Seventeen years ago today, the Pittsburgh Penguins stunned the Detroit Red Wings to win the team’s third Stanley Cup title.
The Penguins were heavy underdogs in the Stanley Cup Final series against the Red Wings, who were the defending champions from the prior year.
Pittsburgh seemed extremely outmatched during stretches of the series, losing all three road games in Detroit, but winning Games 3, 4, and 6 to force a deciding Game 7 back at Joe Louis Arena.
Maxime Talbot opened the scoring early in the second
period of the game, beating goaltender Chris Osgood to make it a 1-0 game.
Sidney Crosby left the game with a knee injury, but the Penguins kept pressing on.
Maxime Talbot was the star of the game, scoring a second goal near the midway point of the second period, picking a corner against Osgood to make it 2-0 Pittsburgh.
From there, it seemed like the Penguins were hanging on for dear life.
Jonathan Ericsson got the Red Wings on the board and Niklas Kronwall nearly tied the game, hitting the crossbar with a shot with just over 2 minutes remaining in the contest.
With the Penguins hanging on, Marc-Andre Fleury made a diving save on Nicklas Lidstrom as time was expiring and as time expired, the Penguins were Stanley Cup champions.
