Pittsburgh 2 – Detroit 1
The reigning Stanley Cup champions had all the odds working in their favour heading into game 7: in the past 30 years, no road team has won a Stanley Cup game 7, the home team in this series was a perfect 6-0 and 31 teams in Stanley Cup Finals history have come back to win when trailing the series 3-2. On this night, none of that mattered.
Unlikely Stanley Cup Heroes
Just like his teammate Ruslan Fedotenko did in 2004 with the Tampa Bay Lightning, Max Talbot scored twice for the Penguins in game 7 – the only two goals Pittsburgh would need to prevail over the Detroit Red Wings. Talbot opened the scoring for the Penguins just 1:13 into the second period on a generous bounce off Geno Malkin’s leg while Detroit attempted to clear the puck. Talbot corralled the puck and slid it between Chris Osgood’s legs to silence the Joe Louis faithful. Talbot’s second goal would come 7 seconds before the half-way point of the period as he beautifully placed a wrist shot over Osgood’s catching hand.
From there, the game would be all Detroit. Strong offensive zone possession, including a power play late in the second after Hall Gill took a two minute minor for holding would allow the Red Wings to throw 11 shots at Penguin’s keeper Marc Andre Fleury, with no success. Heading into the third period, Detriot was controlling the game, but could not crack the scoreboard.
Crosby Gets Hurt, Detroit Climbs Back
Penguins captain Sidney Crosby sat on the bench to star the third period as he took a hit from Johan Franzen late in the second period that saw the twp snipers knock knees up against the boards. Crosby would only play 9:59 in game 7. With Crosby sidelined and their season 20 minutes from ending in disappointment, the Red Wings completely dominated the flow of the game as Pittsburgh reverted to a defensive style game. Although the Red Wings were firmly in control of the play, they failed to generate any quality scoring chances in the first half of the third period. Jonathan Ericsson would put Detroit on the board with 6:07 left to play in the game, and would breathe life back into the Red Wings bench and its supporters. The Wings out shot the Pengiuns 7-1 in the final frame, and twice came within inches of tying the game. Once on a hot crossbar and the other with Nicklas Lidstrom on the doorstep with 6 seconds remaining in the game, only to be stopped by Fleury diving in front of the puck.
The Red Wings, top to bottom, seemed very ordinary on this day as they failed to display any of the positional dominance, robot-like play that fans had come to expect from them. Osgood did nothing special, Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Holmstrom, Lidstrom and Hossa all failed to push their team over the edge and because of it, Pittsburgh walked out of their arena with the Stanley Cup.
Geno Malkin finished the playoffs with 36 points and was named the Conn Smyth Trophy winner - the first Russian to do so in NHL history.
Goal Scorers: Pittsburgh; Max Talbot (2)
Detroit; Jonathan Ericsson
Shots on goal: Pittsburgh 18 – Detroit 24
Power Play: Pittsburgh 0/1 – Detroit 0/2
Faceoffs Won: Pittsburgh 14 – Detroit 33
Ice-time Leaders: Pittsburgh, Sergei Gonchar 24:18 - Detroit, Nicklas Lidstrom 27:44
