DETROIT - Their young legs fresh and their confidence rising over 60 minutes, even with star center Sidney Crosby sidelined nearly two periods with a knee injury, the Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley Cup last night with a 2-1 victory over the defending champion Red Wings in a fast-paced and dramatic Game 7
Backed by only 18 shots, two of them potted by pesky forward Maxime Talbot in the middle period, the Penguins won the Cup for the first time since the days when Mario Lemieux, now the club’s owner, marched them to championships in 1991 and ‘92. The Red Wings, their game as dull as their legs, didn’t keep pace through two periods and then fell short of salvaging a repeat amid a frantic third period in which Jonathan Ericsson cut the lead to 2-1 with 6:07 remaining.
Goalie Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 23 of 24 shots, including a last one at his doorstep by Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom with two seconds remaining. With 2:14 to go, Fleury was bailed out when Niklas Kronwall’s 35-foot wrister pinged off the crossbar.
Evgeni Malkin, the league’s leading scorer during the regular season, was voted the Conn Smythe winner as the postseason’s MVP.
The Penguins, who ditched their coach, Michel Therrien, in favor of rookie bench boss Dan Bylsma with 25 games left in the regular season, are the champs. The Wings, now undoubtedly in for a makeover, couldn’t clinch what would have been their fifth Cup in 12 seasons.
“It was crazy at the end,” said a smiling Hal Gill, the towering former Bruins defenseman who joined the Penguins last season in a trade with the Maple Leafs. “We were just out there trying to eat the puck if we could.”
Gill, the former Providence College standout, stood sixth in line at the end of the night to be handed the shimmering 35-pound trophy during the traditional on-ice ceremony. Crosby, who described his injury as a jammed knee, first collected the Cup from commissioner Gary Bettman and held it high and kissed it, with a couple of thousand Penguins fans left in the stands from the sold-out crowd of 20,066.
Another ex-Bruin, Bill Guerin, from Wilbraham, Mass., was next in line, followed by yet another former Bruin, Sergei Gonchar. Later, former Bruins forward Tom Fitzgerald, now a Penguins assistant coach, had his moment to lift high hockey’s most cherished prize. Former Boston College defenseman Rob Scuderi assisted on Talbot’s second goal.
“It was a little bit heavy,” said Gill, describing the moment of holding the Cup. “It was better than I thought it was, too, pretty nice. This is what you dream of . . . this is what it’s all about.”
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