posted May 30, 2008 at 15:15 in NHL Articles

Suddenly Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins don’t look so dead to the sports betting community after all. The Pens found themselves in a big series hole in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday, but they managed to pay off for NHL bettors and get back into the title hunt.

The Detroit Red Wings had handily won the first two games of the Cup final, blanking the Pens by scores of 4-0 and 3-0 at home. Pittsburgh, though, has been dominant for their hockey betting faithful on their own ice lately, and a change in venue was just what the doctor ordered – they took an early lead in Game 3 and then held on for a win to cut their sports betting series deficit to only 2-1.

Crosby opened the scoring for Pittsburgh late in the first period on Wednesday, and he increased his team’s advantage to 2-0 with a power-play marker early in the second period. Johan Franzen then got the Wings to within one with a power-play goal of his own later in the frame, but Adam Hall put Pittsburgh up 3-1 with his second of the playoffs early in the third. Mikael Samuelsson replied for Detroit about six minutes later, but that was as close as the Red Wings were going to get in their first loss of the Cup final.

Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 32 of 34 Detroit shots in the victory, while Red Wings’ counterpart Chris Osgood made 21 saves in the loss. The Penguins are now 9-0 at home in the playoffs, and overall they’ve managed to win 17 straight in their own rink.

That bodes well for the Penguins’ chances in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup final – which is scheduled for 8:00pm ET in Pittsburgh on Saturday night. The Pens, though, are still waiting for Evgeni Malkin to break through in this series. The young Russian forward was held scoreless on Wednesday (although he did manage to register three shots on goal in the game), and overall he’s managed to pick up just two points over his last seven playoff games.

Regardless of Saturday’s outcome the series will shift back to Detroit for Game 5 on Monday night. Should the Penguins be able to further extend the best-of-seven set they will get to host Game 6 on Wednesday, with a Game 7 set for Detroit next Saturday. Check the BetUS NHL odds section for all of the latest lines and totals for the Cup final.

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