MySports Today

The Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Detroit Red Wings 2-1 on Tuesday night at the Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh to force a Game 7 in the Stanley Cup Finals.  The home team has held serve in each of the first 6 games of the Stanley Cup finals.  The Penguins took a 1-0 lead just 50 seconds into the 2nd period on Jordan Staal’s 4th goal of the playoffs.  Tyler Kennedy increased the Penguin lead to 2-0 with his tally a little over 5 minutes into the 3rd period.  Kris Draper got the Red Wings on the board with his 1st goal of the playoffs 8 minutes into the 3rd period.

Penguins goalie made 25 saves and held off a barrage of shots from the Red Wings in 3rd period – 14 in all.  Chris Osgood had a good game for the Red Wings – 29 saves on 31 shots on goal – but it wasn’t enough.

Game 7 will be in prime time on NBC on Friday night – June 12th.  The odds are in the home team’s favor, so that should be good news for the Red Wings.  The Red Wings are 11-1 at home during the playoffs this year and they have outscored the Penguins 11-2 in the 3 games played in the Stanley Cup Finals thus far this year.  Since 1987, in Game 7 Stanley Cup games, the home team has won all 6 contests – no road team has raised the Stanley Cup after a Game 7 win since the Montreal Canadiens did so in Chicago way back in 1971.  But then again – that’s why they play the games.  Stay tuned as we keep you posted on the latest NHL/Stanley Cup updates over the next few days…

The Orlando Magic defeated the Los Angeles Lakers 108-104 on Tuesday night in Game 3 of the NBA Finals at the Amway Arena in Orlando.  Despite trailing by 4 points after the 1st quarter, the Magic never lost focus and used a 9 point edge in the 2nd quarter (32-23) to take the lead for good.  Although it got a little dicey at the end, the Magic held on to the 4-point win and cut the Lakers series lead to 2-1.  And like they always say, a series doesn’t begin until the home to loses.

Dwight Howard led the way for the Magic with 21 points and 14 boards.  But the key was Rafer Alston, who had been disgruntled in the 1st 2 games of the series with the return of Jamir Nelson who cut into his playing time.  Alston played 36+ minutes and scored 20 points on 8 of 12 shooting. Alston dished out 4 assists and had only 3 turnovers while shooting 3 of 4 from the charity stripe.  3 other players also had great games for the Magic – Hedo Turkoglu scored 18 points, with 6 rebounds and 7 assists; Rashard Lewis scored 21 points, with 5 rebounds and 5 assists; and Mickael Pietrus scored 18 points and stayed out of foul trouble unlike the 1st 2 games of the series.

The Magic played with a lot more energy than the Lakers did in the 1st half.  Kobe Bryant (18 points, 3 rebounds and 8 assists) and Pau Gasol (23 points and 3 rebounds) had their typical games, but the rest of the Lakers players seemed out of sync.  Derek Fisher scored only 9 points and dished out only 2 assists, while Andrew Bynum scored only 4 points.  Lamar Odom grabbed only 2 boards in Game 3 – he had 14 rebounds in Game 1 and 8 rebounds in Game 2.

Game 4 of the NBA Finals is set for Thursday night at 9:00PM EDT on ABC.  If the Magic can even up the series, we could be looking at a classic NBA Finals series this June.  The NHL Stanley Cup series will be decided between the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins in a decisive Game 7 – maybe the NBA Finals will too…