RED WINGS CLOBBER PENGUINS TO TAKE STANLEY CUP FINAL LEAD

After four relatively tight games, the Detroit Red Wings returned home for game five and made a serious statement with a 5-0 rout of the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday.  Center Pavel Datsyuk returned to the Detroit lineup for the first time since he was sidelined by a foot injury on May 19^th and contributed 2 assists, and the Wings used a four goal second period outburst to complete the blowout.  Detroit now leads the best of seven series 3-2 and should be buoyed by the knowledge that three of the last four teams to win a game five went on to take the Cup.

Detroit also cashed sports bettors’ tickets as a -158 home favorite, winning for the fifth time in eight games against the Penguins at Joe Louis Arena.  The 5 goals just managed to stay UNDER the total but it was a sweat—Detroit scored their fifth goal with five minutes to play in the second period.  It was the 9^th UNDER in the last 14 games between the two teams at Detroit (9 UNDER, 3 OVER 2 push).  All three of the series’ games at Detroit have gone UNDER, while both games at Pittsburgh went OVER. 

Dan Cleary scored the only goal of the first period assisted by Datsyuk and Brian Rafalski to give the Wings a 1-0 lead at the break.  Detroit would explode in the second period, putting the game away with their four goal onslaught.  Valtteri Filppula would start the barrage with his goal at 1:44, assisted by Marian Hossa and goalie Chris Osgood.  Niklas Kronwall would tally on the power play at 6:11 set up by Johan Franzen and Henrik Zetterberg to make it 3-0.  Brian Rafalski would net a power play goal at 8:26 from Datsyuk and Niklas Lidstrom to give the Wings a four goal lead.  Henrik Zetterberg would cap the scoring at 15:40 with another power play marker, this one assisted by Jiri Hudler and Mikael Samuelson.  For the game, Detroit held a 29-22 shots on goal advantage.

After the game, Wings’ forward Cleary dismissed the frequently repeated clichés that his team is too old, too tired or too injured to win their second consecutive championship:

"Anything like that -- too old, too tired, too slow, that doesn't bother us one bit. We pride ourselves on being a good team, being fast, working hard and we showed it tonight.”

Henrik Zetterberg gave his thoughts on the criticism as well:

“You try not to pay attention to it. The media try to get some things going. You just focus on your game. Of course you get tired at the end of games. But yesterday, we had a day off. We refocused and we were ready to go today."

Team captain Niklas Lidstrom added:

"I thought the whole team showed up with determination tonight. Zetterberg was one of our leaders up front the way he played -- the way he played against Crosby; but on the offensive end, too. He's making plays and playing real well for us."

Game six will take place Tuesday night in Pittsburgh, with the Penguins needing to win to keep the series alive.  The Penguins are -145 favorites in the game, with the total set at 5’.  Should Pittsburgh emerge victorious, a decisive game seven would take place on Friday night at Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena.