Penguins' luck turns in more ways than one

Too many skaters on the ice? No problem in this bizarre series

Wednesday, June 03, 2009
By Gene Collier, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/

The first change of venue in the Stanley Cup final brought with it a complete inversion of the luck dynamic, and with it a virtually new series thanks largely to Max Talbot, who got the first and last goal of a stunningly unlikely 4-2 Penguins victory to drag his team back to life.

PITTSBURGH - JUNE 02: Henrik Zetterberg(notes) #40 of the Detroit Red Wings gets checked by Chris Kunitz(notes) #14 of the Pittsburgh Penguins during Game Three of the 2009 NHL Stanley Cup Finals on June 2, 2009 at Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images)

The Detroit Red Wings, who had spent Games 1 and 2 on the sunny side of random events, suddenly found the forces at work in the old Uptown barn considerably more ominous. Perhaps it was the lighting.

How else could four on-ice officials allow six Penguins skaters on the pond simultaneously for 21 seconds in the first period, unless someone figured that if the Red Wings could have two goalies, the Penguins could have six skaters?

Detroit had gotten away with Henrik Zetterberg covering the puck in the crease when goaltender Chris Osgood could not in each of the first two games, but the Red Wings were catching no breaks in Game 3.

"I know that, from the bench, you don't want to yell," said Penguins forward Matt Cooke about the too-many-Penguins incident. "So I was kind of whispering [to Mark Eaton], 'Eats, Eats, Eats,' and then he nodded at me and started counting: one, two, three, four, five, and, uh-oh.
"Hey, we got away with it for how long? Twenty-one seconds? Good for us."

This was the very kind of thing the Penguins needed on a night when they were outshot, 29-19, and were outplayed again for long stretches, such as the entire second period.

In the second period alone, Mikael Samuelsson hit the post behind Marc-Andre Fleury and Brian Rafalski, who had come into the game with nearly twice as many postseason points against the Penguins (13) as anyone in red, skimmed another shot off the top of the crossbar.

Either shot might have put the Red Wings ahead, and likely to stay, as they are 11-0 in these playoffs when leading after two.

On top of that, the Red Wings were again unable to get Pavel Datysuk into the game due to injury, the same with Kris Draper.

Worse still, with the local embargo on available octopi, there is no talisman for Red Wings fans to hurl on the ice before the hostilities. Things were growing so desperate for the Penguins in the pregame, the suggestion that they counter with some similar good-luck life-form had begun to seem almost plausible.

Would anyone really mind if, for example, a groundhog (North American marmot) were tossed over the glass surreptitiously in the throbbing pregame? I don't think even PETA sponsors a Groundhog Defense League, and really, who wouldn't want to see the tremendously annoying Gus, the second-most famous groundhog in Pennsylvania, have his lottery-pimping butt given a icy massage?

PITTSBURGH - JUNE 02: Maxime Talbot #25 of the Pittsburgh Penguins celebrates his empty netter against the Detroit Red Wings with teammates during Game Three of the 2009 NHL Stanley Cup Finals on June 2, 2009 at Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

In any event, the Penguins presented convincing evidence in the first period that Game 3 would be different from the twin frustrations that preceded it, if only by putting pucks in the net.

Previously, they had merely put puck in the net.

One at a time.

No more than one in any 60-minute stretch.

Detroit had been allowing a stubborn two goals per game in this postseason. The Penguins had been managing precisely half that against Osgood.

But when Kris Letang collected the biscuit from a diving Johan Franzen on a Penguins power play and whipped it past Osgood, it tied the score with only four minutes left in the first period. Letang probably didn't realize that Detroit has not lost a playoff game it has led after one period, but he knew what to do with a floating puck with the man advantage. He drove it through a Niklas Kronwall screen to make it 2-2.

What Letang's goal couldn't do was erase the aura of easy opportunity that had affixed itself to the Red Wings thanks to Fleury's persistently skittish play throughout the first period. Fleury let a Ville Leino rebound leak toward, of all people, Zetterberg 90 seconds after Talbot had given the Penguins a 1-0 lead.

Zetterberg had no difficulty wristing that one to the back of the net, and with Brooks Orpik in the box for interference barely three minutes later, Franzen had no trouble beating the Flower with an elegant crossing pass from Zetterberg that put Detroit ahead until the Letang marker. That play looked as if it might have been authored by the best power play in the NHL this season and the best in Red Wings history, which, by the way, it had.

The Red Wings' Achilles heel is their penalty killing unit, which was forced onto the ice in the middle of a deadlocked third period due to a cheap interference call against Johan Ericsson against Cooke.

"Staal tipped the puck to me and I have every right to my lane," Cooke protested. "He forced me with his stick into the boards and that's always called a penalty."

Perhaps, but so much contentiousness was permitted beforehand, including Chris Kunitz's plainly evident cross check of Franzen earlier in the period.

The Penguins scored twice in three power-play chances. Perhaps if they get three more tomorrow night, and half the luck, they can tie the series.

Gene Collier can be reached at gcollier@post-gazette.com. More articles by this author
First published on June 3, 2009 at 12:00 am