Early home-ice success holds again in finals

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(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-04 09:38

Pittsburgh Penguins Maxime Talbot (left) congratulates goalie Marc-Andre Fleury near the end of the third period in Game 3 of the NHL Stanley Cup Final series against the Detroit Red Wings in Pittsburgh on Tuesday. Reuters

PITTSBURGH: For three straight years, the home team has won the first three games of the Stanley Cup finals.

The Pittsburgh Penguins secured that accomplishment for the second consecutive year by beating the Detroit Red Wings 4-2 on Tuesday night. However, the Game 3 winner hasn't managed to stay alive past Game 6.

"In my opinion, in the two games at home, one of them could have gone the other way, too," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "So this series is where it should be."

The Ottawa Senators cut the Anaheim Ducks' lead to 2-1 in the 2007 finals, only to drop the next two games and go out in five. The Penguins lost Game 4 to the Red Wings last year, forced the series back to Pittsburgh with a Game 5 win, but had its season end on home ice.

Not that the Red Wings are relying on history to come through for them again this time. "I don't think so. It's a new year," forward Valtteri Filppula said.

Third-period turnaround

After being outshot 26-11 through two periods, the Penguins turned things around in the third en route to the victory.

Lucky to be tied 2-2 through 40 minutes, the Penguins turned it on and outshot Detroit 10-3 in the third. Sergei Gonchar's power-play goal snapped the deadlock with 9:31 remaining, and Max Talbot's empty-netter sealed Pittsburgh's win.

Before Tuesday, Detroit's previous low shot total in a period in this year's playoffs was six, done four times. The Red Wings had outscored opponents 19-6 in the third period and outshot them 210-153 during the postseason.

The Penguins rebounded after being outshot 14-4 in the second period.

"It's probably a little easier when you come out of a bad period like that and you're still tied," Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said. "You feel like you've kind of dodged a bullet."

City of (road) champions

By losing the first two games in Detroit, the Penguins left themselves with little chance of ending a Pittsburgh sports curiosity. When the city's sports teams win championship-clinching games, they usually do it on the road.

Over the past 38 years, Pittsburgh's three major pro sports teams have won a combined 10 Super Bowls, Stanley Cup titles or World Series championships, but not one was accomplished in Pittsburgh.

The Steelers' six Super Bowl victories were won at neutral sites. The Pirates' 1971 and 1979 World Series titles were won in Baltimore. The Penguins won the Stanley Cup in 1991 at Minnesota and in 1992 in Chicago.

The last title won by a Pittsburgh team at home was by the 1960 Pirates, when they defeated the New York Yankees 10-9 on Bill Mazeroski's homer in Game 7 of the World Series.

The Penguins can play a maximum of three home games in the Stanley Cup finals (Games 3, 4 and 6) and thus needed to win four in a row to have any chance of winning the Cup in Pittsburgh.