Sidney Crosby revived the Pittsburgh Penguins' Stanley Cup hopes by scoring twice in a 3-2 victory over the Detroit Red Wings in Game Three on Wednesday. The Red Wings shut out the Penguins in the opening two games of the best-of-seven series in Detroit and Pittsburgh returned home to the Igloo, where they had been unbeatable this post-season, promising the finals were far from over. Crosby and the Penguins, supported by a raucous crowd waving white towels, delivered on that promise and improved their post-season home record to 9-0. “We still have to keep going but for sure we needed this one,” Crosby told reporters. “I think we all earned it and that's the reward, a big win.” The Penguins still face a daunting task with history favoring the Red Wings. Of the 31 teams to take the opening two games of the Finals on home ice, 30 have gone on to lift the Stanley Cup. However, if Pittsburgh can add another win to its perfect home mark in Game Four on Saturday, it will send the final back to the Motor City level at 2-2. The Penguins were quickly on the attack but needed almost the entire first period before Crosby finally ended Pittsburgh's goal drought, taking a pass from Marian Hossa and flicking it past Chris Osgood. The goal was the first surrendered by the Red Wings in almost 155 minutes of playoff hockey. “Whether it was me or anybody else, we just wanted to get the first one,” said Crosby, the reigning league MVP. “We wanted to get a goal, it didn't matter who or when.” Crosby extended the lead to 2-0 when he slammed home a rebound past Osgood 2:34 into the second period on the powerplay. Johan Franzen, who only returned to Detroit's line-up for Game Two on Monday after missing six games with concussion, showed the layoff had done nothing to dull his scoring touch by notching his playoffs best 13th goal. With Pittsburgh clinging to a 2-1 third-period lead, Adam Hall settled frayed nerves when his pass from the back of the Detroit goal ricocheted in off Osgood's backside for what proved to be the game-winner. The Red Wings, however, refused to allow the Penguins off the hook with Mikael Samuelsson's blast from just inside the blue line finding its way past Marc-Andre Fleury and placing the crowd on the edge of their seats for the final six minutes. Ovechkin honored Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals said he was envious of the players involved in the Stanley Cup Finals when he picked up two top awards on Wednesday. “I'm a little jealous,” Ovechkin told reporters. “It was a good year but it was not my best year. With a Stanley Cup I'd say it would have been my best year.” At an awards ceremony before Game Three of the Finals between Pittsburgh and Detroit, the young Russian accepted the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL's leading points scorer with 112 and the Maurice ‘Rocket' Richard Trophy as the league's top goal scorer with 65. In addition Ovechkin is the odds-on favorite to claim the Hart Trophy awarded to the NHL's most valuable player in Toronto on June 12. His season also included a world championship gold medal after his country defeated Canada in overtime to end a 15-year title drought. Detroit Red Wings duo Dominik Hasek and Chris Osgood won the William M. Jennings award after combining for the NHL's top goals-against-average. The Toronto Maple Leafs's Swedish captain Mats Sundin won the Mark Messier leadership award in recognition of his outstanding performance as a player and leader. – Reuters __
