PENGUINS TIE SERIES WITH VICTORY OVER RED WINGS

Marc-Andre Fleury turned in one of his best goaltending performances of the postseason on Thursday night as the Pittsburgh Penguins used a second period scoring outburst to defeat the Detroit Red Wings 4-2 on their home ice at Mellon Arena. The Stanley Cup Finals are now a best of three affair after the Penguins evened the seven game series at 2-2 with the victory.

Sports bettors who favored Pittsburgh as a -150 home chalk cashed their tickets, while the six combined goals once again just managed to top the posted total of 5’.  It was the second straight OVER in the series, which may be signaling a reversal of form from the recent head to head matchups between Detroit and Pittsburgh.  The back-to-back OVER verdicts in games three and four broke a string of three consecutive UNDER games for both teams, including the first two games of the Stanley Cup Finals.  They’ve been the first two OVER results in the previous seven matchups in Pittsburgh between the two sides (3 UN, 2 OV, 2 push).  The overall series is still showing a strong UNDER bias, however, with 7 of the last 11 matchups between the Pens and the Wings failing to surpass the total.

The Penguins got things started quickly, as Evgeni Malkin scored on the power play at 2:39 assisted by Kris Letang and Jordan Stall.  They would hold a 1-0 advantage for much of the first period until Detroit’s Darren Helm would even the contest with his unassisted goal at 18:19.  Brad Stuart would give the Wings their only lead of the game less than a minute into the second period assisted by Henrik Zetterberg and Brian Rafalski but after that it was all Pittsburgh.  Jordan Staal would tie the game at the 8:35 mark with his shorthanded goal assisted by Maxime Talbot and Mark Eaton, and Sidney Crosby would give the Pens the lead two minutes later with his goal set up by Evgeni Malkin.  Tyler Kennedy would cap the scoring at the 14:12 mark assisted by Crosby and Chris Kunitz.  Penguins’ goalie Fleury would take over in the final period, stopping 11 shots to preserve the victory.  For the game, Fleury stopped 37 of 39 Detroit shots and earned the ‘first star’ award.

Pittsburgh defenseman Brooks Orpik suggested that the pace of the series may be taking its toll on the older—and banged up—Red Wings:

"It seemed like all their guys were really slumped over tired and looked like they were frustrated, really. When you see that you just kind of feed off of it."

Detroit’s goaltender Chris Osgood, meanwhile, gave this terse assessment of the Penguins’ vaunted playmaking ability:

“They can really pass it.”

Teammate Henrick Zetterberg wasn’t much more effusive with his analysis:

"They had some 3-on-2s and 2-on-1s, and we can't do that against them because they're too skilled.”

The series will head back to Motown for Saturday’s game five at the Joe Louis Arena, where Detroit has been installed as a -150 favorite.  The total for the game has been posted at 5’ OV -120.  The Wings are now a -145 favorite to win the series based on their home ice advantage, with a +125 takeback on the Penguins.  Historical data still favors the Red Wings—in Stanley Cup Finals tied after four games where the home team has been victorious throughout, the team holding the decisive game on their own ice has won the series 7 of 9 times (77.8%).