Sid the Kid grows up to be Stanley Cup winner; Pens dethrone Wings with 2-1 win in Game 7

Talbot’s 2 lift Penguins to Stanley Cup title

DETROIT — Slide over Super Mario and make room on the Stanley Cup for a new batch of Pittsburgh Penguins. Max Talbot scored two second-period goals, and the Penguins overcame the loss of captain Sidney Crosby to beat the defending champion Detroit Red Wings 2-1 in Game 7 and win the Cup on Friday night.

Instead of the Red Wings becoming the NHL’s first repeat champion since winning titles in 1997 and 1998, this turned into a Penguins party. The last time Pittsburgh was crowned champion, in 1991 and ‘92, it was captained by owner Mario Lemieux.

This one wouldn’t have been possible without a clutch diving save across the crease by Marc-Andre Fleury, who denied four-time champion Nicklas Lidstrom with 1 second left.

“I knew there wasn’t much time left,” Fleury said. “The rebound was wide. I just decided to get my body out there and it hit me in the ribs so it was good.”

Fleury was stellar in making 23 saves and erasing the memories of a 5-0 loss in Game 5 at Joe Louis Arena that put the Penguins on the brink of elimination. Pittsburgh returned home and gutted out a 2-1 win, behind Fleury’s 25 saves in Game 6, and forced the winner-take-all matchup.

“When you’re playing Game 7 for the Stanley Cup, and you’re playing at home, it makes it tough to lose,” Lidstrom said. “It’s devastating when you’re that close.”

The sting was especially strong for Marian Hossa, who spurned the Penguins after last year’s Cup loss and signed a less-lucrative, one-year deal with the Red Wings, the team he thought had the best chance to win.

“Sometimes you make choices. I still had a great year in this organization,” said Hossa, who had no goals in the series. “If you score one more, you can celebrate, but if not, they’re celebrating. That’s life. You just have to move on.”

This was Pittsburgh’s second championship in four months, following the Steelers’ Super Bowl victory in February.

Jonathan Ericsson cut the Wings’ deficit to 2-1 with 6:07 remaining, and Niklas Kronwall nearly tied it with 2:14 left, but his drive smacked the crossbar. Detroit pressed further after goalie Chris Osgood was pulled, but Fleury stood his ground.

His last save started a wild scene that culminated in the awarding of the Cup.

Crosby took it from NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and skated to center ice before handing it off to Bill Guerin, who joined the team from the last-place New York Islanders at the trade deadline and became a champion for the first time since 1995 with New Jersey.

“When I got traded to Pittsburgh, the Pens were in 10th and I was in 30th,” Guerin said. “We came together and bonded quickly.”

Lemieux, the No. 1 pick in the 1984 draft by Pittsburgh, celebrated on the ice with Crosby — the phenom who has been living in Lemieux’s house since joining the team. The Penguins are the second team to win two Game 7s on the road, following their second-round victory against Washington — a series they also trailed 2-0.

They turned the tables on the Red Wings and captured the Cup on enemy ice, just as Detroit did in Pittsburgh last year. The Penguins are the first to win the title the year after losing in the finals since Edmonton 25 years ago against the Islanders — the previous finals rematch.

So much for the Detroit dynasty. Not only were the Red Wings shooting for their second straight title, but their fifth in 12 seasons and 12th overall.

“It is hard for people to believe. We don’t take winning for granted,” Osgood said. “We know how hard it is. We do have a good team but it’s very, very difficult to win in this league. We were pushed every series.”

Evgeni Malkin, who led the playoffs with 36 points, won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the postseason MVP. He assisted on Talbot’s first.

Crosby, four years after being the No. 1 selection in the draft, became the youngest captain of a champion at 21. He played just one shift after leaving the ice during the second period after taking a hard hit along the boards from Johan Franzen that left him unable to walk due to a knee injury.

“It’s a dream come true,” Crosby said. “It’s everything you imagined and more. I would’ve loved to do it in four. It would have been a lot easier on the nerves.”

Pittsburgh was 1-5 in Detroit this year and last until Friday. The Penguins’ other victory at “The Joe” was a triple-overtime win in Game 5 last year that kept them alive. Talbot made it possible by scoring the tying goal with 35 seconds left in regulation.

The Penguins are the first team since the 2004 Tampa Bay Lightning to win the Cup after trailing the series 3-2. They are the first to take Game 7 on the road after the home team won the first six games, since the 1971 Montreal Canadiens.

Crosby crumpled against the boards after he was hit and got his left leg caught. He glided to the bench hunched over and stayed bent at the waist as he was guided to the dressing room 5½ minutes into the period.

He was limited to two shifts, totaling 2 minutes, 39 seconds of ice time in the frame, but his teammates doubled the lead while he was gone. Crosby made it back to the ice midway through the third period for the one shift.

“It was so painful, being a captain and seeing what the guys are doing out there blocking shots,” Crosby said of the third period. “You get to the point where you’ve got to ask yourself whether you’re going to be hurting your team by being out there. I knew I had everything I could to numb it or try to play through it.

“At the same time, I’m playing against (Pavel) Datsyuk and (Henrik) Zetterberg. One misstep and I could cost the guys a lot of hard work. I didn’t want to be the guy who did that.”

Uncharacteristic mistakes by the experience-laden Red Wings led to both Pittsburgh goals.

Malkin, the NHL’s leading scorer in the regular season and the playoffs, forced defenseman Brad Stuart into making a bad pass. Talbot intercepted the puck in front and fired it between Osgood’s pads at 1:13.

“Max came up with some big goals there,” Crosby said. “We don’t get to this point without everyone contributing. I knew the guys were going to find a way to pull it off.”

Talbot snapped a wrist shot from the middle of the left circle on a 2-on-1 that sneaked in under the crossbar to make it 2-0 at 10:07.

Fleury took care of the rest. He wasn’t fazed by Red Wings crashing the net or screening him or any funky bounces off the end boards that tortured him in earlier games in Detroit.

Rookie coach Dan Bylsma became the second to win the Stanley Cup with a team he took over midseason. Bylsma helped rescue the Penguins from a near-playoff miss by leading them to a 18-3-4 mark after replacing Michel Therrien on Feb. 15.

Bylsma was on the losing side as a player in 2003 with Anaheim in the last series in which the home team won all seven games. Those Mighty Ducks were coached by current Red Wings bench boss Mike Babcock.

“It definitely does fill the void,” Bylsma said. “I haven’t won a lot of things since high school. It elevates your career to a different level.

“When you lift that Cup, Stanley Cup champion will go by your name forever.”

The Red Wings were the overwhelming favorite coming in with four players on the verge of their fifth Stanley Cup rings. Detroit had been 11-1 at home in the playoffs.

NOTES: Bylsma is the 14th rookie coach to win the Cup. … The last road team to win Game 7 of the championship round in any major league was the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates.