Penguins upset Red Wings to win first Cup in 17 years

A year after watching Detroit parade the Stanley Cup around Mellon Arena, Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins got to return the favor, as they won their first Stanley Cup since the days of Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr. In a game that kept viewers on the edge of their seats until the very last second, the Penguins proved that they deserve every bit of praise they will receive in the aftermath of this series. Hustle player Maxime Talbot proved to be the hero for the Penguins, who lost captain Sidney Crosby to a knee injury midway through the second period. Talbot scored two goals in the second period to give the Pens all the offense they would need to hoist the Cup.

While there was no scoring in the first period, both teams had great chances to take an early lead, but watched them fall by the wayside as both Chris Osgood and Marc-Andre Fleury turned in excellent efforts. One of the most memorable plays of the game came midway through the first, when Niklas Kronwall stepped up at center ice and sent Talbot flying with a huge open ice hit.

Talbot bounced back quickly in the second period however, as he scored both his goals in within ten minutes of each other. The first goal came off of a questionable non-call. As the Penguins broke out of their zone, the puck was flipped into the Detroit end, from the wrong side of the red line, which could have resulted in an icing call, which would have negated the rest of the play. Instead, play continued, and pressure from Malkin and Talbot forced Brad Stuart to cough up the puck. Talbot gathered up the loose puck and slid it between Osgood’s pads to give the Pens a critical 1-0 lead. About nine minutes later, Talbot picked up another loose puck in the neutral zone and carried it in on a 2-on-1. While not usually known for scoring, Talbot opted to simply pull the puck back and rip a wrist shot over Osgood’s glove to put the Penguins up 2-0.

Despite the Penguins’ two goal lead, the Red Wings maintained a large amount of momentum going into the 3rd period, mostly due to the fact that Pens captain Sidney Crosby was knocked out of the game with a knee injury midway through the 2nd period. After a hit form Johan Franzen in the neutral zone, Crosby limped to the bench and exited to the locker room. He would go on to play only one more shift throughout the rest of the game. The Wings got some added life in the 3rd, when Jonathan Ericsson ripped a one-timer over Fleury’s shoulder from the point with about six minutes left to play, setting up a frenzied finish to the game. In the final minutes, the Red Wings had a number of chances to finish the game, including a rising slapshot that ricocheted off the crossbar. The most exciting play of the game, however, came at the very last second, when Fleury dove across the crease to stop Nicklas Lidstrom’s attempt to bury a loose rebound on the final play of the game.

In the end, it was not the Penguins’ superstars that won them the game or the series. The true testament to the talent present in Pittsburgh was the fact that even though Detroit managed, at times, to shut down the two leading playoff scorers, they were able to get production from all ends of their bench, and found a way to win. Malkin was awarded the Conn Smythe trophy as playoff MVP, after leading the league in both regular season and playoff scoring. For the Red Wings, the loss must have been felt the hardest by Marian Hossa, who opted to sign with Detroit instead of Pittsburgh in the 2008 offseason, because he felt that the Red Wings had a better chance to win the Cup. In the end, the Penguins proved that they truly deserve to be considered the NHL champions, as they overcame all obstacles which were put in their path, on the way to achieving their ultimate goal of winning the Stanley Cup.