Unlike my prediction earlier today, the Detroit Redwings lost game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals @ home against the Pittsburg Penguins. To be completely honest, I thought that the Pittsburg Penguins put up a phenomenal fight in this game… and got incredibly lucky w/ the final result.
It was an amazing game to watch. The first period was basically dead even in skill – though the Pens got off to a quicker start. The second period, Detroit got lucky that the Pens didn’t put away with around 3 goals (they had so many chances). And throughout the entire third period, Detroit played inspired hockey! The third period was dominated by the Detroit Redwings.
Except, when the Pens were able to poke one in in the final minute, when they pulled their goalie (Fleury). In overtime, Detroit began dominating with the first 6 shots to Pittsburg’s 0. Throughout the first overtime, Pittsburg had some sporadic good chances. Detroit had a ton of good chances, but Marc-Andre Fleury was able to keep the Pens alive to the second O.T. The second O.T. was fairly even mostly due to bullshit calls by the refs against Detroit. Pittsburg played well being out Ganchar, and Detroit played well being short-handed for awhile. In the final O.T., the Pens got a damn lucky break to win game 5 @ Joe Louis arena.
The final score:
Detroit: 3 – Pittsburg: 4 Triple O.T.
Not even close to the scoring that I predicted of Detroit 5 to Pittsburg 2.
Peter Skyora who told an ice-level announcer that he was going to score the game winner in the first O.T., happened to score the game winner in the 3rd O.T. on a 4:00 Pittsburg powerplay to make the series 3 – 2 and give the Pens some hope to make it 3 – 3.
Another great season for the N.H.L. and very interesting final series matchup! I’m really looking forward to the game on Wednesday @ Mellon arena! Could the Pens even the series? I think it’s definitely a likely possibility, but they’re going to need to get some key penalty calls against Detroit if they want to even things up! I think that because the Pens were outplayed and totally drained, it’s going to take some serious luck to win game 6 – even though it is @ the Mellon arena (their home).
Some final game 5 facts:
- Detroit out-shot the Pens by almost double, Fleury had almost 60 saves! Osgood had about 30. Both goalies played awesome despite letting in 3 & 4 goals.
- Detroit out-hit the Pens by double-digits (10 +)
- Detroit had many more chances to score
- Detroit had the momentum for most of the game
- Pittsburgh scored the garbage goals – ones that happened to count most
- Pittsburgh got lucky w/ the reffing calls going in their favor
- Marc-Andre Fleury was the only reason that the Pens won game 5
A sidenote about the referees:
In my opinion, Detroit got screwed w/ the somewhat terrible calls by the refs. Especially in overtime. The final 4:00 minute penalty call was a good call, but the 2 calls before that against Detroit were bullshit. Though the refs are supposed to be the best in the finals, I think this is some of the most inconsistent refereeing that I’ve witnessed all N.H.L. 2008 playoffs.
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