The Detroit Red Wings were trying to close out the series at home with a 3-1 series lead, wanting to make an easy win of their fourth Stanley Cup in 11 years. It became clear early in this game that the Pens were not going down without a fight. Battling nerves and falling behind 2-0 in the first period, Detroit had a jerky start. The Pittsburgh Penguins are trying to become the first team since the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs to come back from a 3-1 deficit in the Stanley Cup finals. Toronto did it against Detroit. The last triple-overtime game in the finals was in 2002, when Detroit won Game 3 with a goal by Igor Larionov.

The game lasted nearly four and a half hours. The Penguins took control while the Red Wings in spurts, only to have the Red Wings rush back with a barrage of offense. In the fifth-longest game in Stanley Cup final history, Pittsburgh goalie Marc-Andre Fleury stole it for his team, making 55 saves in a career performance.

The top-seeded Detroit Red Wings will try to take an important 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference finals tonight, when they visit the floundering Dallas Stars for Game 3 at American Airlines Center. Detroit has taken a two game lead in this series after posting wins in Games 1 and 2 on home ice. The Red Wings recorded a 4-1 decision in game 1 last Thursday and followed with a 2-1 win on Saturday night at Joe Louis Arena.

The Red Wings have won eight straight games since head coach Mike Babcock made the big decision to switch goaltenders and replaced Dominik Hasek with Chris Osgood. Osgood is 8-0 with a 1.40 goals against average and .939 save percentage in this postseason. The matchup one Wednesday should be an intense one, with the altercation between Ribeiro and Osgood in game 2 causing a lot of tension.

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.