Sunday, May 25, 2008
Mikael Samuelsson scored two goals, and Chris Osgood had 19 saves to foil the Penguins.
DETROIT (AP) — It’s no surprise the Detroit Red Wings have a Swede to thank for a prime-time performance, but Mikael Samuelsson?
The demoted forward busted out of a slump with two goals, and Chris Osgood stifled the Pittsburgh Penguins’ young and talented stable of forwards with 19 saves to lift the Red Wings to a 4-0 victory in the opening game of the Stanley Cup finals on Saturday night.
Samuelsson doubled his playoff goal total with two in the biggest game of his five-season NHL career. He had been dropped to Detroit’s third line earlier in the playoffs and had posted only two assists since his two-goal outburst on May 1.
Detroit overpowered goalie Marc-Andre Fleury with a 36-shot barrage. Osgood has two postseason shutouts this season and 12 in his playoff career.
Game 2 is Monday night in Detroit.
The Red Wings are led by a collection of seven Swedes, most notably captain Nicklas Lidstrom on defense and key forwards Henrik Zetterberg and Johan Franzen.
With Samuelsson finding his scoring touch, it didn’t matter that Franzen — tied with Zetterberg for the NHL lead with 12 postseason goals — missed his sixth straight game due to recurring headaches. He seems close to returning, and that could pose big problems for the Penguins, who fell to 12-3 in the playoffs.
Pittsburgh raced out to 3-0 leads in each of the first three rounds — all started in the Steel City — and didn’t drop more than one game to any opponent. Detroit, however, kept Penguins captain Sidney Crosby in check along with the rest of Pittsburgh’s 20-somethings and under.
In a series billed as a matchup between Penguins’ youth and Red Wings’ experience, Detroit claimed the first strike. The Presidents’ Trophy-winning Red Wings are 13-4 in the playoffs and three wins away from their fourth Stanley Cup title in 11 seasons.
Samuelsson needed no help as both of his goals were unassisted. He bailed out fellow Swede Tomas Holmstrom, who was whistled for interference on Fleury that negated a goal by Lidstrom that would have been the game’s first score.
Samuelsson broke the tie in the second period, picking off an errant pass on the far side of center ice and taking it all the way with 6:59 left in the first.
It was Samuelsson’s first goal in seven games, dating to the series-clinching Game 4 win over Colorado.
He netted another 2:16 into the third when Pittsburgh’s Rob Scuderi and Evgeni Malkin took turns fumbling the puck. Samuelsson got it and was alone at the top of the crease for the goal. Dan Cleary added a short-handed goal with 2:42 left and Fleury’s rough night got worse when he was beaten by Zetterberg for a power-play goal with 12 seconds remaining.
Osgood withstood a 12-shot first period from the Penguins, who generated eight shots in the frame during four fruitless power plays. At even strength, Pittsburgh managed only eight shots through two periods.
Detroit clamped down in the second and held a 16-4 shots advantage during the frame and 27-16 through 40 minutes.
The Red Wings had already been whistled for three penalties in the entertaining first period when Holmstrom was sent to the box for a second time and wiped out Lidstrom’s goal.
Lidstrom ripped a drive from Fleury’s left as Holmstrom cut across the top of the crease and smacked the goalie’s feet with his stick with 4:40 left in the first. The puck sailed into the net, drawing a huge roar from the crowd that didn’t see referee Dan O’Halloran emphatically waving off the first goal of the highly anticipated series.