Awesome footage of Geno picking on Talbot at today's media sessions...
Game three played out like a Sandwich without meat for the Penguins…they were able to start and end well, but there was nothing in the middle. At the end of the night you could see a pretty clear split, the Penguins dominated the first ten minutes and the third period, while the Wings took care of business from about half way through the first and on through the second.
Luckily Marc Andre Fleury was there to weather that storm through the second period, as the Penguins were outshot 14-4 in the middle frame.
"In the second period, they came out really strong," said Max Talbot who notched two goals in the game. "They were putting pressure on us. They put us on our heels. Luckily, Fleury was there. He was definitely (the main reason Pittsburgh won) in my book. It's nice to get a big win."
"They're a great team and we're lucky that Flower is there," continued Talbot. "In the first two games he got criticized a lot, so I'm happy for him now."
It was great to see MAF answer the bell as he did in the second. He had been taking some serious criticism following the first two games in which he allowed a couple of suspect goals. Hopefully he will use this performance as a springboard to finish this series strong. The Penguins will not get past the Wings without his being solid.
The Penguins were able to get on the board first, which was huge on home ice. The crowd was going crazy from the earliest moments. It was probably the loudest it has been in the Mellon Arena during these playoffs. The Talbot goal just worked them into frenzy. Detroit head coach Mike Babcock wasn’t thrilled with the Talbot goal, calling it a mistake.
"On the one goal, they went half-wall across, which is a mistake by us," Babcock said. "It was an ugly goal, but we should have cut it off.”
Talbot’s goal was just the first of many good things he would do on this night. He was flying from the opening face-off, getting himself into open spaces, opening up the ice for his line and creating chances. He forechecked like crazy, got back and made some great defensive plays and was a physical presence.
"Yeah, (he has) little bit bad hands," Evgeni Malkin joked today about his line-mate. "He has a lot of scoring chance and not score -- just empty net. It's OK, he (will) learn over the summer."
Kris Letang, who was rumored as a potential healthy scratch earlier in the day, stepped up as he often does when such rumors surface and had one of his finest games. He picked up a huge tying goal for the Penguins when they were trailing the Wings 2-1, added an assist on Talbot’s opening goal and was effective in both ends of the ice.
Speaking of the Penguins defense, another member of that blue line stepped up as well. Brooks Orpik had a pretty dominant game, especially in the physicality department. He ignited the Mellon Arena and gave his team a huge emotional lift with a big hit on Wings’ speedster Darren Helm early in the third period, a period that was owned by the Penguins.
"It's not one of those things you go looking for," Orpik said. "He's had a great series last year and this year against us. For as small as he looks -- I don't know how big he is off the ice -- he is really tough to knock off the puck. He competes really hard. He's probably been their best player this series and probably last year against us."
The Penguins were not able to get Sidney Crosby away from Hank Zetterberg as often as they would have liked, but the way Bylsma used the line combinations seemed to tire him out a bit.
“Well, you could see what Mike was trying to do with getting Zetterberg out there on the change every chance he could get.” Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said. “I think the one advantage we had tonight because they were trying to get Zetterberg out there so much, there were times when he got out there tired.
“But I think when they’re going after the match-up that hard, it causes situations where they are going to be out there tired against our players.”
Tired is how I described the Wings to a couple of peers following the third period last night. They just seemed to lose a step from the first and second periods and the Penguins were able to exploit that a bit and hit them a lot more often.
The Penguins outhit the Wings 36-17 in the game, blocked 18 shots and had 7 takeaways…those stats show a team that played hard and were desperate to stay alive in this series. That energy level will be a necessity moving forward, especially on Thursday night here in Pittsburgh.
Dodging a Bullet:
The Penguins dodged a bullet when they accidentally had a sixth man on the ice for about 28 seconds at one point during the game. The officials never seemed to realize it and it went down as the Penguins first big break of the series.
"We were going great with six guys," Max Talbot joked during his presser. "We were cycling the puck. It was great!"
Love For Sarge
I often talk about what Sergei Gonchar means to this team during XM spots, in blogs etc. He has long been the calming influence, the steady but silent leader and core of the Penguins blue line. It was nice to hear some love for him last night after he notched the game-winning goal against the Wings…
"What a leader," Talbot said. "It's funny because me and Sid were actually talking about him right before the game. We looked at him. He sits right across from me and Sid in the dressing room. You look at him and he's just so calm, he's just so relaxed and so poised. You look in his eyes and you know he's ready."
"He's always like that," Sidney Crosby said. "In our room before this game, I think we all felt like there was a really strong sense of focus and everyone knew that it was a big one. But [Gonchar] just has that about him. That's his personality. He's very calm all the time, no matter what the situation is. Guys really feel that. They realize that he's going to be ready every time he steps out there. He's a big calming influence."
* * * * *
The Penguins did what they had to do to climb back into this series, but they still have a huge job ahead of them. They have got to hold serve at home and they believe that they can do it. I will have more on last night’s game as well as news and info from today’s media sessions later…
Join the Discussion:
»