After more than 2,500 National Hockey League regular season and playoff games, the 2008/2009 season can be distilled down to a mere microcosm.
60 minutes.
A mere moment in time.
A mere splash on the landscape portrait of a career.
A game 7 in the Stanley Cup Finals.
The Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings will settle the question of who deserves to carry the greatest trophy in all of sports on Friday night in game 7 in Detroit, thanks to the Penguins' 2-1 game 6 victory last night in Mellon Arena that tied the Finals at 3-3.
Over the next 3 days, you'll hear a lot of statistics about game 7's, history, odds, and more.
For example, the game 7 in this series will represent the 15th time in NHL history that its championship series will have gone the distance, and the 5th time in this decade.
But there will be plenty of time for that.
For the time being, let's focus on the heart, will and determination the Boys of Winter showed with their season on the line last night.
The Penguins came out of the blocks in game 6 on fire, and controlled play for most of the first 40 minutes. In fact, they outshot the Red Wings 12-3 in the first period, and at about the 30 or so minute mark, they were outshooting Detroit 22-9.
But those numbers aren't to diminish the way Pittsburgh's goaltender, Marc-Andre Fleury, looked at the outset of the contest.
Fleury, criticized in many quarters -- including somewhat by this writer -- for his inconsistent play in this series, and in game 5, looked especially sharp early because, while the Red Wings only had 3 shots in the opening frame, all were strong scoring chances, including 2 by Detroit's best player in this series so far, Henrik Zetterberg, who Fleury stoned point blank when the game was still 0-0.
Fleury helped Pittsburgh capitalize on the momentum they had gathered by their physical and determined play all over the rest of the ice when Penguins' center Jordan Staal openend the scoring less than a minute into the 2nd frame.
Staal chipped a puck by Detroit defenseman Brett Lebda on the far boards, leading to a 2-on-1 with LW Matt Cooke against the Red Wings' other blueliner, Jonathan Ericsson.
When Ericsson went down to block the passing lane, Staal shot the puck high on Osgood, who made the inital save by left the rebound sitting in front of him. Staal wasted no time pouncing on it and burying it behind the Detroit goaltender to give Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead.
The Penguins held that lead for the remainder of the 2nd period thanks to a little puck luck when Zetterberg made a fabulous quick deke and shoot move with just 2 minutes left in the frame. Undettered by the checking and stick of Pittsburgh defenseman Hal Gill, Zetterberg clanged one off the iron to Fleury's right.
And unlike last year when a similar puck when off the post, off Fleury's backside and in, this one hit the pipe so square that it came back through Fleury's legs (and not to the waiting stick of linemate Pavel Datsyuk either) quickly before his backside even hit the ice this time.
The Pens' also had great chances in the frame too -- especially late -- which both LW Ruslan Fedtoenko and C Evgeni Malkin could not get by Osgood.
So, with the 1-0 lead into the final period, Pittsburgh's 3rd line -- easily Pittsburgh's best unit all night -- struck again 5 minutes in.
Fedotenko pinched a puck deep in Detroit's zone to keep it in the corner, where RW Max Talbot corralled it. Talbot, covered initally by Ericsson, suddenly drew Red Wings' all-world blueliner Nicklas Lidstrom to him as well.
Mistake.
Talbot capitalized on that odd-number situation by backhanding the puck behind the net to a waiting Tyler Kennedy who walked out toward the goal, somehow got Detroit' backchecking forward Mikael Samuelsson to veer off him to Osgood's right, then corraled the puck after losing it briefly and having it bounce off Osgood's stick and quickly shot it under Osgood's left arm and inside the far post to give the Penguins a huge 2-0 lead.
At this point, Detroit was starting to turn the play a little, and they got back in the game about 3 mintues later when veteran Kris Draper picked up a rebound in the slot that Fleury couldn't see because there were 4 players in front of him. Draper backhanded the biscuit into a mostly vacant net to keep the Red Wings close.
Detroit would get no closer, however, although not without 2 tense moments in the final minutes of the game.
With just under 2 minutes to go and the Penguins controlling the puck in Detroit's zone, the Red Wings tried to clear the puck past the blueline, where Pittsburgh defenseman Brooks Orpik was waiting.
Orpik hesitated a split second in deciding whether he should look to whack the puck back in or be safe and back off.
He chose to try and keep the puck in.
Orpik had enough room to do this, and he did get the puck up a little, but of all people, Datsyuk knocked it down, quickly corraled it and looked up to see teammate Dan Cleary having sped just a bit behind an already chasing Orpik and looking for the lead pass.
Datsyuk fed a perfect disc/flip pass to Cleary, who took the puck in stride in on a breakaway from 80 feet with Orpik steaming behind him.
Cleary bore in on Fleury, took a slash from Orpik, deked to the backhand and .....
FLEURY SAYS NO!!!
Cleary had his attempt swallowed up by a patient Marc-Andre Fleury to preserve the lead.
Orpik got away with his slash. Most other times this year, that would have been called. I suspect the officials were so caught up in the drama of the circumstances, they weren't even paying attention to something like that. Sure, if Orpik would have hauled him down, I'm certain it would have been called. But they seeminly neglected the slash without hesitation.
Perhaps it was fitting, since the zebras had -- again -- let so much go during the game. AND since they already whistled the Penguins for 2 third period penalties, which Pittsburgh's penalty killers valiantly shut down. In some ways it was justifiable.
Although not by the letter of the rules.
As if more drama was necessary, the Red Wings were pressing in the last 20 seconds and somehow managed to get the puck in the slot and crease. Fleury was out of position somewhat after hugging the post to stop a bad angle attempt and then the mad scramble was on.
Detroit forward Johan Franzen whacked at the puck several times but defenseman Rob "The Piece" Scuderi went down and blocked at least three of his attempts with his stick, shin guard and skate while everyone crashed the crease to try and basically push the pile -- if not the puck -- into Fleury's cage.
From the above-the-net replay, it looked like Scuderi may have been close to putting his hand on the puck in the blue paint, which would have been a penalty shot for Detroit, but the replays were not conclusive on that.
Then again, even if they were, I think the league tossed out that rule for the Finals this year, since Zetterberg basically did the same thing -- TWICE -- in games 1 and 2 and didn't get called for it either time.
Regardless, the puck stayed out. The Penguins and Fleury held on the goal line stand, setting up one of the more dramatic situations in sports --- a game 7 for the Championship.
http://www.freep.com/article/20090609/COL01/90609108/1053/SPORTS05/Pens+fight+off+elimination++force+Game+7+at+the+Joe
Fleury was just tremendous in game 6. He and the Penguins 3rd line basically won the game for the Penguins. Crosby and Malkin (and basically everyone else) came up empty, and it was the first time the Penguins have won a playoff game without a point from either of those two players.
After both were also scoreless in Detroit's game 5 shutout win over Pittsburgh, could that be a portent for the Penguins that #'s 87 and 71 are ready to break out and bring the Cup home to Pittsburgh with career-defining performances on Friday night???
We can only hope.
Either way, the contest that evening in Detroit will be the stuff dreams are made of.
How many kids play hockey when they are little and dream of scoring the winning goal in game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final?
I know I did.
And thousands, if not millions of other children do the same thing in the United States, Canada and all over the World.
Whatever happens Friday night will be magical.
A one-of-a-kind -- maybe a one-in-a-lifetime -- experience for so many of the players and followers of these two teams and the sport in general.
A game where anything and everything can happen.
Stars can win it.
Grinders and role players can be the difference.
An unexpected bounce can decide it.
That's what game 7 is all about.
More previewing the game tomorrow.
Did someone say Filet-O-Fish?
Let's Go Pens!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment