NHL Capsules: Pens enjoy Parade

PITTSBURGH- Just call it the city of champions.

Four months after celebrating the Steelers' sixth Super Bowl victory, Pittsburgh Police estimated 375,000 people converged downtown again for a parade, this time in honor of the Stanley Cup champion Penguins. People lined streets - in some places standing 20 deep or crowding onto multilevel parking garages - to get a glimpse of the team and the cup.

One woman, who initially said her name was "The Greatest Pittsburgh Penguins Fan Ever" but then noted most people call her Alison Coyle, drove eight hours from her home in Brick, N.J. to attend Monday's parade. Arriving in Pittsburgh at 2 a.m., the 45-year-old thought she might get some sleep, but was so excited she was up by 6.

"I would give both my arms and both my legs to be here," Coyle said, donning a Sidney Crosby jersey and holding her camera above her head to try to get a better shot of the players.

The Penguins won their third Stanley Cup Friday in a 2-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings. The parade followed the same route that drew an estimated 300,000 fans in February for the Steelers Super Bowl XLIII victory.

"This is great and there's gonna be many more," said Andrew Mehlich, 30, of Pittsburgh, who attended the parade with several family members.

Chanting "Let's go Pens," fans honked plastic horns and cheered. Team captain Crosby held the cup in the air as he rode in the back of a truck alongside goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.

"Thank you guys," Crosby told the crowd. "What can I say? I mean the support you guys have given us, the support you have showed ... You deserve to be called the city of champions. You deserve the Stanley Cup."

One fan carried a handwritten sign: "Nothing like a Fleury in June." Others had homemade aluminum foil replicas of the prized cup and threw black-and-gold confetti - the team's colors - along the parade route. Forward Maxime Talbot jumped out of a car to shake hands with fans.

"It's a holiday for Pittsburgh," said Michelle Solkovy, 31, of Pittsburgh, who took the day off work and brought her 4-year-old daughter, Kendall, to the parade.

Betti Labbe, 40, and her husband Joe Szekeres, 44, of Frederick, Md., drove to Pittsburgh Sunday night. Szekeres is a lifelong Penguins fan who attends about five games a year - but his wife needed a little more coaxing.

"It was them or divorce so I picked the Penguins," Labbe said.

Melanie Milko, 46, who's from the Pittsburgh suburb of West Mifflin and said she used to cut former Penguins star Jaromir Jagr's mother's hair, said Monday's celebration was better than the fan rallies held after the 1991 and 1992 championships.

"There's a lot more respect for hockey everywhere," said Milko, who painted the numbers of her 10 favorite players on her fingernails for the parade. "Hockey's it."

Many fans wore new T-shirts saying "Steel City Champions." Others opted for the old-style, light blue Penguins jerseys.

Some fans are season ticket holders who often see the Pens play live. Others are like twins Peter and Nick Ellefson, 14, of Beaver Falls, who have only seen it on TV. Still, Peter summed up the victory in one word: "Sweet!"

Kevin Greager, 35, drove about three hours from Greencastle with his son Kody, 8, and daughter Kelsey, 5. Graeger said when he heard Sunday the parade was happening he knew he had to come despite the long drive.

"We don't know when they're going to win the cup again so we're going to Pittsburgh one way or another," Greager, a firefighter in Frederick, Md., said.

Youth, talent but no guarantees for champion Pens

PITTSBURGH - Oh, those kids.

Jordan Staal is 20, Sidney Crosby is 21, Kris Letang and Evgeni Malkin are 22, Marc-Andre Fleury is 24. In another sport, they'd be called prospects. In the NHL, they're called champions.

"In a very short time period early in their career, they got a Cup," Pittsburgh Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said.

Now, how many more times can the Penguins win the Stanley Cup they lifted ahead of schedule by beating Detroit 2-1 in Game 7 on Friday? How many more titles can this team with the kid captain and its roster of 20-somethings pull off?

The Penguins won the franchise's first Stanley Cup since 1992 by beating the NHL's most experienced and accomplished collection of winners, the Red Wings, so it's only natural for them to assume they'll win more in a hurry.

Crosby and Malkin, hockey's most talented duo, might not peak for years. Each is signed to a long-term contract. A new arena and the increased revenue from it arrive next year. The victory parade, one that comes only 4½ months after the Steelers' Super Bowl celebration, takes place Monday.

If the Red Wings were the NHL's showcase franchise the past dozen seasons, the Penguins look to be next in line after becoming the first road team in 38 years to win a Stanley Cup finals Game 7.

A cautionary tale from 1993 offers the warning that it won't be easy.

Then, the Mario Lemieux- and Jaromir Jagr-led Penguins were coming off consecutive Stanley Cups. They were better still in 1993, winning the franchise's only Presidents' Trophy and reeling off a league-record 17-game winning streak.

Possibly the best team in Penguins history appeared ready to walk through the playoffs, only to be ousted in a second-round Game 7 by an undistinguished Islanders team that had little in common with the Penguins except that both wore skates.

Lemieux was only 27, Jagr was 21, yet the Penguins never made it back to the Stanley Cup finals with that lineup. Lemieux experienced years' worth of health issues that included back misery and cancer, and ownership went through serious financial problems that ultimately led to bankruptcy.

Lemieux picked up the pieces in 1999 by buying the team, but he realizes that future titles aren't guaranteed just because these Crosby-vintage Penguins reached the finals the past two years. The Penguins lost to Detroit in six games last year before eliminating the Red Wings in one of the NHL's best finals in a quarter-century.

"The type of talent we have gives us the chance to do something special," Lemieux said.
A chance, for sure. A certainty? Losing coach Mike Babcock of Detroit warns the salary cap poses problems for any team hoping to string together multiple titles.

"What happens is there's only so much pie to go around," Babcock said. "Doesn't Malkin go from $3.5 (million) to $8.7 (million in 2009-10)? There goes two more players. It's called math. So depth is really important as much as star power is."

Do the math? The Penguins are glad they didn't do that after trailing Detroit 2-0 and 3-2 during a finals in which Pittsburgh's only lead of the series came after Game 7. The Penguins labored through an agonizing third period dominated by Detroit to accomplish their fourth victory in the final five games, hardly the fluke that some unhappy Red Wings fans exiting Joe Louis Arena made it out to be.

Some fans cheered when Crosby injured a knee during a mid-ice collision with Johan Franzen in the second period, then booed when NHL commissioner Gary Bettman handed the Stanley Cup to Crosby. The fans' disappointment with the Red Wings' loss illustrates how high the expectations to win can be, especially when only a Stanley Cup is acceptable.

The Penguins will experience that in September when, after having only four full months without hockey during a two-year period (July and August of 2008 and 2009), they will set out again to attempt the 8½-month journey that is required to win the Cup.

By winning this Stanley Cup, the Penguins raised the bar for, oh, their next 10 or so teams to come. Bylsma will experience the same thing.

Only 10 months ago, he got his first AHL head coaching job at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. He ended the season by lifting the Stanley Cup, only the second rookie head coach to win it after taking over a team during the season.

"They just don't hand you a trip to the Stanley Cup finals again the second year," Bylsma said. "So we're going to enjoy this one. We're going to sit back and relish the moment. We're going to get our names put on the Cup and we'll all get our day with that. In short order, come September, we'll get ready to start building the foundation again for what this team could possibly do."

Talbot's 2 lift Penguins to Stanley Cup title

DETROIT - Slide over Super Mario and make room on the Stanley Cup for a new batch of Pittsburgh Penguins.

Max Talbot scored two second-period goals, and the Penguins overcame the loss of captain Sidney Crosby to beat the defending champion Detroit Red Wings 2-1 in Game 7 and win the Cup on Friday night.

Instead of the Red Wings becoming the NHL's first repeat champion since winning titles in 1997 and 1998, this turned into a Penguins party. The last time Pittsburgh was crowned champion, in 1991 and ‘92, it was captained by owner Mario Lemieux.

This one wouldn't have been possible without a clutch diving save across the crease by Marc-Andre Fleury, who denied four-time champion Nicklas Lidstrom with 1 second left.

"I knew there wasn't much time left," Fleury said. "The rebound was wide. I just decided to get my body out there and it hit me in the ribs so it was good."

Fleury was stellar in making 23 saves and erasing the memories of a 5-0 loss in Game 5 at Joe Louis Arena that put the Penguins on the brink of elimination. Pittsburgh returned home and gutted out a 2-1 win, behind Fleury's 25 saves in Game 6, and forced the winner-take-all matchup.

"When you're playing Game 7 for the Stanley Cup, and you're playing at home, it makes it tough to lose," Lidstrom said. "It's devastating when you're that close."

The sting was especially strong for Marian Hossa, who spurned the Penguins after last year's Cup loss and signed a less-lucrative, one-year deal with the Red Wings, the team he thought had the best chance to win.

"Sometimes you make choices. I still had a great year in this organization," said Hossa, who had no goals in the series. "If you score one more, you can celebrate, but if not, they're celebrating. That's life. You just have to move on."

This was Pittsburgh's second championship in four months, following the Steelers' Super Bowl victory in February.

Jonathan Ericsson cut the Wings' deficit to 2-1 with 6:07 remaining, and Niklas Kronwall nearly tied it with 2:14 left, but his drive smacked the crossbar. Detroit pressed further after goalie Chris Osgood was pulled, but Fleury stood his ground.

His last save started a wild scene that culminated in the awarding of the Cup.

Crosby took it from NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and skated to center ice before handing it off to Bill Guerin, who joined the team from the last-place New York Islanders at the trade deadline and became a champion for the first time since 1995 with New Jersey.

"When I got traded to Pittsburgh, the Pens were in 10th and I was in 30th," Guerin said. "We came together and bonded quickly."

Lemieux, the No. 1 pick in the 1984 draft by Pittsburgh, celebrated on the ice with Crosby - the phenom who has been living in Lemieux's house since joining the team. The Penguins are the second team to win two Game 7s on the road, following their second-round victory against Washington - a series they also trailed 2-0.

They turned the tables on the Red Wings and captured the Cup on enemy ice, just as Detroit did in Pittsburgh last year. The Penguins are the first to win the title the year after losing in the finals since Edmonton 25 years ago against the Islanders - the previous finals rematch.

So much for the Detroit dynasty. Not only were the Red Wings shooting for their second straight title, but their fifth in 12 seasons and 12th overall.

"It is hard for people to believe. We don't take winning for granted," Osgood said. "We know how hard it is. We do have a good team but it's very, very difficult to win in this league. We were pushed every series."

Evgeni Malkin, who led the playoffs with 36 points, won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the postseason MVP. He assisted on Talbot's first.

Crosby, four years after being the No. 1 selection in the draft, became the youngest captain of a champion at 21. He played just one shift after leaving the ice during the second period after taking a hard hit along the boards from Johan Franzen that left him unable to walk due to a knee injury.

"It's a dream come true," Crosby said. "It's everything you imagined and more. I would've loved to do it in four. It would have been a lot easier on the nerves."

Pittsburgh was 1-5 in Detroit this year and last until Friday. The Penguins' other victory at "The Joe" was a triple-overtime win in Game 5 last year that kept them alive. Talbot made it possible by scoring the tying goal with 35 seconds left in regulation.

The Penguins are the first team since the 2004 Tampa Bay Lightning to win the Cup after trailing the series 3-2. They are the first to take Game 7 on the road after the home team won the first six games, since the 1971 Montreal Canadiens.

Crosby crumpled against the boards after he was hit and got his left leg caught. He glided to the bench hunched over and stayed bent at the waist as he was guided to the dressing room 5½ minutes into the period.

He was limited to two shifts, totaling 2 minutes, 39 seconds of ice time in the frame, but his teammates doubled the lead while he was gone. Crosby made it back to the ice midway through the third period for the one shift.

"It was so painful, being a captain and seeing what the guys are doing out there blocking shots," Crosby said of the third period. "You get to the point where you've got to ask yourself whether you're going to be hurting your team by being out there. I knew I had everything I could to numb it or try to play through it.

"At the same time, I'm playing against (Pavel) Datsyuk and (Henrik) Zetterberg. One misstep and I could cost the guys a lot of hard work. I didn't want to be the guy who did that."

Uncharacteristic mistakes by the experience-laden Red Wings led to both Pittsburgh goals.

Malkin, the NHL's leading scorer in the regular season and the playoffs, forced defenseman Brad Stuart into making a bad pass. Talbot intercepted the puck in front and fired it between Osgood's pads at 1:13.

"Max came up with some big goals there," Crosby said. "We don't get to this point without everyone contributing. I knew the guys were going to find a way to pull it off."

Talbot snapped a wrist shot from the middle of the left circle on a 2-on-1 that sneaked in under the crossbar to make it 2-0 at 10:07.

Fleury took care of the rest. He wasn't fazed by Red Wings crashing the net or screening him or any funky bounces off the end boards that tortured him in earlier games in Detroit.

Rookie coach Dan Bylsma became the second to win the Stanley Cup with a team he took over midseason. Bylsma helped rescue the Penguins from a near-playoff miss by leading them to a 18-3-4 mark after replacing Michel Therrien on Feb. 15.

Bylsma was on the losing side as a player in 2003 with Anaheim in the last series in which the home team won all seven games. Those Mighty Ducks were coached by current Red Wings bench boss Mike Babcock.

"It definitely does fill the void," Bylsma said. "I haven't won a lot of things since high school. It elevates your career to a different level.

"When you lift that Cup, Stanley Cup champion will go by your name forever."

The Red Wings were the overwhelming favorite coming in with four players on the verge of their fifth Stanley Cup rings. Detroit had been 11-1 at home in the playoffs.

NOTES: Bylsma is the 14th rookie coach to win the Cup. ... The last road team to win Game 7 of the championship round in any major league was the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates.

Malkin joins Mario as Conn Smythe winner

DETROIT - Mario Lemieux. Evgeni Malkin.

Three Pittsburgh Penguins Stanley Cup championship teams. Two Penguins who won the Conn Smythe Trophy.

The current Penguins are popularly viewed as Sidney Crosby's team, but the player they got as a runner-up prize in the 2004 draft when they didn't get Alex Ovechkin turned out pretty good, too.

Malkin didn't score a goal in the last three games of the finals, but he led all playoff scorers with 36 points - the most since the Kings' Wayne Gretzky had 40 in 1993 - and his pass set up the first of Max Talbot's two goals Friday night as the Penguins beat Detroit 2-1 in Game 7.

Malkin was in tears as he realized what he accomplished a year after doing little offensively with one goal and two assists as the Penguins lost to Detroit in six games. This time, he had two goals, six assists, a big smile and a trophy to lift.

"Any time you have Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin on a team, you have a chance," Lemieux, now a co-owner, said after taking a brief victory lap with the Stanley Cup, just as he did as a player in 1991 and 1992 when he won the Conn Smythe both times.

The Penguins got good in a hurry mostly because they were so bad from 2002-05, winning fewer than one of every three games each season. Those bad teams allowed them to draft Marc-Andre Fleury, Crosby, Malkin and Jordan Staal, the stars of this team - and Max Talbot, an eighth-rounder in 2002 whose scored both goals in Game 7.

The Penguins wouldn't have gotten to Game 7 if it hadn't been for Malkin, who looked tired, off his game and not quite certain he was ready to win the Cup against Detroit a year ago, but was dominant in all four rounds of these playoffs. In each series, Pittsburgh won the deciding game on the road.

"I saw Geno crying, he's from Russia, and this is how important and huge it is for him," Talbot said.

Only three years ago, Malkin sneaked away from his Russian team in Finland, made a clandestine flight to North America and stayed hidden in the United States for three days so he could join the Penguins, and they had to survive a court fight to keep him.

Now, Malkin and Crosby (31 points) are the two leading scorers in the playoffs and the first teammates in 15 years to score more than 30 points.

"Before this game, someone asked me and I said I could see an Arizona Diamondback (scenario), co-MVPs him (Malkin) and Crosby," Penguins general manager Ray Shero said. "They've been unbelievable players, and you have to pick one I guess."

Even if Malkin wouldn't have been the one they would have picked if they had won that 2004 draft lottery - Washington did, and took Ovechkin. Pittsburgh went second, selected Malkin, and was rewarded with the player who led the NHL in playoff and regular season scoring.

In the playoffs, Malkin had two goals and six assists in six games against the Flyers, and two goals and eight assists in the grueling seven-game series against Washington in which the Penguins rallied from a 2-0 deficit, just as they did against Detroit. He had a monster conference finals against Carolina with six goals and three assists in four games.

"Do you need to talk about it? I think he pretty much sums it up every time he's on the ice," defenseman Hal Gill said. "He plays a level above everyone."

-- Alan Robinson

Mad Max's 2 goals give Pens improbable Game 7 win

DETROIT - Max Talbot is the jokester in the Pittsburgh Penguins' dressing room, a low-round draft pick on a team filled with first-round big names who doesn't complain when he's shifted to the fourth line or asked to take on a difficult role.

How's this for an assignment in a little-noticed career: The man asked to win Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals for a team that looked to be out of playoff contention four months ago?

With Sidney Crosby limping and Conn Smythe winner Evgeni Malkin not finding much open ice, Talbot played a game worthy of franchise icon Mario Lemieux by scoring both goals as the Penguins became the first team in 38 years to win a finals Game 7 on the road, holding off reigning champion Detroit 2-1 on Friday night.

"I had to be in the right place, right time to score two goals," Talbot said. "Every day I wake up and say this is the best day of my life, but this is the best day of my life."

As he talked, Talbot had tears in his eyes and he pulled his mother near to him, hugging her and giving her a big kiss.

Max Talbot, this is your moment - and goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, too, as he finally quieted the talk he can't win a big game by making 23 saves in the biggest game of all.

"It's not just Sid and Geno's team, it's everybody's team," Talbot said. "Maybe it's storybook or not, but what's important is we won the Cup. I don't care how many goals I scored."

Now, the list of players responsible for the Penguins winning Stanley Cups includes first-round draft picks Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Crosby, Malkin, Fleury - and Talbot, an eighth-rounder and the 234th player taken in the 2002 draft, a proven scorer in juniors who was told he must reshape his game to make it to the NHL.

Retool it he did, becoming a grinder, a role player, a utility man deluxe with a knack of scoring big goals in big games, such as the goal he scored in the final minute of finals Game 5 last year, with the champagne on ice in Joe Louis Arena. The Penguins went on to win in three overtimes, although they lost the series a game later.

Asked to describe his goals, Talbot said, "No, I can't remember how I scored and I don't care how I scored. I can't believe that we won the Stanley Cup."

And remember the label of City of Champions given Pittsburgh in 1979, when the Pirates and Steelers were world champions? Pittsburgh, the smallest city with three major league sports teams, has won the last two titles in major pro sports with the Penguins following up the Steelers' Super Bowl victory on Feb. 1.

An hour after Game 7 ended, hundreds of delirious Penguins fans in Joe Louis Arena began chanting, "Stanley Cup! Super Bowl! Stanley Cup! Super Bowl!"

The player known as Mad Max for his sense of humor, gift of gab and his ridiculously funny TV commercial for a car dealership pulled it off on a night that Malkin and Crosby couldn't. Crosby was hurt early in the second period and was on the ice for one shift in the third.

By winning, the Penguins completed one of the most improbable comebacks in NHL history. Stuck in 10th place in the Eastern Conference in mid-February, they fired coach Michel Therrien although he had taken him to the finals last year and replaced him with minor-league coach Dan Bylsma.

"Once we got in playoffs, at the end we had won 18 of 21, we were playing pretty good and I thought we had a chance," said Lemieux, the first ex-player to win a Stanley Cup as a primary owner.

Bylsma immediately installed a more uptempo, press-the-attack offense that eased the tension in an unhappy locker room and the Penguins took off, going 18-3-4 down the stretch. They pulled off an upset in the second round when they out second-seeded Washington by winning 6-2 in Game 7 - yes, on the road.

They're the first team since those Al MacNeil-coached Canadiens not only to win Game 7 on the road, with six teams trying and failing since, but to win with a rookie coach who took over at midseason.

-- Alan Robinson

Pittsburgh Penguins fans celebrate championship

PITTSBURGH - Thousands of people poured into the streets in spontaneous celebrations Friday night to celebrate the Penguins' first Stanley Cup victory in 17 years.

The Penguins beat the Detroit Red Wings 2-1 to win the Cup for the third time, following titles in 1991 and 1992.

The dominant chant was a vulgar insult to Marian Hossa, the former Penguins player who signed a one-year deal with Detroit last summer, turning down a better-paying offer with a longer term from Pittsburgh.

"I love to beat Hossa, the traitor," said Randy Banks, 34, whose dog, Bear, donned a Sidney Crosby jersey.

Empty cans and bottles of beer littered the street and homemade replicas of the Stanley Cup covered in aluminum foil were passed around. The Penguins' victory comes just four months after the Pittsburgh Steelers won their sixth Super Bowl title.

"It just feels great. We're the city of champions again," said James Weaver, 41, an attorney from Washington, Pa. "We have the Super Bowl and the Stanley Cup."

Fans agreed that it was especially sweet to have won the victory over Detroit because the Red Wings beat the Penguins in Pittsburgh last year.

"This is amazing. It hasn't happened since I was 7, so it's nice to see it again," said Kevin Buch, 24, who has lived in Pittsburgh all of his life.

Fans decked out in black-and-gold Penguins jerseys chanted "Let's Go Pens" and waved white towels in the air. Cars passing by honked their horns and police barricaded the streets to allow the joyous crowd to pour into a bar-and-tavern lined street of Pittsburgh's South Side neighborhood.

The crowd appeared to be under control, though it took a large police presence, including officers on horseback and on motorcycles. After midnight, riot police and an armored SWAT team truck began to disperse the crowd, threatening to arrest anyone who didn't move along.

Police made more than 80 arrests during spontaneous street celebrations following the Steelers' Super Bowl victory in February.

-- Ramit Plushnick-Masti

OOPS! Hossa's decision to leave Penguins backfires

DETROIT - Marian Hossa ended up doing a favor for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Hossa turned down a lucrative, long-term contract from Pittsburgh last year to sign a one-year deal with the Detroit Red Wings because he thought they gave him a better shot to hoist the Stanley Cup.

Oops.

Hossa didn't score in the finals and wasn't a factor in Game 7 on Friday night, leaving him to watch his former teammates claim the Cup with a 2-1 victory.

"That's life," he said. "You just have to move on. It's a great life experience.

"It's a tough pill to swallow."

The Penguins didn't need Hossa to beat Detroit and they wisely used the money they didn't spend on him on other players, some of whom they can retain in the future because Hossa isn't around collecting big paychecks.

"It could be different circumstances if I sign in Pittsburgh and now they probably couldn't sign some other players and they would be different team," Hossa said. "So we could sit here for hours discussing this, but it could be different team, could be different things so I don't regret the decision."

Hossa turned down a long-term deal worth almost $50 million last summer for a one-year contract worth about $7.5 million, leaving the runner-up Penguins to play for the defending champions.

He said the Penguins didn't rub it in during the postgame handshake.

"Nobody said anything," said Hossa, who is eligible to be a free agent this offseason. "I congratulated them and that was it."

Hossa, who had a team-high 40 goals during the regular season, scored in just three games during the Western Conference playoffs and was limited to just three assists in the Cup finals.

Perhaps emblematic of his rough night and series, Hossa even wiped out in front of his own bench in the second period with nobody around him.

"He was probably feeling the pressure a little bit," teammate Brad Stuart said. "It's one of the story lines of the series, I guess, the fact we ended up playing them again.

"Obviously, feel bad for the guy."

Before the finals, Penguins forward Max Talbot said he couldn't wait to shake Hossa's hand when the series was over to tell him he picked the wrong team.

When Talbot greeted Hossa, though, he changed his mind.

"I just told him, 'Good job,'" recalled Talbot, who scored both Pittsburgh goals in Game 7. "I think he knows he made the wrong choice, I don't have to tell him."

-- Larry Lage

Red Wings' Chris Osgood misses his shot at glory

DETROIT - Chris Osgood seemed destined to silence the critics who haven't given him credit for winning two Stanley Cups as a No. 1 goalie because he plays for the powerhouse Detroit Red Wings.

But Friday night in Game 7 in the Stanley Cup finals, the Detroit goalie gave up two goals to Pittsburgh's Max Talbot in the second period and the Penguins held on for a 2-1 victory.

"I'm not going to stand here and make excuses," Osgood said. "If I do that, people will run with that for the next five years."

If the Red Wings had beaten Pittsburgh in Game 6 or 7 to repeat as champions, Osgood had a great shot to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP of the playoffs.

But Detroit didn't and Osgood will shoulder some of the blame - fair or not - because such is life when you're in net for the storied franchise.

"It's difficult to win," he said. "People take it for granted."

Osgood finished with 16 saves, but stopped only one shot in the third period when the Penguins played conservatively.

Talbot's goals against Osgood, both of which probably would've been stopped by the goalie on a good night, both came after defenseman Brad Stuart failed to do his job.

Stuart turned the puck over early in the second period, allowing Evgeni Malkin to set up Talbot for a shot that went low and between Osgood's legs.

Stuart didn't keep the puck in the Pittsburgh end midway through the second period and Talbot ended up with it, and snapped off a shot from the left circle that easily got past Osgood's glove.

"Both were nice goals," Osgood said. "I'm not going to rehash the goals. We lost 2-1."

Pittsburgh took a 2-0 lead on its 16th shot and had that cushion until rookie Jonathan Ericsson's long blast with 6:07 in the third period pulled Detroit within a goal.

It was too little, too late for Osgood to get his glory.

"A lot of critics have been on him, and he played unbelievable," teammate Henrik Zetterberg said. "In my mind, he was the best goalie in the playoffs."

Osgood was 15-8 in the playoffs, giving up an average of two goals a game.

"In the playoffs in general he was excellent for us. Gave us a chance," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "Along the way in the playoffs this year, much different than last year, we never were always firing on all cylinders. We always had people missing. And Ozzie was one of our strengths, to say the least, all playoff long.

"I think he deserves a lot of credit. His numbers speaks for himself, he's done a great job."

-- Larry Lage

Penguins put Red Wings fans' Cup party on ice

DETROIT - Dejected fans slipped away from downtown and suburban bars and other gathering spots Friday night after the Pittsburgh Penguins turned the tables on their beloved Detroit Red Wings by winning the Stanley Cup on the other team's ice.

The Penguins defeated the Red Wings 2-1 in Game 7 at Joe Louis Arena after Detroit claimed the Cup in Pittsburgh a year ago. Fans were denied a night-long party, just as the Red Wings were denied scoring opportunities by the tenacious Penguins.

"It was a good game but we had a bad second period," when Pittsburgh went ahead 2-0, said James Dragescu, 28, of Dearborn Heights. "It's always a successful season if you make it this far in the Stanley Cup finals. (But) they just have to score in Game 7."

Brad Eberlin, 51, of Wayne County's Canton Township, and his wife Sue Dimic engaged in a friendly argument about winger Marian Hossa, who bolted from the Penguins in the offseason in hopes of winning a Stanley Cup with the perennially powerful Red Wings.

"I said even before the game started (that) it was real bad karma that we took Hossa," Dimic said.

Eberlin said there were other reasons the Red Wings had to relinquish the Cup.

"This is terrible," he said. "The bottom line is us not going out and doing what we should have done. We did not control the puck. In Game 5 we smoked them 5-0!"

Less than 10 miles north of downtown in Royal Oak, fans at Mr. B's Pub were electrified when Detroit made it 2-1 in the third period. But as the clock ran down, many groaned and buried their hands in their faces.

Pete Theurkorn, watching the game in Royal Oak, said he worried Detroit has become a "snob hockey town" whose fans are spoiled by the Red Wings' success.

"If we don't make at least the third round (of the playoffs), people say, 'What a terrible season,'" said the 23-year-old from Royal Oak.

His friend Matt Packer said that attitude might be a good thing for a city and region flayed by high unemployment and a faltering auto industry.

"I think it's really important for the town right now, with everything that Detroit, Michigan, is going through right now," said the Rochester Hills 24-year-old.

"So what if we're hockey snobs? That's all we've got right now."

Detroit police made at least four arrests. Three people who began brawling outside Cheli's Chili Bar - owned by Red Wings veteran Chris Chelios - were quickly wrestled to the ground and hustled into squad cars. Staffers stopped admitting people shortly after 11 p.m.

No other incidents were reported in Detroit or Royal Oak as the crowds disappeared into the cloudless mid-June night.

-- Ben Leubsdorf

Fleury backstops Penguins to Cup

DETROIT - In his first three losses of the Stanley Cup finals at Joe Louis Arena, Red Wings fans mercilessly taunted Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.

"Fleur-eee! Fleur-eee!" they chanted.

That same word echoed through the Joe on Friday night - as Pens fans serenaded their hero while he skated around the ice as an NHL champion.

Pittsburgh fans surrounded the lower bowl of the arena following the Cup presentation, and Fleury raised the roof with his arms as they chanted his name.

The 24-year-old Fleury - the No. 1 overall pick in the NHL draft six years ago - stopped 23 of Detroit's 24 shots Friday, including a clutch save on Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom with a tick or two of the clock remaining.

"He's amazing. I got to buy him a bottle of champagne or something," Penguins defenseman Hal Gill said. "I owe him a few drinks. He stands on his head."

Fleury came up short for the Conn Smythe trophy as playoff MVP to Evgeni Malkin, but he was in the conversation, winning all 16 of the team's postseason games.

He came close to playing all the minutes, too, but he was yanked from Pittsburgh's ugly 5-0 loss to Detroit in Game 5 six days earlier.

He bounced back successfully, helping the Penguins to a 2-1 home win Tuesday night before his heroics on Friday.

"He made big saves tonight," Red Wings forward Kirk Maltby said. "He stopped the puck when he had to."

DETROIT PARTY CITY

The scene was chaotic after Pittsburgh's victory.

Players and coaches scurried around, trying to find their wives, girlfriends and kids.

When loved ones finally made their way out onto the Joe Louis Arena ice, the players skated toward them quickly, embracing and kissing them and taking pictures.

Defenseman Hal Gill conducted on-ice interviews with a child in each arm, one of which kept grabbing at reporters' recorders.

Coach Dan Bylsma rushed into the Zamboni entrance, where Penguins fans hung over the railings, arms outstretched. Bylsma slapped hands with a few, and one handed him a Penguins championship banner.

The coach unfurled it, ran it out onto the ice and raised it up for all to see.

A sizable contingent of Penguins fans were noticeable during the four Stanley Cup finals games in Detroit, and Friday was no exception.

Any time Red Wings fans started a "Let's go Red Wings!" chant, Penguins fans responded with a "Let's go Pens!"

"Everywhere we go, we seem to have a really great following of fans," Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby said.

A jubilant Max Talbot - who provided both of the Penguins' goals - summed it up best: "It's crazy right now and the best day of my life."

THUMB DENIAL

A foursome of Detroit Red Wings came oh-so-close to winning a fifth Stanley Cup.

More than three years after the Pittsburgh Steelers won "one for the thumb" at Ford Field in Detroit, Nicklas Lidstrom, Tomas Holmstrom, Kris Draper and Kirk Maltby were unable to produce the hockey equivalent.

The quartet helped Detroit beat the Penguins in the finals a year ago and also won the Cup in 2002, 1998 and 1997.

"We've been on the other end of it a lot. To be on this end of it, come this far, and not be able to finish it off, especially here at home," Maltby said.

Several players helped the Red Wings win four championships, including Hall of Famer Gordie Howe, who won four Cups in the 1950s.

STANLEY STAR POWER

An eclectic group of celebrities were at Joe Louis Arena.

Boxing great Muhammad Ali caught the game from a suite, while "Twilight" film actor Taylor Lautner had a seat in the lower bowl.

Ali, wearing a Red Wings jersey, rose out of his seat and waved to the standing crowd when he was introduced during a break in the first-period action. The players got into the act, too, looking up and slapping their sticks on the ice and the boards in honor of Ali.

"All My Children" star Thorsten Kaye also was on hand, rooting for the guys in red and white. Asked if he had ever been to the Joe, the diehard Wings fan was taken aback in mock horror.

"I've been here a hundred times. Of course. Jeez. Never for a Game 7 (though)," said the German-born, England-raised Kaye, who attended Wayne State in Detroit.

ONE-TIMERS

After captain Sidney Crosby took the Stanley Cup for its initial spin, he gave it to Bill Guerin, a veteran the Penguins picked up in a trade deadline deal. The 38-year-old Guerin won his first Cup nearly 14 years ago with New Jersey. Veteran Sergei Gonchar, a first-time winner, was the third person to lift the Cup for Pittsburgh on Friday. ... At 21, Crosby became the youngest captain to hoist the Stanley Cup. Edmonton's Wayne Gretzky was 23 when he first won it. ... The Detroit and Pittsburgh hockey clubs weren't the only teams from the cities competing against each other Friday night. The Tigers and Pirates faced off in the opener of a weekend interleague series at PNC Park in Pittsburgh with Detroit taking a 3-1 decision.

-- Mike Householder