First off, let's start with the Pennsylvania lottery. The daily number - 7171. This will be put to good use of irony later on.
This was it, game 5 and down 3-1. "The Cup" was in the house with the purpose of presenting it. The Red Wings at one point in the 3rd period were just seconds away from taking the Stanley Cup, yet, it wasn't meant to be and the Penguins would play the heartbreak role for Detroit's fans.
The Pen's got things started off with the same fashion as game 4, Marian Hossa strikes first on a superb fore checking play by Pascal Dupuis. After cutting off 
a Detroit defensemen from the puck and sending the biscuit over to Crosby. Sidney Crosby would shuffle the puck up to Marian Hossa, who was stationed a top the right circle and settled a partially blocked puck. Hossa then turned the puck to the forehand only to find his favorite left post, this time though...the post is on our side, he buries it. Then, 6:04 later, Adam Hall found himself in a pounding down low situation himself on a fore check when he also put the puck on net that was stopped before Nikalas Kronwall tried to clear the puck to the corner. The puck was redirected by Hall's skate (and hard work ethic too) up over Chris Osgood's shoulder for a 2-0 lead and the Penguins were in serious business after 1 period of play.
a Detroit defensemen from the puck and sending the biscuit over to Crosby. Sidney Crosby would shuffle the puck up to Marian Hossa, who was stationed a top the right circle and settled a partially blocked puck. Hossa then turned the puck to the forehand only to find his favorite left post, this time though...the post is on our side, he buries it. Then, 6:04 later, Adam Hall found himself in a pounding down low situation himself on a fore check when he also put the puck on net that was stopped before Nikalas Kronwall tried to clear the puck to the corner. The puck was redirected by Hall's skate (and hard work ethic too) up over Chris Osgood's shoulder for a 2-0 lead and the Penguins were in serious business after 1 period of play. (Side note: 4 of Adam Hall's 6 career playoff goals have come against Detroit.)
Period 2 saw an early Detroit goal from Darren Helm when Rob Scuderi layed down his life in a attempt to block Helm's shot, only to have it carom off his leg and past the paint via 5 hole for a 2-
1 Pittsburgh edge. The remaining period had some good solid grinding, with Detroit of course, being Detroit with their puck possession and shots on net. Besides the jaw dropping skilled marksmanship of Darren Helm, the only serious plays of the 2nd came late in the period when both Ryan Malone and Sergei Gonchar went down with some injuries. Malone took a knuckle ball of rubber to his nose only to leave the ice at the end of the 2nd with blood dripping from his face.(see picture left) Sergei Gonchar, had his own issues after he fell and slid into the boards hard towards the end of the 2nd too. Gut check time would come for Ryan Malone in the next period as he would step on the ice for the start of the 3rd. Gonchar on the other hand, he had some serious issues I guess, because he just adds to the drama of game 5 later on.
1 Pittsburgh edge. The remaining period had some good solid grinding, with Detroit of course, being Detroit with their puck possession and shots on net. Besides the jaw dropping skilled marksmanship of Darren Helm, the only serious plays of the 2nd came late in the period when both Ryan Malone and Sergei Gonchar went down with some injuries. Malone took a knuckle ball of rubber to his nose only to leave the ice at the end of the 2nd with blood dripping from his face.(see picture left) Sergei Gonchar, had his own issues after he fell and slid into the boards hard towards the end of the 2nd too. Gut check time would come for Ryan Malone in the next period as he would step on the ice for the start of the 3rd. Gonchar on the other hand, he had some serious issues I guess, because he just adds to the drama of game 5 later on. Period 3....oh crap. Detroit came out all business. They got on the power play early and would take serious advantage of it and score on a redirect from Pavel Datsyuk to make it a 2-2 game. Less than 3 minutes later, Brian Rafalski would put a dagger into every black and gold individual with a shot from the blue line only to find mesh, giving the Red Wings a 3-2 lead. For most of the 3rd period, the Rafalski goal seemed like the game clincher.
Act III, Pt. I, enter the 6 on 5 empty net with just over a minute to go. Meanwhile, billy white gloves was breaking out the Cup for it's final cleaning and the hoover was brought out for the red carpentry. 
The Penguins looked like they wouldn't get anything set up or put pressure what so ever on Chris Osgood. Henrik Zetterberg picked off his 8,473 pass of the series shorthanded and had a chance to stop the world from turning on an empty net. He failed, thank god. And the Pen's came back up ice and were on a rush. The puck got bounced around from Sidney Crosby over to Marian Hossa who was putting on some moves that would of made Jason Taylor blush. He worked his way around two Detroit defenders and behind the net. Hossa would put on his best power move from his bag of tricks and somehow get the puck on net, and he did. Maxime Talbott was there and it was Monday....(AKA) trash day. Talbott never played cute with the rebounder, and man, did he ever SLAM it home. Game tied, with 34.2 left.
The Penguins looked like they wouldn't get anything set up or put pressure what so ever on Chris Osgood. Henrik Zetterberg picked off his 8,473 pass of the series shorthanded and had a chance to stop the world from turning on an empty net. He failed, thank god. And the Pen's came back up ice and were on a rush. The puck got bounced around from Sidney Crosby over to Marian Hossa who was putting on some moves that would of made Jason Taylor blush. He worked his way around two Detroit defenders and behind the net. Hossa would put on his best power move from his bag of tricks and somehow get the puck on net, and he did. Maxime Talbott was there and it was Monday....(AKA) trash day. Talbott never played cute with the rebounder, and man, did he ever SLAM it home. Game tied, with 34.2 left. In that time left Detroit had put some serious pressure on Fluery to make some saves to push this game into OT for some orange slices and a breather. Then the end of the 3rd came and ESPN's shot chart for Detroit looked like a pedophile emporium on watch dog neighbor.net.
I don't really know how to describe the next 50 some minutes of hockey other than; heart pounding. Game 5 was on the line and a chance for the Penguins to take it back home with a chance to even the series up in game 6. The Penguins would draw two penalties in the first two extra frames because of goalie interference. The knob jobs in the NBC booth were furious with the calls by repeatedly saying "What was he supposed to do?" Both times, making reference to the fact that
Marc-Andre Fluery was plowed over like he was hit by an 18 wheeler! Here's an idea for the NBC broadcast crew, here's how the penalties could have been avoided....it's simple; they could have stopped. They weren't pushed into the crease or throw down into Fluery, the Red Wings simply followed their shots to the net, then ran Fluery over. Jags. In other OT hockey news; midway through the 2nd OT, Peter Sykora taps his chest to his teammates on the bench and says "I'm going to score." Balls, pure elephant balls to say something like that.
Marc-Andre Fluery was plowed over like he was hit by an 18 wheeler! Here's an idea for the NBC broadcast crew, here's how the penalties could have been avoided....it's simple; they could have stopped. They weren't pushed into the crease or throw down into Fluery, the Red Wings simply followed their shots to the net, then ran Fluery over. Jags. In other OT hockey news; midway through the 2nd OT, Peter Sykora taps his chest to his teammates on the bench and says "I'm going to score." Balls, pure elephant balls to say something like that. Act VI, Pt. II, enter the Hero scene. In this case their were tw0 and at this point we had played 100 minutes of hockey including 2 OT's. Speaking of; overtime hockey on national TV is great, due to the fact their are no TV timeouts and there are no commercials until the end of play in each OT. Flawless stuff, it was like watching the Masters on Sunday, wuth about 3 minutes of commercials an hour. I'm glad to, because for a second there I was forgetting how that new Edge shave gel actually worked. I digress however, anyways. Enter the hero(s) and the antagonist, Marc-Andre Fluery was already present with 50+ saves and Jiri Hudler (antagonist & one ugly fella too) felt his name hadn't been called enough during the game, so he decided to take Brooks Oprik's bottom lip off with his stick. There was blood and that's a 4 minnur for Detroit. The Pen's were on the the PP and the hero's appear. Sergei Gonchar returns to the bench after missing parts of the 3rd and all of the OT's with an injury no knows anything about. He obviously can't shoot the puck because he 
had about 2 or 3 chances to on the penalty to Hudler. Who cares, pure guts to be out on the ice for your teammates. So, here's how it went down, it's called tic-tac-toe. Gonchar would find Malkin (#71, wink wink) who then would find Sykora (#17, wink wink) at the right circle where he waited for about a day and a half before firing off a wrister top shelf, only to sink every single octopus' loving hearts in Joe Louis Arena.
had about 2 or 3 chances to on the penalty to Hudler. Who cares, pure guts to be out on the ice for your teammates. So, here's how it went down, it's called tic-tac-toe. Gonchar would find Malkin (#71, wink wink) who then would find Sykora (#17, wink wink) at the right circle where he waited for about a day and a half before firing off a wrister top shelf, only to sink every single octopus' loving hearts in Joe Louis Arena.If you believe in irony or numerology, the PA daily number was 7171, and a lot of people were pointing to Evgeni Malkin for some sort of life or fire. It was close in game 5, but who cares, Pens win 4-3! A good man once said "Whether you're a mother or whether you're brother, your stayin' alive. Stayin' alive." We can all thank the Bee Gee's for that...breathe in, breathe out and a long night comes to an end, but WHAT A GAME, HUH?!
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