Pittsburgh Penguins win Stanley Cup

June 13, 2009 On Friday, the Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Detroit Red Wings in game seven of the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals to win their third Stanley Cup. Max Talbot scored all of the Penguins goals to give them a 2-1 win over the Red Wings. In winning the cup, the Penguins became the first team in 38 years to win a Stanley Cup Finals game seven while playing on the road. Pittsburgh last won the Stanley Cup in 1992.

This Stanley Cup run was not an easy one for the Penguins. In the opening round of the playoffs, the Penguins took six games to defeat in-state rivals, the Philadelphia Flyers. The second round series against the Washington Capitals featured a highly-touted individual matchup, as the Penguins young star Sidney Crosby matched skills against Alexander Ovechkin of the Capitals; it took the Penguins all seven games to win that series. The Penguins rolled the Carolina Hurricanes in a four game sweep to win the Eastern Conference title. In the Finals, they found themselves down three games to two against the Red Wings, a dynasty which has won four Cups in the past 12 seasons, and was the defending champion.

The Penguins win in game seven was not only due to the scoring of Max Talbot; Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury allowed only one goal on 25 shots. The Penguins young star, Sidney Crosby had little impact on this game; though he was the second highest scorer of the entire playoffs, a hip injury in the second period kept him out of half of the game.

After a scoreless first period, Pittsburgh's Max Talbot scored on an assist from Evgeni Malkin only 1:13 into the second period. Talbot added to his first goal with a second at the 10:07 mark in the second period, on assists from Chris Kunitz and Rob Scuderi. The final score came in the third period, at 13:53, as Jonathan Ericsson scored Detroit's only goal of the game, on assists from Nicklas Lidström and Jiri Hudler.

The game featured five minor penalties; two by Detroit and three by Pittsburgh; all were inconsequential as all three goals were scored at full-strength.