Saturday, May 31, 2008

Red Wings 2, Penguins 1

Blugh. That's my new word for the day.

Blugh = Blech + Ugh.

I'm not sure of a better way to describe what I watched tonight. The Wings got back to suffocating the Pens, and the Pens got back to not being able to finish the chances the managed to get.

One miserable little backhand shot that slid past Fleury was the difference in this game, and it was all the Red Wings would need.

The Pens got off on the right foot with an early power play goal by Marian Hossa. He nearly added another one in the first, but it ricocheted off of Osgood and the far post / crossbar.

The Wings answered right back with a goal just after their power play had expired on a nice shot from the point by Lidstrom.

The score stayed 1-1 until the third when Jiri Hudler put a backhand past Flower. The Pens had failed to get the puck out of the zone and it burned them.

The game turned on a 90 second 5-on-3 advantage that the Pens were unable to capitalize on. They had several great chances but Osgood was just good enough, and Zetterberg showed why he is considered a great defensive forward by tying up Crosby's stick.

The Pens almost tied it again with less than 20 seconds remaining, but just couldn't beat Osgood.

I'm not going to say the Pens are done, but man, you can see that Detroit has just about stuck the fork in them.

I really didn't want to write this tonight, but then I thought about getting up in the morning and going through it all over again... so I figured it was best to get it out and put it in the past.

Next up: A must-win Game 5 on Monday.

1 comment:

Chuck said...

I gotta tell ya, I didn't think the Pens lost the game at the stupid backhander past Flower Power... What sealed the deal for me was the 5-on-3 the Pens just kind of flopped around on. Honestly (as a Sharks fan) I got the same sinking feeling during the innumerable golden scoring opportunities San Jose had in the playoffs this year and Just. Couldn't. Get. It. Done. You let those opportunities go, and the stupid little backhand tosses come back to haunt ya.

Still insist you just want to go to game 6? ;) Good luck on Monday; we will be pulling for our surrogate Pens!