The one that got away

There was Hank, skating up ice with about 45 seconds left, empty net at the end. Instead of making the smart play and just dumping it down though, he tried to get cute for a chance at the sealing goal. Unfortunately, that led to a giveaway, which led to the puck in Detroit's end, which led to a second giveaway by Franzen and the puck was in the back of the net. Bring on the OT.

But it never should have gotten that far. Detroit was so dominant for the greater portion of this game that Pittsburgh didn't deserve to be in it with 35 seconds left. Add to that the Penguins getting an awful lot of help from the refs throughout the game and you have to start questioning how much impact all of Michelle Theriens whining early in the series has paid off for them. I'm not going to argue with the penalty that finally decided it because there wasn't really anything the refs could do when Hudler got reckless with his stick. However, Pittsburgh got away with murder all night and I still can't believe that the Pens weren't called for too many men on the ice in the second period when their sixth skater jumped on the ice and played the puck right in front of the ref. I'm generally fairly calm and rational, but sitting in my living room watching the game last night I found myself yelling a profanity laced sentence that threatened the hunting down of and physical violence against the ref after the second goalie interference call in OT. It's just dreadful to watch the refs have the opportunity to effect the outcome the way they did, even if the winning goal wasn't scored on the bad calls. The last straw of course, was that on the winning goal, the puck was bouncing out to the Wings penalty killer until it hit the ref in the ass and bounced back to Malkin so that he could set up the goal. It was like I told the Pants after the second goal was a clearing attempt that just hit Hall's skate, then the crossbar and still managed to go in ... sometimes when it bounces this way, you just know it's not your night.

One final mistake by all of the folks on TV and at the arena ... when they selected the stars of the game, Fleury shouldn't have just been the number one star. He should have gotten all three. Without him, Pittsburgh loses that game 5 or 6 to 2 and all of Detroit is celebrating this morning. Instead, they're heading back to Pittsburgh for game six where Detroit can make that prediction of mine come true. Wings in six. I still believe.