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		<link>http://areyouwatchingthis.com</link>
		<description>RUWT? News for Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Detroit Red Wings 6/7/2009</description>
		<language>en-us</language>
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		<pubDate>Sat, 21 Nov 2009 10:15:26 GMT</pubDate>
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			<item>
				<title><![CDATA[Red Wings rush toward repeat, rout Penguins 5-0]]></title>
				<description><![CDATA[By IRA PODELL
AP Hockey Writer

DETROIT(AP) -- The Detroit Red Wings got exactly what they needed:
a big win and long break.

After hearing how tired and beat up they were through four games
of the Stanley Cup finals, the defending champions busted out
with a devastating display of offense and defense and rolled to
a 5-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night
that put them a win away from another championship.

The veteran-laden Red Wings lead the series 3-2 and are closing
in on their 12th Stanley Cup title and fifth in 12 seasons.
Detroit can wrap this one up Tuesday night in Pittsburgh.

"It's a huge win," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "The
biggest part is the extra days off. That's the best thing that
we've got to this point.

"We'll be a better team."

Detroit's two-game losing streak in Pittsburgh quickly became a
distant memory as the Red Wings returned to the friendly
confines of Joe Louis Arena and blew away the supposedly fresher
Penguins.

The home team is 5-0 in the rematch of last year's finals, so
the Penguins still have that going for them.

"When you don't play well at all, you have nothing to do but
improve, and we have to," Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby said.
"The situation is pretty clear for us. We have to go home and be
desperate now."

Pavel Datsyuk made his mark in his first appearance in eight
games, notching two assists, drawing a key penalty, and knocking
leading scorer Evgeni Malkin to the ice. The Red Wings made the
Penguins pay for a lack of discipline by going 3 for 9 on the
power play. Detroit was 1 for 10 on the power play coming into
Game 5.

Datsyuk even shook off a slash from Max Talbot on his sore right
foot.

"When I play more, I'm more comfortable," said Datsyuk, who
logged 17 1/2 minutes of ice time. "It's a little bit hard to
start with the final series when I miss a couple of games, but
I'm ready to play more."

Chris Osgood, on the verge of his fourth Stanley Cup
championship - third as the Red Wings starting goalie - made 22
saves for his 15th playoff shutout, third on the NHL career
list. He earned an assist on Valtteri Filppula's goal for his
fifth career playoff point, and improved to 11-4 in the finals.

Detroit held a 29-22 shots advantage, the first time the home
team had the edge.

"The other game is three days away so I don't know if (the
shutout) has much bearing on what's going to happen in
Pittsburgh," Osgood said. "It's more important for us to get a
little break so we can be at full capacity when we go to
Pittsburgh."

This series looked firmly in the Red Wings' control after they
opened with a pair of 3-1 victories, but the Penguins seized
momentum with two 4-2 wins that made Detroit appear worn out.

"We had no jump in the last game when they scored all the
goals," Babcock said. "It didn't look like they had much jump
when we scored all the goals. It's amazing how tired you look
when you're not scoring and they are."

History suggests the Red Wings will hoist the Cup again as 14 of
the 19 previous teams to win Game 5 in a series tied 2-2 have
prevailed.

Pittsburgh won Game 5 in the Motor City last year in triple
overtime to force the series to six games, but then was
eliminated at home. The Penguins are 1-5 in Detroit in the past
two finals, and Crosby failed to score a goal in all six games.

"We won in Game 5 in overtime last year and we won a
regular-season game here, so I think we're pretty confident we
can do a job here," Crosby said.

The Red Wings broke it open with four goals in the second period
- three in a span of 6:42 - against beleaguered goalie
Marc-Andre Fleury, who left after making 16 saves on 21 shots.
It wasn't the bouncy end boards that did him in this time, as
they tormented him in the first two games, but rather a suddenly
potent power play by the Red Wings.

Filppula started the barrage 1:44 into the second period when he
made it 2-0 just 5 seconds after Chris Kunitz served a penalty
for interfering with Osgood. That was the only even-strength
goal of the period.

Niklas Kronwall pushed the lead to three at 6:11, 18 seconds
into Sergei Gonchar's slashing penalty on Datsyuk. Fellow
defenseman Brian Rafalski made it 4-0 at 8:26, and Henrik
Zetterberg - last year's playoff MVP - closed the spurt at
15:40.

That chased Fleury to the bench in favor of backup Mathieu
Garon, who made his first playoff appearance since 2004.

"We lost 5-0, so we can't be happy," Fleury said.

Datsyuk was sidelined since injuring his foot in Game 2 of the
Western Conference finals. He knocked Malkin hard off the puck
behind the net and then made the final pass to set up Dan
Cleary's goal at 13:32 of the first period.

"He did very well for being off for as long as he has been,"
Rafalski said. "He wasn't 100 percent Pavel Datsyuk, but I will
take 85 percent of Pavel Datsyuk than 100 percent of other
guys."

Cleary scored his seventh goal in 11 games, but he hadn't
registered a point in the finals.

Chants of Datsyuk's name filled the arena, replaced by calls of
"We Want the Cup" as the final minutes ticked down, and others
saluting Osgood.

Notes: Detroit is 11-1 at home in the playoffs. ... Malkin,
who leads with 35 playoff points, took three of Pittsburgh's
nine minor penalties. ... Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom
played in his 233 NHL postseason game, tying former D Scott
Stevens for fifth on the career list.]]></description>
				<category><![CDATA[nhl]]></category>
				<link>http://areyouwatchingthis.com/nhl/news/101284-Red-Wings-rush-toward-repeat-rout-Penguins-5-0</link>
				<guid>http://areyouwatchingthis.com/nhl/news/101284-Red-Wings-rush-toward-repeat-rout-Penguins-5-0</guid>
				<pubDate>Sun, 07 Jun 2009 09:06:59 GMT</pubDate>
			</item>
		
			<item>
				<title><![CDATA[Penguins-Red Wings Preview]]></title>
				<description><![CDATA[By IRA PODELL
AP Hockey Writer

Pittsburgh At Detroit, Game Five, 8:00 p.m. EDT

DETROIT (AP) --  Call this one the Fickle Finals.

Two games into the Stanley Cup championship series, all signs
pointed to a Red Wings redux. They may be older and more
worn-down than the youthful and energized Pittsburgh Penguins,
but experience, guile and winning history seemed more than
enough to carry Detroit to a repeat.

That's how it played out last year. The Red Wings won the first
two games in Detroit, split the next two in Pittsburgh, then
wrapped up their 11th championship in six games.

Why would this time be different?

A 5 1/2-minute stretch in the second period of Game 4 Thursday
turned around the series, and the opinions of many watching it.
Instead of carrying a 3-1 lead back to Hockeytown, the defending
champions are locked in a 2-2 fight.

Game 5 is Saturday night in Detroit, and a return to Pittsburgh
for Game 6 is a sure thing.

"If you listen to what people on the outside say, Pittsburgh was
done after two games. I don't think anybody in our locker room
thought that," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said Friday. "Now if
you listen to what people on the outside say, the Red Wings are
done after two games. I don't think that's what we think.

"What we think is that we've got a best of three, with two in
our building, and we're going to come here and play well."

After the NHL crammed the first five games into an eight-day
stretch, including back-to-back contests to start the series,
there will be two days off before Games 6 and two more before 7,
should it go the distance.

That could be what the Red Wings need to get their legs back.
The return of leading scorer Pavel Datsyuk, who has missed seven
games due to a foot injury, would provide a major boost.

Babcock said Friday that Datsyuk will play. The Russian forward
nearly got back in the lineup Thursday, after skating in the
pregame warmup, but was ruled out again.

While the Penguins felt better about the first two games than
they did a year ago when they failed to score, much of the talk
was about missed opportunities and bad breaks.

The chances were there, but the goals weren't as the Red Wings
took a pair of 3-1 wins.

Now, after two 4-2 triumphs in front of a white-clad crowd
yearning for Pittsburgh's first hockey championship since 1992,
the Penguins suddenly look like the favorites.

"As a team, we're always focused on what we need to do,"
Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said. "Hopefully we bring that
levelheaded approach, whether it's a loss or whether it's a win.
We're no closer to the end than they are.

"We have two more wins to get and we have a tall task going into
a tough building against a very good team who is playing well."

For the third time since 1978, the home team has won the first
four games in the finals. Six years ago, the New Jersey Devils
won the Cup by capturing all four victories at home. They lost
all three games in Anaheim to the Ducks, coached by Babcock.

"We know we have to go in there and play a solid game," Penguins
captain Sidney Crosby said Friday, before the team hopped a
flight to Motown. "We want to come back here obviously up."

So back it goes to old Joe Louis Arena and its bouncy end
boards. They were more friendly to the hometown Red Wings and
goalie Chris Osgood than to Pittsburgh counterpart Marc-Andre
Fleury in Games 1 and 2.

"I think we were tired after the last game," Red Wings captain
Nicklas Lidstrom said. "You should be tired after a hard game
like that. But we're feeling good today.

"You see two teams that are matched up great together. Both
teams play a lot alike."

Fleury has reclaimed the spotlight from Osgood, who had been
10-2 in his career in the finals before his latest trip to
Pittsburgh doubled his loss total.

The Red Wings might be able to rattle him again in Game 5, but
it probably won't be enough to grab the momentum again if they
can't slow down Evgeni Malkin. The NHL's regular-season scoring
champion is tops in the playoffs with 35 points, and his 14
goals are second only to Crosby (15).

Malkin energized Mellon Arena in Game 4 by staking the Penguins
to a 1-0 lead in the first period, then nearly brought that old
building down by setting up Crosby's go-ahead goal - and first
of the series - in the decisive second period.

That marked the fourth time Crosby and Malkin scored in the same
game during these playoffs. Malkin has the most points in the
playoffs since Wayne Gretzky had 40 in 1993.

The Penguins shook off Detroit's 2-1 lead in the middle frame
and scored three goals in a span of 5:37 - a spurt that started
with Jordan Staal's short-handed tally at 8:35.

Making that momentum stick will likely be necessary for the
Penguins to come all the way back from their 2-0 hole. They have
the experience, having pulled it off that comeback against
Washington in a seven-game series in the second round.

Keeping an even keel through the ups and downs isn't easy.

"We're so focused on playing the right way and doing the right
thing," Crosby said. "We take a lot of pride in that, so we
don't let our focus sway too much. That's probably the biggest
challenge of the playoffs, mentally.

"We've been in this situation before and we know that it gets
more difficult as the series wears on. We've done a good job
here at home, but we've got to move on."]]></description>
				<category><![CDATA[nhl]]></category>
				<link>http://areyouwatchingthis.com/nhl/news/101148-Penguins-Red-Wings-Preview</link>
				<guid>http://areyouwatchingthis.com/nhl/news/101148-Penguins-Red-Wings-Preview</guid>
				<pubDate>Sat, 06 Jun 2009 06:08:03 GMT</pubDate>
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