Red Wings-Penguins: Detroit, Chris Osgood a Win Away from Stanley Cup

With a 2-1 victory in Game 4 tonight, the Detroit Red Wings are now a win away from their fourth Stanley Cup in 11 years.

Jiri Hudler and Nick Lidstrom scored for the Wings and Chris Osgood made 22 saves for the Wings who finally ended Pittsburgh’s perfect playoff streak at Mellon Arena.

Another solid performance from Osgood now puts the Wings 60 minutes from the top of the hockey world. Though it’s said that Osgood is simply a goalie backed by a good team, he showed again in this game why Wings coach Mike Babcock put him in after the team’s first two playoff games. This win improved his playoff record this year to 13-3. One more win will give him a better record than in 1998 when he backstopped the Wings to their second consecutive title while going 16-6.

Osgood only faced 22 shots, but made several big saves when it counted. In the middle of the third period, with his team shorthanded on a 5-3, he turned aside several shots as the Penguins swarmed to the net.

While the pressure has been on the Wings superstars to score goals, it’s been the role players that have stepped up in the series. Hudler broke a 1-1 tie with a nice backhand over Pens goalie Marc-Andre Fleury for what proved to be the game-winning goal. Lidstrom, deadly as always with his slapshot, put the Wings on the board only minutes after Marian Hossa gave Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead. Even with the loss of Tomas Holmstrom to injury, Dan Cleary was effective, creating several scoring chances including a shot he tried to bank off Fleury from the side of the net.

Where has Evgeni Malkin been in this series for Pittsburgh? Going into this series so much was made of the matchup of him and Sidney Crosby against Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk. While Crosby came alive in Game 3 with two goals and an assist in tonight’s game, Malkin remains pointless for the series. He’s made careless mistakes with the puck which have led to turnovers, including one that led to Mikael Samuelsson’s second goal in Game 1. Tonight was his best game of the series by far. He almost had a goal, as the light turned on for a split second, but the puck was on the outside of the net.

The finesse and experience of Detroit is proving too much for the inexperience of the Penguins, Malkin included.

With Holmstrom back in the lineup for Monday’s Game 5, the Wings should have no reason not to close out the series. They’re on home ice at Joe Louis Arena where they’re 9-1 in this postseason. Given Pittsburgh’s youth and inability to get anything past Osgood at the Joe, the odds heavily favor the Wings. After a few years of playoff disappointment Babcock will finally be vindicated with a title. (Babcock lost in the finals as the coach of Anaheim in 2003.

With one more win to go, the Wings will hope to bring a smile to Detroit fans, only days after a disappointing end to the Piston’s season.