Red Wings Win Game 1 of Stanley Cup Finals
May 30, 2009 by Jeanne Dupuis
Filed under Detroit Red Wings, NHL Playoffs, Pittsburgh Penguins
For the second time in as many years, the Detroit Red Wings faced the Pittsburgh Penguins for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals. The defending champions ended up skating away with a 3-1 victory, giving them a 1-0 lead in the series.
image: Zuma Press
The puck seemed to be bouncing in favor of the Detroit Red Wings as two of their goals actually bounced off the boards and off of Pittsburgh goaltender, Marc-Andre Fleury, and into the net. I’m not saying that Detroit needed the help but I’m sure they didn’t mind those lucky bounces.
We also saw a lot of action between Sidney Crosby and Henrik Zetterberg, who seemed to be battling each other all night. As TSN’s Bob McKenzie explained: “early on Sidney Crosby really tried to take it physically to Zetterberg, but as the game went along, Zetterberg started to assert himself. I thought Crosby played a very good hockey game in a lot of ways, but at the end of the night it was Zetterberg who came away the winner.”
Fresh off some time out of the lineup, Red Wings’ captain Nicklas Lidstrom tallied the most minutes (24) of all skaters in the game. That really leads me to believe that he wasn’t injured but maybe he was sick?
The loss was the first in a while for the Penguins, who swept the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Finals. It’s only been one game but, of course, people are already speculating that this series is starting in the same way as the one last year where the Red Wings won those first two games and then ended up taking the series in Game 6. We’ll just have to wait and see if history will repeat itself.
Game 2 is in Detroit tomorrow night at 8pm ET.
