Penguins Take Their First At Home

Good news for all you fans of the Finals, it looks like we've got ourselves a series. The Penguins managed to pull themselves together at home and make good use of their home-ice advantage, taking Game 3 by a score of 4-2. The Penguins used their power play to get past the Wings, scoring two goals with the extra man and they were finally getting some of the bounces and calls to go their way. That would be the best way to describe how Game 3 looked in their favour.

In the pool, the shorthanded Mike D. fell down a position, down to 3rd place and now sits only 1 point above 4th & 5th place. Trevor B. has continued his climb to the top, taking 2nd place and closing down Steve W.'s lead down to 1 point as well. It looks like it'll be a race to the bitter end this year, which is good to see. I don't think we can count out Mike E. from proceedings just yet, as he's sitting only a point back of 4th & 5th place and he has Chris Osgood as his difference maker.

Alright, let's get to who did the business in the pool last night. Sergei Gonchar was a key contributor last night for the Pens, scoring the winning goal and adding an assist for a 3-point night. Gonchar isn't to be seen on any of the teams in the running for the money, which renders those points somewhat moot. Evgeni Malkin also had a 3-point night, thanks to a trio of assists in the game. He is owned by all of the top five teams, which almost renders his points moot as well, except to Mike E., who doesn't have him. Kristopher Letang and Marc-Andre Fleury round out the players for Pittsburgh who finished with multiple points.

For the Red Wings, it was Johan Franzen and Henrik Zetterberg that finished with a goal and an assist each in the game, helping their pool team's cause to go higher. Zetterberg being the big key, as Trevor B. used his points to vault into second place in the pool.

Game-Winning Goals
Scoring his second game-winner of the playoffs, Sergei Gonchar has really stepped up his contribution level for the Penguins this Spring, now having 16 points in the playoffs. He now adds himself to the list of players that have scored more than one winner in these playoffs and now sits only 1 GWG behind the leaders, so he could still claim the bonus points title for these playoffs with a good showing in the last four games. Evgeni Malkin and Johan Franzen continue to be the leaders in the pool and you would have to believe that they have one more winning goal in them, if their team is to win it all.

The Wings are still without Pavel Datsyuk in these Finals, now having missed all three games in the series. With Detroit losing Game 3, it will be interesting to see if the coaching staff will rush him back into the line-up to try and restore some of their defensive order going into Game 4.