Pens bounce Wings 3-2 to maintain Mellon dominance

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins found their offense right where they left it — home in the Igloo.

Crosby scored Pittsburgh’s first two goals of the Stanley Cup finals, beating previously perfect goalie Chris Osgood, and the Penguins made this a series with a 3-2 victory Wednesday night.

The Red Wings still lead 2-1 after two shutout wins at home. Game 4 will be Saturday night, again at Mellon Arena, before the series shifts back to Detroit for a now necessary fifth game.

The Penguins improved to 9-0 at home in the playoffs and have won 17 straight there, dating to a shootout loss to San Jose Feb. 24.

Marc-Andre Fleury, who hasn’t been beaten at home in 19 straight games, made 32 saves. He allowed Johan Franzen’s power-play goal with 5:12 left in the second period that cut Pittsburgh’s lead to 2-1 and Mikael Samuelsson’s tally in the third that got Detroit back within one.

Osgood stopped 21 shots, but fell to 6-1 in his career in the finals. He backstopped the Red Wings’ championship round sweep of Washington in 1998, but it became clear it wouldn’t be his night when Adam Hall banked a shot in off the goalie’s right skate from behind the net 7:18 into the third period.

Crosby had been bottled up by the Red Wings’ top line of Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk and Tomas Holmstrom, but he got free at times on home ice where the Penguins enjoyed the last change.

His first goal came with that Detroit trio on the ice, and the second was scored during a power play.

The Penguins’ finals-long scoring drought finally ended after 137 minutes, 25 seconds with the help of a rare mistake by the Red Wings.

Detroit defenseman Brad Stuart held the puck behind the net for several moments as he waited for Tyler Kennedy’s forecheck to subside. Stuart sent a pass toward the left point that caromed off Zetterberg’s skate to Marian Hossa.

The Penguins forward skated into the circle and attempted a shot that hit Stuart’s skate and bounced to Crosby, who snapped a drive that found its way in off Osgood with 2:35 left in the first. It gave life to Pittsburgh, which had been outshot 9-4 in the period.

It was the first goal scored on Osgood in 154 minutes, 58 seconds, a run that stretched back to Game 6 of the Western finals. The Red Wings suddenly found themselves behind, a position they have rarely been in during the playoffs.

Not only hadn’t the Penguins found any results at even strength, they weren’t even generating shots. It took until 15:06 had elapsed before a 5-on-5 drive got in on Osgood.

Crosby, who hadn’t scored in five games, made it 2-0 at 2:34 of the second with his sixth goal of the playoffs. Sergei Gonchar’s shot found traffic in front and bounced to Ryan Malone, who also couldn’t get the puck through.

Hossa got to it and put a shot off Osgood, who couldn’t control the rebound. Crosby then slammed the puck in at the right post and celebrated with a fist pump as he crouched near the end boards.