Penguins-Red Wings, Game Three: Pittsburgh is Back!

The Pittsburgh Penguins made a loud statement to their critics, who already had them dead and buried in the Stanley Cup Finals.

After dropping the first two games in Detroit against the Red Wings, many hockey experts were quick to criticize Pens goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, along with captain Sidney Crosby.

Even though a lot was written in the past day or so about how the Wings will defend their championship, the Penguins weren’t about to conceive the fight.

Facing the daunting reality of finding themselves trailing 3-0, Pittsburgh got a strong performance from Fleury, along with a two-goal performance from Maxime Talbot in winning game three by a 4-2 score.

After the game, Talbot wanted to talk about his good friend Fleury, and what he means as a goaltender. “I’m so happy for Fleury, because in Games One and Two he got criticized a little bit. But tonight, I think he won the battle of the goaltenders,” Talbot said.

“I have a lot of trust in that guy, he’s amazing. If I had a choice to take any goaltender in the league, I would choose Fleury—and he proved it tonight.”

Heading into Game Three, Detroit was once again without scoring forward Pavel Datsyuk, who is still out with a foot injury, and veteran centre Kris Draper—who, according to reports, is healthy.

With the fans all decked out in white and going crazy, the Penguins came out flying and scored first but quickly surrendered two goals and found themselves late in the first trailing 2-1 in a game they had to win. Showing tremendous heart, the Pens kept pressuring—and defenseman Kris Letang had the Mellon Arena rocking after he scored on the power play.

During a scoreless second period Fleury was the difference, as the Red Wings generated 14 shots on goal.

“I saw all the red jerseys in front of me,” Fleury said.

“It’s always interesting when they’re there, there’s always little battles on trying to find the puck. I don’t mind the action in front of the crease, and just trying to battle to make those saves.”

Almost halfway through the third period, the Penguins took advantage of a power-play opportunity as Gonchar—who still isn’t one hundred percent—scored on a blast from the blue line. On that goal, Sidney Crosby had an assist—which was his first point of the Finals.

After the game, Crosby gave heavy praise to Gonchar for the leadership he brings to the dressing room.

“He’s very calm all the time no matter what the situation is,” Crosby said.

“Guys really feel that. You know, I think they realize that he’s going to be ready every time he steps out there. He’s a big, calming influence, and came up big for us.”

With under a minute remaining,  Pittsburgh iced the game and saved their season when Talbot took a pass from Malkin and scored into an empty net. With that assist, Malkin became the first player in league history to score a point all five of his team’s first five goals of the Finals.

To a man, the Penguins insist that they have never lost faith. The incident with Malkin seemed to have inspired the Pens.

“Malkin has been great all playoffs and has certainly paid the price. His grit this year has shown how he has matured as a player. His fight with Zetterberg may prove to be what we needed to win this series,” said Bill Guerin.

On Thursday night at home, they will have a chance to even up what has now turned into a series.

“We always talk about it’s always about the next shift, and that’s the way we really have to look at it,” Crosby said.