Role players take over for Pittsburgh, force Game 7

Game 6 of the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals went exactly as planned for the Pittsburgh Penguins, as they won their 3rd home game of the series to force a decisive Game 7 in Detroit on Friday night. After a dismal performance in Game 5, the Penguins bounced back to stifle the Red Wings, despite having both of the playoff scoring leaders Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby held pointless.

In the first period, Pittsburgh came out firing on all cylinders, outshooting the Red Wings 15-4, but were denied at every turn by stellar goaltending from keeper Chris Osgood. In the second period, Pittsburgh’s role players took charge as Jordan Staal scored for the second consecutive game to put the Penguins up 1-0. After Tyler Kennedy fed him an outlet pass to give the Pens a 2-on-1 opportunity, Staal managed to find his own rebound after it clattered to the ice off Osgood and knocked it home.

Detroit began to press a little harder during the rest of the second period and the early portions of the 3rd, but saw all their momentum disappear when Kennedy scored his second goal is as many games to give the Pens a 2-0 lead near the 6 minute mark of the period. As with Staal’s goal, Kennedy followed his shot to the net and kept working at it until he somehow managed to get it past Osgood. At the time, it appeared to be nothing more than a cushion for the Pens, but it proved to be the game winner when Kris Draper scored with 12 minutes left to play in the period.

As he has so many times during these playoffs, Marc-Andre Fleury came up big for the Penguins in the last half of the 3rd period, making some key saves in the closing minutes that actually saved the game for Pittsburgh. The most notable came with under 2 minutes left, when he calmly turned aside a shot from Daniel Cleary, who had roared in on a breakaway. Also getting into the defensive act was Pens defenseman Rob Scuderi, who made two game-saving efforts in the closing seconds, kicking out a loose puck in the crease while playing from his knees. Fleury finished the game with 25 saves, 21 of which came in the last two periods.

After a series which has seen the home team win each game, it is still difficult to predict how Game 7 will go. When the Stanley Cup is on the line, any hockey fan knows that anything can happen in a Game 7, and with the great hockey these two teams have been playing, it should be quite the tilt at “the Joe” on Friday.