Red Wings-Penguins: Stanley Cup Finals 2009, Game Five

We're back in the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit—and Pavel Datsyuk is finally back in the lineup. He will be starting on the wing unless he looks good and Babcock moves him to centre. If Datsyuk doesn't look good, he stays as a winger.

The media keeps harping on the Wings being tired, but I think they'll be quite rested now. Since Detroit will get the last change, will they go back to line-matching?

Zetterberg was moving hard in the warm-up, and Crosby looked focused.

Will the Penguins break Detroit out of their slow-speed box as they did last game? Can Detroit put a stop to Pittsburgh's momentum?

Is there an irony in that Detroit has more Swedish players than any other nationality and Pittsburgh started their season in Sweden?

First Period

Each team comes out hard but few shots on goal occur. Datsyuk dumps the puck in for Dan Cleary to chase. Hall Gill takes out Cleary legally, and Cleary retaliates—no call.

Tyler Kennedy gets a good shot on Chris Osgood but is stopped and dumped into the corner. Evgeni Malkin skates up the ice and controls the play (cycling) giving Pittsburgh a scoring opportunity, and somehow Osgood stops it but can not control the puck. Luckily a defenseman clears it.

Niklas Lidtsrom has already turned the puck over twice. Tomas Holmstrom and Darren Helm come out strong, laying hits and controlling the puck but missing the net. Johan Franzen skates in close to the net with a backhander, but is stopped.

Cleary comes out of the Pittsburgh corner and puts the puck into Marc-Andre Fleury's pads, getting a few extra whacks at it—and with no aid, Fleury clears the puck. Immediately afterward, Detroit comes back in and Fleury makes a highlight save off a deflected shot.

Niklas Kronwall gets the game's first penalty (good call). Sidney Crosby skates end to end and turns over the puck in Detroit's zone. Once the Penguins put some pressure on, Sergei Gonchar flubs the puck, giving Detroit a chance to get some fresh legs. Datsyuk did not participate in the penalty kill but came on right after.

The momentum shifts toward the Red Wings as the Penguins just start dumping the puck out to relieve pressure. Osgood stops a weak shot from Bill Guerin and Brian Rafalski clears the rebound quickly. Datsyuk picks Malkin's pocket and Fleury makes another great save.

Soon after, Osgood pops out a rebound to Jordan Staal's stick, but he flubs the shot. Datsyuk is now playing centre. Gonchar backs too far from an oncoming Datsyuk, who flutters a pass to Cleary. Cleary just slaps at the wobbling puck and it goes through Fleury, starting the scoring.

The Penguins pretty much stay on the defensive for the rest of the period. Hossa takes a run at Letang but goes over the top.

The game slows to a crawl as Detroit holds the steering wheel. Pittsburgh does manage a shot from the point that Osgood pops up and slaps away with his stick.

With 20 seconds left, Kunitz gets a rebound opportunity from Guerin and while Zetterberg rides Kunitz into Osgood, the referee decides to put Kunitz in the 'sin bin.'

Pittsburgh Penguins 0
Detroit Red Wings 1

Period Stars: Fleury, Malkin
Period Goofs: Lidstrom, Gonchar

Second Period

Detroit starts with a one-minute, 40-second power play. They get a good chance right away set up by Franzen, but Fleury stands tall. Fleury then turns aside and clears a Rafalski point shot. Detroit is playing as if on a mission, and Fleury is turning shots and even a few rebounds away.

Finally the Pittsburgh skaters just stand still and Filppula sneaks in and puts the shot skillfully through Fleury's sliding five-hole (this occurred right after the power play ended).

Staal takes his first faceoff of the game and receives an elbow for his efforts. Kirk Maltby mugs Guerin and cries at a little retaliation. Maltby then skates around whacking Guerin until he falls and the play ends (no calls here).

Detroit gets a number of scoring chances, including three by Hossa. Fleury closes the door (and gets some help from the post). Detroit has kept steady pressure on Pittsburgh for almost six minutes and the Penguins end up with a man in the box that the Red Wings cash in on immediately. Franzen passing to Kronwall in the corner and Kronwall skating out, pulling a few dekes, and sending the puck high into the net.

Before anyone can catch their breath, Malkin goes to the box in shame after an arguable elbow that Franzen embellishes for all to see. Pittsburgh is just skating around like chickens with their head cut off but Fleury still makes various saves. Eventually a point shot from Rafalski goes off the post and in (Fleury screened completely by Holmstrom and Orpik).

Fleury was asked if he wanted to stay in, and opted to do so.

Draper beats an icing call, but the puck just ends up in the Detroit zone anyway. The game moves a little more back and forth as things slow down even more.

After the halfway point, the Penguins cycle the puck in the Red Wings' zone but with no heart, emotion, or energy. Osgood sucks in a weak shot from Ruslan Fedotenko. In a few minutes after a commercial break, Pittsburgh gets a little more bounce as Letang throws a puck through traffic that Osgood kicks out. Crosby dodges two elbows, and skates up the ice to finally lose it in Detroit's zone.

Fleury then covers a bad bounce off the boards. As Fleury takes a few whacks from Detroit, Kunitz takes his frustration out on the nearest Red Wing and goes to the box.

Rafalski makes a great defensive play on Maxime Talbot without a stick (two on one). Datsyuk and Cooke go at it a bit on the boards.

Detroit can't pin the Penguins in, but on a rush Zetterberg gets a power play goal from an absolutely sweet pass from Hudler who received it from Mikael Samuelsson after some smart moves.

Garon comes in to replace Fleury.

Crosby goes hard (but cleanly) to the net and draws a crowd. After another commercial break, Zetterberg interferes with Crosby who retaliates calmly with a harmless slash to the shin pads and serenely goes to the box. Hossa moves up the ice with the puck and Talbot taps Datsyuk in the foot. Datsyuk loses his footing and the Red Wings get a five-on-three.

Zetterberg goes after Garon just like he had been going after Fleury and Garon doesn't have any of that-punching Zetterberg with his blocker. No calls and the period closes.

Pittsburgh Penguins 0
Detroit Red Wings 5

Period Stars: Fleury, Kronwall, Datsyuk
Period Goofs: Malkin and the rest of the Penguins' skaters.

Third Period

Staal faces off against Darren Helm to start the period. Hossa checks Garon into the boards and flees the wrath of Garon who was ready to go. Hossa was called.

The Penguins were slow and ineffective on the power play as the point men could not keep the puck in the offensive zone. Letang gets a great scoring opportunity and misses the net to end the penalty. Maltby molests Letang but no call. Tyler Kennedy is wide open in front of Osgood and he loses the puck. He fumbles two more scoring chances before the puck is cleared.

Datsyuk runs the play a bit, but then hobbles off the ice.

Pittsburgh gets another penalty as the referees try to control the game.

Malkin was slashed, hooked, whacked and then his stick grabbed and taken away somehow getting a penalty.

Detroit is skating into the offensive zone at will. Garon makes a highlight save off a Hossa deke. Then he makes another save through traffic and Gill actually showed some usefulness after the whistle. Every Penguin to touch the puck gets slashed. Staal and Kennedy get a give and go, but the shot was too early. Maltby hooks Staal from a scoring chance-no call.

Kronwall skates around headhunting. Pittsburgh tries the dump and not chase method. The commentators talk about Mike Babcock's tie instead of the play-by-play. This is probably more a comment on the entertainment value of the hockey than anything else.

Matt Cooke checks Helm with vigour and a linesman gets in front of Cooke as Helm flees. Dupuis clobbers Kronwall who turtles into Dupuis' stick. Dupuis gets a high-sticking penalty.

Between Detroit's lacklustre power play and the Penguins increasing toughness, nothing gets going for the rest of the game. Malkin tries to take on Franzen and Cooke takes on Brett Lebda. The Wings players try to escape until a linesman saves them. Ironically, Detroit started the scrum with slashes and cross-checks. The Red Wings crowd was singing loudly even after each song ended as play started.

Pittsburgh Penguins 0
Detroit Red Wings 5

Period Stars: Garon, Helm
Period Goofs: Zetterberg, Gonchar, Kennedy, Hossa, Crosby

Post Game

Game 5: Detroit 5 Pittsburgh 0
(Detroit leads the series 3-2)

Game Stars: Osgood, Datsyuk, Hudler, The Many Unsung Heroes of the Red Wings

Chris Osgood gets the obligatory star for the shutout—but honestly, it was the rest of the team, not him that won the game. He played very average.

Marc-Andre Fleury certainly took a lot of slashes, extra whacks, and a complete lack of defensive help. The Red Wings are masters at interference just to the line, but not crossing where they get called.

Once Garon went in and showed he wouldn't put up with the interference—it seemed to stop, frustrating the Wings into penalties. Still, Garon had no help from his teammates. A big difference with Garon though is that he was obviously communicating with the team in front of him-directing the defense.

I think this game would have been totally different if Pittsburgh had even one defenseman that was willing to protect his goalie.

On the Detroit side, Maltby was a much bigger pest than he has been in other games during this series. Hossa is doing everything he can to get a goal except help his team. Detroit was also disciplined in any scrums or when Pittsburgh stepped up the toughness.

There are only one or two games left!