PITTSBURGH — When the game was over and the Detroit Red Wings had prevailed, two ushers at Mellon Arena with partisan ties to the Pittsburgh Penguins summed up the collective sentiment:
“Well, I think that about does it for us this year. Don’t think we’ll be seeing each other Wednesday night,” one of them said.
No, probably not. Not with the Red Wings one win away from their first Stanley Cup since 2002 and heading home following Saturday’s 2-1 win.
The Red Wings, on the strength of Jiri Hudler’s third-period backhander past Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury from the short side, have a 3-1 lead in the Stanley Cup Finals and a chance to make Monday night a party at Joe Louis Arena.
“It never gets old. But we know as a team we haven’t won anything yet. But sure, you’re excited to be in a position like this,” said Detroit defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom, who scored one of Detroit’s goals.
Henrik Zetterberg didn’t get his name on the scoresheet, but the Detroit forward made a great case for himself as the Conn Smythe Trophy winner with some outstanding defensive play when the Wings needed it most — a 5-on-3 disadvantage for 1:26 at the 10:10 mark of the third period. Zetterberg made a couple of key clears and ragged the puck for several valuable seconds in the Pittsburgh zone to effectively kill the Penguins’ chances.
“We wanted to have more poise in our own end, and I think we did,” Zetterberg said. “We wanted to play good defense. That makes it easier to create some offense.”
It all looked so good for the Penguins early on. They came out as the aggressors, drew an early penalty and made the Wings pay when Marian Hossa scored at 2:51.
But the Red Wings played a terrific defensive game the rest of the way, allowing the Penguins only 14 shots on goalie Chris Osgood.
“I think we were more aggressive up the ice,” Lidstrom said. “As the game went on, we did a better job of eliminating their time and space.”
The Penguins got sloppy on the game-winning goal. Forwards Gary Roberts and Jordan Staal failed to get the puck out in an easy situation at their own blue line, allowing Brad Stuart to keep it in. A few seconds later, Hudler lifted the backhander with seemingly no room to shoot past Fleury.
But the real killer was coming up empty on the 5-on-3.
“Tough to explain — there’s no doubt we needed to get that goal,” Penguins coach Michel Therrien said. “We didn’t execute well. We had a chance to tie up the game right there and we didn’t do the job.”
Wings coach Mike Babcock was irate at the second penalty, an interference penalty against Andreas Lilja on Penguins star Sidney Crosby.
“The first thing I thought was ‘I can’t believe this is happening,’ ” Babcock said.
But the Penguins didn’t do a good enough job of setting up and getting the puck on the net.
“We had some loose pucks and missed the net a couple times,” Crosby said. “Tonight could have gone either way. There’s no choice now. We’ve got to win to stay in. They scored two tonight, we scored one. So, I don’t think they’re running away with it. We’ll battle and see what happens.”
The Penguins have scored only four goals in the series, and Hart Trophy finalist Evgeni Malkin doesn’t have a point in the series.
“He tried, but right now nothing is happening for him,” Therrien said.
Adrian Dater: 303-954-1360 or adater@denverpost.com
THREE STARS
1. Nick Lidstrom.
Wings defender scored a goal and played a game-high 28:23.
2. Henrik Zetterberg.
Wings forward didn’t get a point but was great on a two-man disadvantage in the third period.
3. Marian Hossa.
Penguins forward had the team’s only goal and a couple of other good chances.
KEY MOMENT
Gary Roberts and Jordan Staal had a seemingly easy chance to get the puck out of their own zone. But when they didn’t, the puck was in the net a few seconds later as Jiri Hudler scored on the backhander to make it 2-1.
BY THE NUMBERS
1-for-6 Pittsburgh’s performance on the power play, including nothing on a two-man advantage. Most teams don’t win when they fail to convert such chances in a playoff game.
WILD CARD
Hasek on his own island.
It was something of a strange sight during the game, seeing Red Wings backup goalie Dominik Hasek, above, sitting in the runway across the ice from his team’s bench. There seemed to be plenty of room for Hasek to sit on the bench, but he sat on a folding chair by himself instead.
