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Sykora keeps Penguins’ hopes alive

Petr Sykora scored in triple overtime and Marc-Andre Fleury made 55 saves as the Pittsburgh Penguins kept their playoff hopes alive by beating Detroit 4-3 at Joe Louis Arena on Monday.

With the marathon victory the underdog Penguins staved off elimination and forced game six in the best of seven Stanley Cup finals today at the Igloo in Pittsburgh.

“I got a great pass and put it in,” said Sykora, who ended the fifth longest game in Stanley Cup finals history. “We have a great team right now.”

Forward Sykora scored on the power play 9:57 through the third overtime period, firing a wrist shot past Detroit goalie Chris Osgood.

Pittsburgh was handed a four-minute man advantage after Detroit’s Jiri Hudler was called for highsticking Penguins Rob Scuderi with 9:21 gone in the third overtime of the contest which lasted nearly four and a half hours.

Maxime Talbot, Marian Hossa and Adam Hall also scored for Pittsburgh which now trails Detroit in the series three games to two.

“We are going back home and we have nothing to lose,” Sykora said. “We know what we have to do and we are going to bring it back here.”

Game seven would be on Saturday in Detroit.

The Penguins blew a 2-0 first period lead, allowing Detroit to score three unanswered goals in the second and third.

But the one-goal lead wouldn’t hold up in the see-saw contest as forward Talbot scored with just 34 seconds left in the third to send the game into sudden-death overtime.

Darren Helm, Pavel Datsyuk and Brian Rafalski scored for Detroit which is seeking its 11th National Hockey League championship in franchise history.

Pittsburgh had to play almost all of the overtime without their top scoring defenseman Sergei Gonchar, who was injured while falling heavily into the end boards trying to break up a Detroit rush in the second period of regulation.

Gonchar returned for the game-ending power play and assisted on Sykora’s winner.

It was a bitter loss for Detroit who controlled most of the play throughout the five-and-half periods, outshooting the Penguins 58-32 overall.
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