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It's Do Or Die Time For Crosby, Pens

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The Associated Press

Published: June 2, 2008

PITTSBURGH - Maybe they should forget they're in the Stanley Cup finals. Or that they're playing the Detroit Red Wings, the team already being anointed as the NHL's next champion.

Most of all, Pittsburgh forward Max Talbot said, the Penguins should ignore the fact that the only way they can win the Stanley Cup is to be the first team in 66 years to rally from a 3-1 deficit in the finals.

With much of the hockey world anticipating the Red Wings will raise the Cup in their own arena in Game 5 tonight, Talbot said the Penguins should go back to being kids, playing before a few family members in a frigid rink.

"I put it this way, we're in a peewee tournament right now and we're in the quarterfinals," Talbot said Sunday. "We have to win the next three games and it's do or die."

The Penguins have put themselves in the most precarious of positions going back to Joe Louis Arena, where they scored zero goals in two games to begin the series.

In a potentially pivotal Game 4 on Saturday night, the Penguins couldn't hold a 1-0 lead, couldn't score on a lengthy five-on-three in the third period, couldn't get a goal from Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin but did allow Detroit's fourth line to score the decisive goal.

All that added up to a series-altering 2-1 loss that sent the Penguins back to Detroit.

"We've got to leave it out there," Crosby said. "I don't think there's really anything to be nervous about. ... We have to make sure we empty the tank and play desperate and see where that takes us."

Back to Pittsburgh for Game 6 on Wednesday? That might seem like wishful thinking given the Red Wings' home-ice domination in Games 1 and 2, when they won by a combined score of 7-0.

"We've got nothing to lose right now. It's either win or come home," Brooks Orpik said.

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