INSIDE HOCKEY

There’s still one more game of hockey to play this season. Needing a victory to stay alive in the Finals, the Penguins notched a 2-1 victory over the Red Wings Wednesday night to force the series back to Detroit for Game 7 on Friday. Tyler Kennedy and Jordan Staal scored for Pittsburgh, who looked more composed and played with a fire it was missing from Game 5.

Desperate for a win, Pittsburgh came out firing, putting 12 shots on goal to the Red Wings three; Bill Guerin had five of them. An early penalty to Henrik Zetterberg gave Pittsburgh an early power-play and gave Sidney Crosby a chance to do something with his top defender in the box. Chris Osgood, as he has been throughout the playoffs hung tough, stopped shots on two power-plays and stopped a nice chance by Crosby with about six minutes to go.

Staal gave the Penguins the lead just 51 seconds into the second frame, grabbing his own rebound and putting it past Osgood. The Pens, looking more composed than in Game 4, kept up the shooting, firing another 12 shots at Osgood, forcing him to come up with some timely saves to keep Detroit in the game.

Zetterberg had a good chance for the Red Wings late in the period. He put the puck under the stick of Hal Gill and fired a shot that hit the left post. The Wings also came out strong to start the third, as Marc-Andre Fleury stopped shots by Darren Helm and Dan Cleary. Cleary had one of the best scoring chances of the night late in period, taking a pass for a breakaway chance that he couldn’t convert against Fleury. Fleury finished with 25 saves to Osgood’s 29.

Kennedy put the Pens up by two at the 5:35 mark of the third, taking a pass behind the net and moving around Mikael Samuelsson to muscle it in for the score.

Kris Draper, who has missed a huge chunk of this playoff campaign due to injury, cut the lead in half at the 8:01 mark, scoring off a rebound on a shot by Jonathan Ericsson.

But Pittsburgh held tough, blocking shots and playing good defense to keep the Wings off the board. After Evgeni Malkin took a late penalty, rob Scuderi cleared a puck out of the crease as Detroit had a wide open chance. The Wings got another power-play chance a few minutes later but again failed to capitalize.

As the home team has won every game this series, the odds seem to be in the Wings favor, but given that the Pens have battled back and forced Game 7, they’re sure to put up a fight to avoid losing the Stanley Cup two years running. Crosby and Malkin finished a combined -1 in this game, but they’ll be sure to put their best effort forward to bring home the Cup to the Steel City. The Red Wings had a lot of chances, now they just have to convert.