The Stanley Cup is back in Hockeytown once again. For the fourth time in eleven seasons, the Red Wings are the Stanley Cup champs. They used experience to knock out the younger, less experienced Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday night with a 3-2 victory in Game 6 of the Final. Following in the iceskates of Gordie Howe and Steve Yzerman,  captain Nicklas Lidstrom strongly led the Red Wings to the title. Detroit’s 11th NHL championship team is the first in league history to be captained by a European.

Just like in Game 5, things got a little too close for comfort for Detroit, who allowed Marian Hossa’s power-play goal with 1:27 remaining that got the Penguins to 3-2. Pittsburgh had already pulled Game 5 star Marc-Andre Fleury to create a 6-on-4 skating edge, but they couldn’t pull off another goal, although they came close. In the final seconds, Sidney Crosby put a backhander on goal that Hossa just missed with a tip at the right post.

The Red Wings won their fourth straight series on the road in these playoffs. Detroit is third in NHL titles, trailing fellow Original Six clubs Montreal and Toronto.

Mike Ribeiro, the Stars leading scorer in the regular season and the playoffs, was involved in a controversial confrontation with Red Wings goalie Chris Osgood near the end of the third period of Game 2. After Osgood appeared to hit Ribeiro in the face with the butt-end off his stick, the Stars forward then took a big swing from behind the net to hit the goaltender in the ribs with his stick. Mike Ribeiro was given a 10-minute game misconduct for the slash.
Check out the video of the clearly intentional slash.

The Detroit Red Wings were hoping to stay with Dominik Hasek when the playoffs began after rotating the goalie with Chris Osgood in the regular season. Hasek was so shaky in a series-evening loss that coach Mike Babcock was forced to make a move.

“This is Plan B,” Babcock said yesterday. “But Plan B is Chris Osgood and I think he won 29 games and had the best goals-against average in the NHL.”

Hasek was benched after giving up three goals on 14 shots in Wednesday’s 3-2 loss at Nashville. Hasek is the oldest active goalie in the NHL at 43, and the second oldest active player in the league after Red Wings teammate Chris Chelios, who is 46.