WINGS TOP PENGUINS TO TAKE A 2-0 SERIES LEAD

Another year of experience and maturity doesn’t seem to have done much for the Pittsburgh Penguins.  In fact, based on the outcome of the first two games of the Stanley Cup Finals they’re exactly where they were one year ago—in a 0-2 hole heading home to Pittsburgh for game three.  On Sunday, the Detroit Red Wings spotted the Penguins a first period goal before scoring the next three to take a 3-1 victory in game two on their home ice at the Joe Louis Arena.  Detroit has now won 8 of their last 11 meetings with the Penguins which should give them added confidence as they prepare for game three on Thursday night.

Detroit rewarded their financial backers, cashing tickets as a -140 home favorite.  The four goals went UNDER the 5’ total, the seventh time in the past 11 games between the two clubs to do so (7 UN, 2 OV, 2 push).  It was the third straight UNDER and 4^th in six games for both teams.  No line was immediately posted for game three with Wings centers Pavel Datsyuk and Chris Draper both listed as ‘questionable’.

The Penguins opened the scoring late in the first period on Evgeni Malkin’s 13^th goal of the playoffs assisted by Bill Guerin and Kris Letang and managed to take this 1-0 lead into the locker room.  Detroit would retaliate in the second period as they launched a 16 shot barrage against Pens goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.  Jonathan Erickson would tie the score at the 4:21 mark assisted by Jiri Hudler and Darren Helm, and the Wings would take the lead at 10:29 as Valtteri Filppula would score the eventual gaming winning goal set up by Tomas Holmstrom and Marian Hossa.   Holmstrom and Hossa would get the assists on Detroit’s third goal, scored by Justin Abdelkader at 2:47 of the final period.  Pittsburgh had their chances to tie the game, and outshot Detroit 12-3 in the third period but was simply stoned by the much maligned Chris Osgood  who was awarded the game’s ‘first star’ award.  Osgood has now allowed a total of two goals in two games against the high powered Penguins’ offense.

There were some grumbles from the Wings coming into the series—they weren’t happy about the start of the finals being moved up, nor were they happy about having to play back-to-back games on Saturday and Sunday.  Obviously, they’ve since changed their tune somewhat as these comments from winning goalie Osgood evidence:

"Playing back to backs and saying we'd be up 2-0, we'd be ecstatic. We still believe we can play better and we know we'll have to in Pittsburgh."

Wings’ head coach Mike Babcock added:

"It's hurt us. Don't kid yourself. I thought we were exhausted out there. It's amazing what will does for you. We found a way to win two games, but we haven't been as good as we're capable of being."

Though he didn’t single out Osgood, he may have been the single most important component of the two Detroit victories.  Penguins captain Sidney Crosby’s postgame comments had a ring of despair after two solid efforts that yielded no positive outcomes:

"It's not good but at the same time, it shows us our game can be successful. If we keep playing the same way, we're going to come out on the right side of things. We would have liked to have different results, but that's playoff hockey."

Historical precedent is clearly on the side of the Detroit Red Wings.  Not only were they the last NHL team to repeat as Stanley Cup champions (1997 and 1998), but they’ll no doubt take comfort from the fact that of the 44 teams to hold a 2-0 finals lead only 3 failed to win the series.  Ironically, two of the three victims were the Detroit Red Wings though that will likely not mean much to the current roster since it hasn’t been done since 1966.