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.

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 Pittsburgh Pens will try to nail a spot in the Stanley Cup finals tonight, when they aim for another sweep, this time of the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals. The second-seeded Penguins have grabbed a 3-0 edge in the series people are calling the “Battle of Pennsylvania” by clinching a pair of 4-2 victories on home ice in Games 1 and 2 and defeating the Flyers in Philadelphia on Tuesday. Crosby and company will now try to end the series in Philly and reach the Stanley Cup finals for the first time since winning the second of back-to-back championships in 1992.

The Penguins won Tuesday’s Game 3 at the Wachovia Center by a 4-1 count as Marian Hossa scored twice to lift Pittsburgh. The Pens are now 11-1 overall in this postseason and have won 22 of the last 28 games dating back to the regular season.
Ryan Whitney and Ryan Malone have been amazing for the Penguins. Sidney Crosby added a pair of assists to share the NHL playoff scoring lead with 19 points, while Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 17-of-18 shots to record the win.

R.J. Umberger tallied for the Flyers, who are facing an 0-3 series deficit for the first time since falling to the Detroit Red Wings in a four-game Cup finals sweep in 1997.Martin Biron gave up three goals on 24 shots.

The Dallas Stars will open the NHL Western Conference final in Detroit against the Red Wings this Thursday.

A power play goal at 9:03 of the fourth overtime period brought the Dallas Stars a well fought 2-1 win over the San Jose Sharks in Game 6 of their NHL Western Conference semifinal. The Red Wings, who posted an NHL-best 115 points in the regular season, swept the Colorado Avalanche in four games in the other conference semifinal.

In the Eastern final, the Flyers will meet the Pittsburgh Penguins, which begins on Friday in Pittsburgh. Marian Hossa scored the winning goal at 7:10 of overtime Sunday as the Penguins as they squeaked out a 3-2 win, eliminating the New York Rangers in five games in the semifinal.
Pittsburgh led 2-0 after two periods but the Rangers fought back as Lauri Korpikoski and Nigel Dawes scored 82 seconds apart early in the third, forcing an overtime period.

In a complete shift from last year, the Ottawa Senators were swept out of the first round by the Pittsburgh Penguins last night. Evgeni Malkin and Jarko Ruutu scored second-period goals and Sidney Crosby scored into an empty net with 7.5 seconds remaining. The Pens were knocked out of last year’s playoffs in five games by the Senators. Ottawa went on to make its first Stanley Cup finals appearance in modern franchise history, losing in five to the Anaheim Ducks. The Penguins are now the first team to advance to the second round.