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Red Wings look to finish off Penguins, win Stanley Cup

Jun 2, 2008 - 10:16 AM Pittsburgh at Detroit 8:00 pm EDT Stanley Cup Finals Red Wings lead, 3-1

DETROIT (Ticker) - Defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom and the Detroit Red Wings are one win away from capturing their first championship since 2002.

Lidstrom is looking to become the first European-born captain to win the title in NHL history when the Red Wings host the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday in Game Five of the Stanley Finals.

A three-time Stanley Cup champion, Lidstrom notched the game-tying goal before Jiri Hudler scored the winner as Detroit held on for a 2-1 victory over Pittsburgh on Saturday in Game Four.

Chris Osgood made 22 saves for the Presidents' Trophy-winning Red Wings, who grabbed a three-games-to-one lead in the best-of-seven series. Detroit can now turn its attention to capturing its 11th championship in franchise history and fourth in 11 seasons.

"It never gets old," said Lidstrom, who is the favorite to win the Norris Trophy for the sixth time in seven seasons. "We know, as a team, we haven't won anything yet. We won three games. ... But sure, you're excited about being in a position like this. This is what you play for all year long."

The Red Wings also have a chance hoist the Cup at Joe Louis Arena, where it would be an understatement to say they have had success.

Detroit, which was a league-best 29-9-3 record at home during the regular season, has lost just once at "The Joe" in the postseason and did not allow the high-powered Penguins offense to score there in the first two games of the series.

"We've been playing good all year and all through the playoffs," said Red Wings left wing Henrik Zetterberg, who is a leading candidate to win the Conn Smythe Trophy. "So it's exciting. We know we have to play at our best, otherwise we will not win games.

"We just try to get one game at a time, and now we're going home to play in our home arena. But we just have to play the way we won and do the little things right. If we let up on that, we will not win games."

All-Star Marian Hossa netted a power-play goal and Marc-Andre Fleury turned aside 28 shots Saturday for Pittsburgh, which fell to 9-1 at Mellon Arena this postseason and 11-1 when scoring first.

"What we have to do is keep our chin up still," Hossa said. "We still have got a good chance. We're facing a tough situation, but on the other hand, they have to win one more game, and we have to make it really tough on them."

"We have to play desperate hockey, fight for another day," Pittsburgh defenseman Darryl Sydor added. "The youth of this hockey team hasn't experienced that yet, so that's probably a good thing. We're going to come out and play hard and lay the chips where they may. We're not going to go down without a fight, for sure. We still believe in here."

The Penguins, who have to win three straight over the Red Wings, will need Hart Trophy finalist Evgeni Malkin to find the scoresheet to have a chance.

Malkin, who did not even suffer a three-game pointless streak during the regular season, failed to record a point over the first four games of the series.

"I'm pretty frustrated and kind of disappointed that I didn't score any goals," the Russian said through an interpreter after Saturday's loss. "I'll just have to work harder. If I would score just one goal, I would get away from that bad streak.

"In hockey, it happens when you go on streaks when you can't score, you can't do anything, basically. You have to work hard and just get through that time. Hopefully, I will eventually score."

To make things tougher on Pittsburgh, Detroit will benefit from the likely return of top-line right wing Tomas Holmstrom, who is expected to play Monday after missing Game Four with a hamstring injury.