Demoted Forward Samuelsson Steps Up for Wings in Game 1
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 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 match-up between the 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 third 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.
By Mike Householder
The Associated Press
DETROIT
Each won multiple Stanley Cups. Each is a Hall of Famer.
And all agree on this: The Penguins-Red Wings match-up for the Stanley Cup pits two of the league’s most exciting teams and quality franchises.
Scotty Bowman coached the Penguins and Red Wings to four Cups. Larry Murphy patrolled the blue line for championship teams in both cities. Paul Coffey played for Pittsburgh and Detroit as they began their ascent to 1990s dominance.
"The last Cups they won, I was there," said Bowman, who led the Penguins to the 1992 title and Detroit to championships in 1997, 1998 and 2002. "It’s going to be a really emotional series for sure. It’s going to be a great series."
Bowman has Pittsburgh to thank for jump-starting the second half of his coaching career.
After stops in St. Louis (three finals appearances), Montreal (five Cups) and Buffalo and a few years as a television analyst, Bowman joined the Penguins in 1990 as the director of player development.
"That was a lot of the allure for me to go there," he told The Associated Press recently. "I figured I wouldn’t have to coach."
But he was drawn back to the bench after the team’s beloved coach, Bob Johnson, fell ill following its first Cup in 1991. Bowman took over as caretaker coach, leaving open the possibility that Johnson would recover and retake control. Johnson died in November of that year, and Bowman led the Penguins to another title.
"I didn’t do a lot of changes," he said. "I just tried to keep things on the same level that he would have done."
Bowman coached one more season in Pittsburgh, resulting in an upset playoff loss to the New York Islanders. Then he was offered a better deal by Detroit to become its coach. Four seasons later, the Red Wings had their first Cup triumph in 42 years.
"The first Cup was really amazing," Bowman said.
Winning a championship in Pittsburgh was "really different because we had won the Cup the year before," said Bowman, who retired after Detroit’s 2002 championship.
Coffey played for Bowman during part of the 1992 season in Pittsburgh. A trade sent him to Los Angeles before he could claim a second Cup with the Penguins. The men reunited in Detroit during the 1993-94 season. But Coffey again missed out on another Cup, spending the 1996-97 championship season in Hartford and Philadelphia.
These days, the former smooth-skating, high-scoring defenseman owns a Toronto-area car dealership and part of another. He also helps his 10-year-old son’s hockey team.
He expects the series between his former teams to be a good one.
"I’m really happy these teams are in the finals from a pure entertainment perspective," he said. "Pittsburgh’s pretty exciting to watch. No matter what happens in the next few weeks, they’ve got a great future."
Murphy, who like Coffey is a 2004 Hall of Fame inductee, won back- to-back Cups in both black and gold and red and white.
The thinking man’s defenseman attributed his playoff successes to "being in the right place at the right time." Bowman has called Murphy’s rock-solid blue-line play integral to the success of those title teams.
Murphy lives in the Detroit area and does hockey announcing work. A Stanley Cup settled by the Red Wings and Penguins makes complete sense to him.
"It’s the best match-up possible," he said.
late result
Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals between Pittsburgh and Detroit was still in progress at press time. See PilotOnline.com for details. the series
Game 1 Saturday night at Detroit
Game 2 8 p.m. Monday at Detroit (Versus)
Game 3 8 p.m. Wednesday at Pittsburgh (WAVY-10)
Game 4 8 p.m. Saturday at Pittsburgh (WAVY-10)
Game 5 8 p.m. June 2 at Detroit (WAVY-10)*
Game 6 8 p.m. June 4 at Pittsburgh (WAVY-10)*
Game 7 8 p.m. June 7 at Detroit (WAVY-10)*
*if necessary