in the finals -- and this year, two of the four were -- I follow it as a kind of "high holiday" fan. Game 7 just ended and the Pittsburgh Penguins have won the Stanley Cup. This was the first game not won by the home team in the entire series.
This game had one of the best finishes I can remember. Pittsburgh went up 2-0 in the second period. In that period, however, Penguin superstar Sidney Crosby also went down due to injury. Detroit struggled to catch up, finally scoring a goal well into the third period. With about 90 seconds left, Detroit made what would have been the tying shot over Pens goalie Fleury's right shoulder -- and it hit the crossbar of the goalie box. Detroit pulled its goalie and had some serious chances towards the end, but couldn't convert.
Home field advantage, the injury of one's star in the final game, a miss by millimeters, pulling one's goalie: choose your metaphor if you want, or if not this is just an open thread on hockey, the Stanley Cup, the Wings, and the now-champion Pens.
Oh, what the hey -- having gotten a fair amount of Pen pin action here, I'll update with some random foofarew.
From the New York Times blog:
With 2 minutes 13 seconds left in the third period, Niklas Kronwall of Detroit hit the cross bar with a long shot that would have tied the game, 2-2.
But it rang off the iron and stayed out. It was a wrist shot from the right-wing circle that might have hit someone as it whisked toward the net.
...
The puck was on the stick of Nicklas Lidstrom, who moved in close from the left side of the blue line. But Marc-Andre Fleury beat him as time expired. Pittsburgh had a 2-1 victory and possession of the Stanley Cup. Along with the Steelers of the N.F.L., Pittsburgh now has two major championship teams.
From CBS:
Crosby, just four years after being the No. 1 selection in the draft, became the youngest captain of a champion at 21 years old. He played just one shift after leaving the ice during the second period after taking a hard hit along the boards from Johan Franzen.
"It's unbelievable. It's the stuff you dream of as a kid. It's reality now," Crosby said. "We worked so hard. It's amazing to see how far we've come, and couldn't feel any better."
Marc-Andre Fleury was stellar in making 23 saves — none bigger than the two he made in the final seconds, the last as he dived across the crease and knocked away a shot by Niklas Lidstrom. He erased the memories of a 5-0 loss in Game 5 at Joe Louis Arena that put the Penguins on the brink of elimination. Pittsburgh returned home and gutted out a 2-1 win, behind Fleury's 25 saves, on Tuesday that forced a seventh game in Detroit.
From Sports Illustrated:
On the night of Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, the hands of Max Talbot are alright. Nine days after his linemate Evgeni Malkin jokingly remarked, "Yeah, little bit bad hands," Talbot scored twice in the second period, as the Penguins won the deciding game of the Stanley Cup finals, 2-1, at Joe Louis Arena Friday night. Winning the championship for the first time since 1992 against the team that defeated them just a year ago, the Penguins defied history, becoming the first team to win Game 7 on the road since the 1971 Montreal Canadiens.
Malkin, who assisted Talbot's first goal, finished the playoffs with a league-high 36 points and earned the Conn Smythe Trophy for most valuable player in the postseason. The Pittsburgh center, who won the Art Ross Trophy with 103 points during the regular season, became the first player since Wayne Gretzky to capture both scoring titles in the same season in 1993.
...
With Osgood out of the net and an extra attacker on for Detroit, Fleury stood tall, making two key saves --one a diving play -- in the last six seconds of the game. It was only fitting that this heart-stoppingly close series came down to this: a pad save on Henrik Zetterberg, followed by a shoulder save on Nicklas Lidstrom. The Pittsburgh Penguins -- all of their hands, legs, arms and feet -- they're all just fine tonight.
From the Vancouver Sun:
There is the Pittsburgh Penguins’ big three — Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Jordan Staal — and then there is Maxime Talbot, the afterthought who has been, at times, a joker and at other times the butt of jokes.
...
Max Talbot, the guy who keeps goalie Marc-Andre Fleury loose before games by talking into his mask, nose to nose, dancing with him to the music playing from the ice surface, slapping him across the headgear.
Max Talbot, whom Penguins then-coach Michel Therrien tapped on the shoulder a year ago when Fleury came skating to the bench for an extra attacker in Game 5 of the 2008 final, who said, "I’m sorry ... me?" then leaped on the ice and scored on his second whack at the puck to force extra time in a game the Penguins would win in triple O/T.
From CFTK TV:
Pittsburgh was in the Detroit end from the opening faceoff of the second frame and it produced the first goal as Evgeni Malkin stripped Brad Stuart of the puck and fed Talbot, who beat Chris Osgood with a shot along the ice to the far post at 1:17.
At 10:09, Chris Kunitz won a battle with Stuart to set up a two-on-one break. Talbot elected to shoot and his high attempt found the top corner to Osgood's glove side.
The Penguins played the final period as though killing a long penalty, but Joe Louis Arena erupted in glee when Fleury missed Ericsson's high shot from the right point with his glove to make it a one-goal game.
From Yahoo News:
Marc-Andre Fleury was stellar in making 23 saves — none bigger than the one he made with one second left as he dived across the crease and knocked away a shot by Niklas Lidstrom.
"I knew there wasn't much time left," Fleury said. "The rebound was wide. I just decided to get my body out there and it hit me in the ribs so it was good."
He erased the memories of a 5-0 loss in Game 5 at Joe Louis Arena that put the Penguins on the brink of elimination. Pittsburgh returned home and gutted out a 2-1 win, behind Fleury's 25 saves, on Tuesday that forced a seventh game in Detroit.