NHL Gameday Wednesday – Pens aim to get back on track against Red Wings
Posted on 5/27/2008 10:14:22 PM
By Don Melrose
The high-flying offense of the Pittsburgh Penguins has been grounded by the Detroit Red Wings during the first two games of the Stanley Cup finals, but the Penguins will be counting on home-ice advantage to pull them back into the series when the two meet at Mellon Arena for Game 3 on Wednesday evening.
Detroit Red Wings at Pittsburgh Penguins – 8:00 PM ET
The Red Wings continued their dominant play in Game 2's 3-0 shutout at home, as they showed they could play a physical game after being largely thought of as a finesse team. Brad Stuart and Valtteri Filppula each had a goal and an assist for the Red Wings, who outshot the Penguins 34-22, including 23-12 over the first two periods. The veteran Red Wings jumped on the young Penguins early, and never let them get into the game. Chris Osgood stopped all 22 shots he faced, lowering his GAA to 2.09 in the postseason.
The Penguins are starting to appear frustrated as they have not seen this type of adversity while rolling through the playoffs. Pittsburgh did not even manage a shot on goal until 12 minutes into the first period, which is a combination of their tense play and Detroit's brilliant defense. Sidney Crosby is doing his best to lead his team by example, as he had six shots on goal, but the rest of this teammates cannot break free from Detroit's suffocating defense. Evgeni Malkin is lacking passion and fire, and he finished Game 2 with no shots on goal and a rating of -2, which are not good enough numbers for a player nominated for the Hart Trophy. Marc-Andre Fleury made 31 saves in the Pittsburgh goal.
The Penguins are -135 favorites at home in this crucial game, but only once in the NHL's history has a team come back from an 0-2 deficit in the finals, which was the 1971 Montreal Canadiens. The Penguins are a young team that feeds off their home crowd, so they should play much better in Game 3. However, the Red Wings are a team with championship experience, and it really does not matter to them where they play, they just follow the gameplan and stick with it. Take the Red Wings to snatch a vital victory, putting them one game away from the 11th Stanley Cup in franchise history.
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