Stanley Cup Final: Penguins dethrone Red Wings
/Andrew's Dallas Stars Page
The Stanley Cup is heading back to Pittsburgh. The Penguins beat the Detroit Red Wings 2-1 in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final Friday night, giving the franchise its first championship since 1992.
“It’s unbelievable. It’s the stuff you dream of as a kid. It’s reality now,” said Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby . “We worked so hard. It’s amazing to see how far we’ve come, and it couldn’t feel any better.”
Maxime Talbot scored both goals for the Penguins, who won at Joe Louis Arena after dropping the other three games of the series played there by a combined score of 11-2.
"I don't have an explanation why Max can come up big in tough situations or big games, but he's done it enough to know that's what he can do," Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma said. "He's gritty, he's determined and he's not afraid to go after it. We said before the playoffs if your team plays well enough as a team, everyone has a chance to put the cape on and certainly Max put it on tonight."
The Penguins got another sparkling effort from goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, who stopped 23 of 24 shots and made a diving stop on Detroit's Nicklas Lidstrom as the final seconds were ticking off on the clock.
“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.”
Pittsburgh forward Evgeni Malkin, who had 36 points (14 goals, 22 assists) in 24 playoff games, won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the Most Valuable Player of the playoffs.
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| The Red Wings made a strong push early, but
the Penguins seemed to gain their legs as the period moved
along.
Pittsburgh scored twice in the second period. The first one came after Detroit defenseman Brad Stuart coughed up the puck in his own zone. Evgeni Malkin got the puck to Maxime Talbot, who ripped a shot past Chris Osgood at the 1:13 mark. Talbot and Stuart factored in the next goal as well. After Stuart got caught pinching at his own blue line, the Penguins got a two-on-one and Talbot roofed a shot to make it a 2-0 game at 10:07 of the second period. Detroit pulled to within one goal with 6:07 remaining in the game when Jonathan Ericsson scored from the point. But the Red Wings couldn't get the equalizer. Niklas Kronwall hit the crossbar and in the waning seconds, Pittsburgh goalie Marc-Andre Fleury made a stop Henrik Zetterberg and then a lunging stop on Nicklas Lidstrom to preserve the win. |
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| "It definitely does fill
the void. I haven't won a lot of things since high school. It
elevates your career to a different level. When you lift that
Cup, Stanley Cup champion will go by your name forever." -
Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma "I still have bad hands, those two goals don't improve my stick handling skills. But I don't really care about those two goals. Everybody's talking to me about that, but what matters is that we won the game. [Fleury] made some great saves, [Malkin] won the Conn Smythe, everybody sacrificed their body, this is how you win championships." - Pittsburgh's Maxime Talbot "Sometimes you make choices. I still had a great year in this organization. If you score one more, you can celebrate, but if not, they're celebrating. That's life. You just have to move on." - Detroit's Marian Hossa on his decision to sign with the Red Wings rather than re-sign with the Penguins "I thought just with the injuries -- everyone has injuries, but I thought with the injuries and then never really getting to the level we'd like to see our team at, I didn't think we did that in the Final at all. Now give them credit, they played good. ... "This group, we've basically been taped together all playoffs. Our guys did a good job to battle through and do the best they could. We weren't in some situations as good as we normally are. But I think when guys are giving you everything they've got, that's all you can ask from them. ... We've found a way to give ourselves a chance. Any time you win three games in a Final, you have a chance. We just didn't have enough to get it done. Like I said, they (Penguins) played well." - Detroit coach Mike Babcock "Obviously, we've been on the other end of it a lot. To be on this end of it, to come this far, and not be able to finish it off, especially here at home, just get one goal relatively late, and that's why you have to get off to a good start. You can't rely on your star players. You've got to have a whole group out there. You can't rely on the power play. You've got to go out and just assume they're going to get that goal or get us going. We just ran out of time. And that's all I can say." - Detroit forward Kirk Maltby |
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