Penguins look to exploit Detroit weakness

Pittsburgh could never have envisioned being outplayed for the better part of two periods on home ice down 0-2 to Detroit and coming away with a victory to close the series to 2-1 in favor of the Red Wings. But that is exactly what happened, thanks to jubilant crowd and the Penguins digging deeper in the third period to win the game.

By the end of the second period, Pittsburgh had taken Detroit’s best shot and lived to tell about. After a 2-2 first period, the Red Wings out-shot, out-played and out-hustled the Pens in the second period. Detroit had 14 shots on goal, compared to four by Pittsburgh, including five that would be considered true goal potential attempts. Goalie Marc-Andre Fleury withstood the flurry of Wings’ shots and saved his team for the first time in the Cup Finals.

This must have given Pittsburgh a glimmer of hope as they played wide-open in the third period from the start, peppering Detroit netminder Chris Osgood with shots and laying hits on everyone in a white and red jersey.

This led to Detroit penalty and Sergei Gonchar made them pay, taking 3-2 lead. Detroit played like an older team forced to play third game in four days and mustered only three shots in last stanza.

The Penguins have won 20 of last 25 as playoff favorites and have found one of the few Detroit weaknesses. Much like Rafael Nadal was able to undercover Roger Federer doesn’t play the shoulder height backhand well; Pittsburgh has to be super aggressive in there own end to force penalties. The Red Wings have give up 18 power play goals in 63 penalty kills, for a contemptible 71.4 percentage in the postseason. This is a direct carryover from the regular season, when Detroit was ranked 25th in the league at 78.3 percent. With creative playmakers like Sidney Crosby and Evgani Malkin, the Penguins lit the lamp twice in Game 3 under those circumstances.

Even Detroit players are puzzled. Defenseman Brad Stuart said, "For whatever reason, we've had some trouble with it (killing penalties). If we knew exactly why, we would have corrected it. We're getting some bad breaks. The last goal, we just got caught out there and we're a little gassed. We've come up with some timely kills, but definitely, statistically this doesn't look too good."

Of course the easiest solution is not to commit penalties, however when fatigued or forced to play out of character, miscues occur. Detroit is still in control and a sharper performance could put them one game away from playing decisive game for Stanley Cup. The Red Wings are 44-12 after opponent allows two or fewer goals and are encouraged to possibly have center Pavel Datsyuk back for first time in the Finals. “He’s one of the best players in the world,” Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. “Obviously, we’d like to have him.”

Pittsburgh is -145 money line favorites, with total Ov5.5 at DiamondSportsbook.com. The Penguins are 51-16 as home chalk and are 5-0 OVER on one day’s rest. Detroit has now lost last five encounters as road underdogs and is 6-1 OVER when oddsmakers place them in this role.

If the last contest was huge for Pittsburgh, then Game 4 is gargantuan, since a loss means going to the Motor City with Red Wings poised to win another Cup. This conflict will start a little after 8 Eastern on Versus, with the favorite having won last four meetings.