Pens cut Detroit lead to 2-1

June 3, 2009   ·   Derek Felix   ·   Jump to comments

Last night, the Pens won a critical Game Three to get back in the series versus Detroit. This time by a 4-2 score with Evgeni Malkin continuing to be their best player notching three helpers. He set up unsung hero Max Talbot for the game’s opening marker and also got primaries on Kris Letang’s power play goal and Sergei Gonchar’s decider that also came via the man-advantage.

The league’s leading scorer has been excellent so far posting two goals and three assists in the Stanley Cup rematch. He’s stepped out of Sidney Crosby’s shadow with the Pitt captain picking up only one assist thus far. Be it a big secondary on Gonchar’s winner with 9:31 left in regulation. Crosby has found it tougher to produce going up against Henrik Zetterberg, who was easily the Red Wings’ best player last night finishing with a goal and assist. The brilliant pass he made across for Johan Franzen’s team-best 12th on the PP was awesome. It gave the Wings their only lead of the game.

The Pens drew even on their first power play 4:24 later when Malkin found an open Letang across the ice with the defenseman taking his time before ripping one past Chris Osgood. Judging from the highlights, the home club was lucky to still be even headed to the third period because the Wings dominated the second outshooting the Pens 14-4 while getting several good chances to go ahead. Marc-Andre Fleury was stronger than the first couple of games coming up with big saves from in tight to keep his team afloat. Overall, he finished with 27 stops. He also got plenty of help from teammates, who blocked 18 shots including some awfully close calls. The netminder also had a little bit of luck when Mikael Samuelsson’s shot beat him but hit his best friend the crossbar to stay out.

With the score still tied, the Pens came out and played a much better third getting 10 of 13 shots including Gonchar’s PPG from Malkin and Crosby that wound up being enough. The defenseman took a Malkin feed and beat Osgood from the point with Crosby doing some gruntwork in front.

Though they only had three shots, Detroit did have a chance to tie it but Fleury stopped Jiri Hudler in the slot. They would pull Osgood with over 60 seconds left but a turnover at the blueline led to Talbot’s empty netter from 90 feet sealing it with 57 seconds remaing to roaring approval from a pumped up Mellon Arena. Indeed, the feisty forward played a superb game nearly scoring his second minutes earlier when he rang one off the post. It was fitting that he got rewarded. Talbot was named the game’s No.1 Star with Malkin earning No.2 while Zetterberg nabbed the third for the losing side.

After allowing only two on the first 64 shots, Osgood permitted three on 20. Though he couldn’t be faulted by any means, both Letang and Gonchar beat him clean. The key on both was taking their time so there was traffic. That made it more difficult.

Game Four is tomorrow night on Versus. A year ago, the series went the same way till this point but the Wings prevailed to go up 3-1. Will it happen again or can the Pens use the momentum to draw even? Are Kris Draper and Pavel Datsyuk close to returning for Mike Babcock? We’ll get a more definitive answer tomorrow.

Since I didn’t catch much of last night, here are the highlights courtesy of NHL Video: