Pittsburgh Penguins at Detroit Red Wings, Game 7
If you go by the history of the two teams’ goalies, certainly the odds favor the Detroit Red Wings to win Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals tonight and hoist their fifth Cup in 12 years.
Detroit’s Chris Osgood has been a huge part of the Wings’ success is the past decade or so. Yet in the regular season, he was ordinary at best. But by January, he felt his sharpness and motivation return.
Heading into tonight’s game, he has a 2.00 goals-against average during the playoffs, with two shutouts and a 92.7 save percentage. In this series, his goals-against average is 2.44. At home he has held the Pens to just two goals in three games.
“I feel pretty good,” he said. “For us, every time you have a chance to win the Cup, it’s like a Game 7 anyway. It’s no different, really. It’s another game where we have an opportunity to win the Cup. It will be a real fun game to play in. I can’t really think right now of any negatives that are going to come out of this game.”
So clearly he isn’t too caught up in the moment. And Detroit is a -190 WagerWeb.com money line favorite behind Osgood.
The Penguins believe in their young goalie, Marc-Andre Fleury, who has a 90.6 save percentage and 2.68 GAA in this series. “Flower” certainly earned the faith of many fans and bettors with that save on a Dan Cleary breakaway with 1:41 left in Game 6 and the Pens clinging to a one-goal lead.
“He’s a guy who has come up big in a lot of big games,” Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma said. “There were a handful of times he came up big in (Game 6). The breakaway in the third is a pretty big save at a pretty big time for our team. And that’s what Marc-Andre has been able to do for us throughout these playoffs.”
The question will be whether Fleury can forget his Game 5 performance when he was pulled after allowing five goals.
There is no question that Detroit has more depth, so the Penguins must get big performances from stars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Crosby has been scoreless with a minus-3 rating in Detroit this series while Malkin has a goal and an assist and a minus-3 rating.
Both the Penguins (over Washington) and Red Wings (over Anaheim) won their second-round series in seven games in these playoffs, with Pittsburgh’s coming on the road.
“It’s going to be a different experience. Everybody is going to be going through their own emotions and everybody will want to have a good start,” said Wings defenseman Brad Stuart. “Other than that, you just go out and play and have fun like you always do.”
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