Red Wings-Penguins: Detroit's Domination Puts Wings on the Brink of the Cup

Experience, character and, more importantly, self confidence all played a huge factor in the Detroit Red Wings taking a strangle-hold in the Stanley Cup Final on Saturday night.

After dropping two consecutive games in Pittsburgh, many of the critics and even some of the Penguins believed that the defending champions looked old and tired and that they were quickly running out of gas.

Never feeling rattled, the Red Wings, who have an unbelievable 22 players with Stanley Cup rings, showed their experience in game five when they tied postseason history by scoring three power play goals en route to a 5-0 victory at Joe Louis Arena.

“I keep hearing about how old we are,” Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock said when asked about his team wearing down. “But (Pavel) Datsyuk and (Henrik) Zetterberg are not that old, and (Marian) Hossa’s not that old, and (Johan Franzen) Mule’s not so old, so who is old? Cheli’s (Chris Chelios) is older than me, I give you that.”

Giving the Red Wings a huge boost was the return of Datsyuk, who had a stellar performance after missing seven games with a foot injury suffered against the Chicago Blackhawks in the Western Conference Finals.

“When I play more, I’m more comfortable,” Datsyuk, who had two assists on the night, said. “(I have) lots of confidence and I’m feeling better and better.”

If the Red Wings can get that one remaining victory to defend the Stanley Cup, they could definitely look back on this game five as a turning point.

After being out-dueled by Pens young goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury in what was a 4-2 game four loss, Red Wings veteran netminder Chris Osgood, who is a three-time Cup winner, redeemed himself on Saturday by stopping 22 shots for the victory.

The Wings also showed their experience by weathering an early Penguins flurry in the opening minutes of play. After a huge penalty kill, the Wings’ Dan Cleary opened the scoring.

“If we score a goal, it’s a different momentum in the game,” Penguins Coach Dan Bylsma said. “But there’s a lot of hockey to play at that point. I wouldn’t say that was the particular turning point in the game. But they did gain momentum from it.”

At that point Pittsburgh’s inexperience began to show and they seemed rattled. In the second period Detroit kept coming and were rewarded, as Red Wing Valtteri Filppula scored.

Penalties seemed to be the downfall for a rattled Pens team, as the Wings scored three power play goals from Niklas Kronwall, Brian Rafalski, and Henrik Zetterberg to chase Fleury, who allowed five goals on 21 shots.

With those three special team goals, Detroit joined the Montreal Canadiens (1954 vs. Detroit and 1977 vs. Boston), New York Rangers (1972 vs. Boston), New York Islanders (1980 vs. Philadelphia Flyers), and the Colorado Avalanche (1996 vs. Florida Panthers) as the only teams to perform the feat in the Stanley Cup Final.

“We have two days to regroup and refocus,” said Bylsma. “They’re one ahead of us, and we’ve got to go home and use that energy of that home crowd to our advantage, and use game six to draw even again.”