Fleury, Penguins rebound to beat Red Wings 2-1, force Game 7

Fleury, Pens beat Red Wings 2-1 to force Game 7

PITTSBURGH —

Third-line teammates Jordan Staal and Tyler Kennedy gave the Penguins a two-goal lead, and Marc-Andre Fleury held off the defending champion Red Wings repeatedly during a frantic third period as Pittsburgh beat Detroit 2-1 on Tuesday night to tie the unpredictable NHL final series at three games.

Game 7 is Friday night in Joe Louis Arena, where Detroit is 3-0 but, as the oldest of NHL playoff adages goes, anything can happen when a single game determines who raises a silver trophy.

The Penguins wouldn’t let the Red Wings celebrate with the Stanley Cup, not again. Not in this Game 6 in their arena. Not without going the distance in a finals where home ice means everything and momentum means nothing.

“That’s a big as it gets. You get a chance to play for the Cup and it’s Game 7,” Detroit captain Nicklas Lidstrom said.

Fleury, yanked during Detroit’s 5-0 blowout in Game 5 after giving up four goals in the second period, regrouped to make 25 saves and hold off the Red Wings, who went winless in Pittsburgh as they go for their fifth Stanley Cup since 1997.

“I thought the best thing coach (Dan Bylsma) said to us after that was, ‘It’s the same as last game. We still need two wins to win the Stanley Cup,’ ” defenseman Rob Scuderi said. “That calmed the room down. Instead of thinking, ‘We’re down, we’re down, we’re down,’ you’re thinking, ‘OK, two more wins.’ “

Now, it’s down to one — for both teams.

The Red Wings won the Cup by taking Game 6 in Pittsburgh 3-2 last year but were denied a second successive clincher there, and on the 25th anniversary of one of the biggest days in Penguins’ history: the drafting of Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux in 1984.

No silver trophy, not on this silver anniversary. Mostly because Fleury, so bad in Game 5, couldn’t have been much better as the Penguins won for the first time in the playoffs without a point from stars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.

“He was unbelievable for us,” said Crosby, who, like nearly every Penguins player, said Fleury has repeatedly bounced back from off nights with exceptional performances.

Maybe it was the good luck kiss Fleury got from his mom as he arrived at Mellon Arena, one that caused him to blush a bit when asked about it afterward.

Crosby taped an NHL commercial last summer in which he watched the Red Wings celebrate wildly, then vows that it won’t happen again. In nearly identical circumstances, it didn’t as the Penguins forced the first Stanley Cup finals Game 7 in their 42-year history.

“We weren’t thinking about last year at all,” Crosby said. “But we found a way to survive. And now it’s anyone’s game. It’s going to be a great challenge … but it’s an unbelievable opportunity.”

Staal, whose key short-handed goal carried the Penguins to a 4-2 victory in Game 4, skated in on a 2-on-1 break started by Kennedy. Staal’s initial shot deflected off goalie Chris Osgood’s chest, but Staal gathered the rebound near the right post and pushed it in only 51 seconds into the second.

“It ended up coming right back to me, so I just buried my head and fired it,” said Staal, who didn’t pass because, “I’m a shooter, not a passer.”

Detroit, outshot 15-4 at the start, finally began generating some offensive momentum only to have Kennedy, who has scored in each of Pittsburgh’s last two home games, make it 2-0 at 5:35.

“They were a desperate team and I thought it showed,” Lidstrom said.

Ruslan Fedotenko and Max Talbot pressured to keep the puck in the Detroit zone, allowing Kennedy to gather it behind the net and carry it in front. Osgood stopped his initial shot but Kennedy pushed in the rebound.

“He made a goal out of nothing,” Bylsma said.

A two-goal lead with Pittsburgh playing with discipline and determination looked big, but the Red Wings sliced it to 2-1 when an undefended Kris Draper — one of four players who has been on all four of Detroit’s Stanley Cup winners since 1997 — grabbed Jonathan Ericsson’s rebound in the left circle and put it past Fleury 2½ minutes after Kennedy scored.

“It took us until the third period to get going,” Darren Helm said.

The Red Wings’ best chance to score on their two unsuccessful power plays came when Fleury left the puck in the crease, but Scuderi alertly whacked it away. Scuderi later stopped a Johan Franzen shot.

Fleury also made a game-saving stop on a Dan Cleary breakaway with 1:41 remaining, and the game ended with a flurry in which the trailing team couldn’t score — just as Game 6 did last year when the Penguins nearly scored twice in the final second.

One play — and one missed opportunity — illustrated the difference between that Game 6 and this one. Late in the second, Henrik Zetterberg faked going to his backhand and instead put a forehand under defenseman Hal Gill that struck the left post and lay in the crease.

Last year, on a similar shot by Zetterberg, Fleury sat on the puck and accidentally pushed it into the net for the game-winner in Detroit’s 3-2 victory. This time, Fleury calmly covered up the puck.

“It’s a great feeling that we won this one,” Fleury said. “Last year was tough, now we’re alive and we’re going to Game 7. It’s awesome.”

Notes: Detroit has outscored Pittsburgh 11-2 in the three games in Joe Louis Arena. … These are the first finals since New Jersey beat Anaheim in 2003 that the home team has won every game. That year, Detroit coach Mike Babcock was the Ducks’ coach and Bylsma was one of his players. … Penguins F Petr Sykora, who had 25 goals during the season, was in the lineup for the first time since May 4. … Teams down 3-2 while hosting Game 6 have won 10 times in 24 tries, and only two have won the Stanley Cup — Detroit (1950) and Montreal (1971).