SPORTS REPORTER
PITTSBURGH–It was achieved more with grit than grace. And it didn't come without its nervous moments.
But the Penguins have pushed the Stanley Cup final to a seventh game, a one-game showdown to decide the NHL's champion Friday night at Detroit's Joe Louis Arena.
The Red Wings were trying to wrap up their second consecutive Cup and fifth in the last 13 springs but their attack simply Staal-ed under the relentless checking – and offence – of the Pittsburgh grunts. It was the third-liners who gave Pittsburgh a second chance.
Jordan Staal and linemate Tyler Kennedy had the goals and, on a night when neither Sidney Crosby nor Evgeni Malkin managed a point, the Penguins prevailed 2-1.
"Scoring in the finals, helping the team win really is like a dream," said Kennedy, a 22-year-old from Sault Ste. Marie who jammed in a puck from the side of the net in the third period, a marker that stood up as the winner.
Now they get to chase another dream, playing out the fantasy of many young hockey players growing up in Canada, skating in a Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final.
"I should be pretty comfortable out there considering how many times I played this game when I was younger," said Staal, who was raised in Thunder Bay. "It's going to be an unbelievable experience."
This will be the fifth Stanley Cup final to go to a seventh game since 2001 and it will be the 15th Game 7 in a final in NHL history. The home team has a 12-2 record in those games.
"Like every kid growing up, you play street hockey, you play in the outdoor rinks, you always dream of that opportunity," said Crosby looking ahead to Friday.
"You dream of making it to the NHL but something that sticks out is the opportunity to play for the Cup in a Game 7. We've got an amazing opportunity here."
The best work from that line of Staal, Kennedy and Matt Cooke may have come with their shoulders rather than their sticks as they repeatedly hammered the Wings and were relentless in their dogged checking on two of the world's best players, Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg, who skated on the same line.
In the second period, Cooke slammed Datsyuk to the ice with a check that knocked off the helmet of the Wings' star.
"I just got lucky, he turned into me," Cooke said of the collision. "But when I get an opportunity, I'm going to follow through."
Staal also came up huge in the third period with his solid penalty killing, after both Malkin and Bill Guerin took needless penalties.
"I think that's the storyline of the playoffs," said Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma, "when your team can play well enough that different people can put on the cape on any given night."
With less than two minutes remaining, Dan Cleary took a perfect lead pass from Datsyuk for a breakaway. But, as he drove in on Marc-Andre Fleury – who was pulled after giving up five goals on Saturday in Game 5 – Cleary faked a forehand and went to his backhand. Fleury got his left pad across to make the save.
"We expected (Fleury) to stop it the way he was playing tonight," said Crosby.
If that wasn't enough, in the frantic final seconds – "the longest 13 seconds you can imagine," said Staal – Rob Scuderi had to make a leg save while in the crease as the Wings crowded the net, pressing hard for the equalizer.
"(Fleury) has bailed me out so often, I was just trying to return the favour," said Scuderi.
"Throw some pads on him and he'd be a heck of a goalie," Staal said of the defenceman.
The Wings, after being shut down for most of the first two periods, had 14 shots in the third but the Stanley Cup, in the building and ready to be presented, was put back in its box for the trip to Detroit.
The Pittsburgh victory keeps this series as one in which the home team has won every game. It also dramatically changes the script from last spring, when these same two teams met and the Wings were presented with the Cup after a Game 6 victory on Pittsburgh's ice.
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