Detroit Red Wings and Valtteri Filppula celebrate Stanley Cup victory
Jarkko Ruutu and Pittsburgh Penguins left to rue disastrous start to play-off finals
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In the early hours of Thursday morning Finnish time, Valtteri Filppula became the seventh Finnish ice hockey professional to know the sensation of lifting the sport’s most coveted trophy, the Stanley Cup.
Filppula’s Detroit Red Wings beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2 in Pittsburgh in the sixth game of their NHL play-offs final, and the Red Wings thereby wrapped up the best-of-seven series by four games to two. It was their 11th Stanley Cup title, a record for clubs based in the USA, and their fourth win since 1997.
Whilst hockey is a team sport and it is rather fatuous to speak of individual exploits, Filppula was once again an important cog in the Detroit machine.
The hardworking center scored the second goal of the match mid-way through the second period. It was his fifth strike in the play-offs as a whole and his second in the final series.
Mikael Samuelsson fired in a wrister from the top of the right circle, and when Pittsburgh goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury surprisingly spilled the puck forward, Filppula backhanded the rebound between the goalie’s pads to make it 2-0 to the Red Wings.
Detroit’s opener had come from defenseman Brian Rafalski on the powerplay, after good work by Swede Henrik Zetterberg.
The Penguins finally got onto the scoreboard at the end of the second period, but were undone at 47:36 as Zetterberg scored something of a fluke goal.
His shot was saved by Fleury under his body, but the unfortunate goalie - apparently believing he had the puck frozen, though no whistle was blown - then sat back, inadvertently knocking it into the net with his backside.
Furious attacks by the Penguins led nowhere, and indeed the visitors were closer to adding a fourth goal, until 1:27 from the end, when Marian Hossa narrowed the deficit.
An equaliser to take the game into overtime was tantalisingly close with just two seconds remaining, but Hossa could not convert, and the cup belonged to Detroit.
Zetterberg, who scored 13 + 14 in the play-offs, was named the winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy as the Most Valuable Player of the postseason, and fellow-Swede and defenseman Nicklas Lidström became the first European captain to lift the Stanley Cup aloft.
Valtteri Filppula, who joined the Red Wings in 2005 from Helsinki Jokerit, was playing in his first Stanley Cup final.
The 24-year-old scored 19 +17 during the regular NHL season in 78 appearances, and 5 + 6 in the play-offs.
Whichever side had won the final, there would have been a Finnish name inscribed on the trophy for 2007-2008.
Among the Pittsburgh squad was a bitterly disappointed Jarkko Ruutu, who had seen his side claw their way back from a disastrous start (they lost the first two games comprehensively, 0-3 and 0-4) to the point where a win on home ice would have left the final poised at three games apiece.
Filppula joins the 2007 Stanley Cup winner Teemu Selänne (Anaheim Ducks) as the owner of a winner’s ring, along with previous Finnish victors Jari Kurri (Edmonton Oilers 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1990), Jere Lehtinen (Dallas Stars 1999), Ville Nieminen (Colorado Avalanche 2001), Reijo Ruotsalainen (Edmonton Oilers 1987, 1990), and Esa Tikkanen (Edmonton Oilers 1985, 1987, 1988, 1990 and with the New York Rangers in 1994).
Filppula’s Detroit Red Wings beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2 in Pittsburgh in the sixth game of their NHL play-offs final, and the Red Wings thereby wrapped up the best-of-seven series by four games to two. It was their 11th Stanley Cup title, a record for clubs based in the USA, and their fourth win since 1997.
Whilst hockey is a team sport and it is rather fatuous to speak of individual exploits, Filppula was once again an important cog in the Detroit machine.
The hardworking center scored the second goal of the match mid-way through the second period. It was his fifth strike in the play-offs as a whole and his second in the final series.
Mikael Samuelsson fired in a wrister from the top of the right circle, and when Pittsburgh goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury surprisingly spilled the puck forward, Filppula backhanded the rebound between the goalie’s pads to make it 2-0 to the Red Wings.
Detroit’s opener had come from defenseman Brian Rafalski on the powerplay, after good work by Swede Henrik Zetterberg.
The Penguins finally got onto the scoreboard at the end of the second period, but were undone at 47:36 as Zetterberg scored something of a fluke goal.
His shot was saved by Fleury under his body, but the unfortunate goalie - apparently believing he had the puck frozen, though no whistle was blown - then sat back, inadvertently knocking it into the net with his backside.
Furious attacks by the Penguins led nowhere, and indeed the visitors were closer to adding a fourth goal, until 1:27 from the end, when Marian Hossa narrowed the deficit.
An equaliser to take the game into overtime was tantalisingly close with just two seconds remaining, but Hossa could not convert, and the cup belonged to Detroit.
Zetterberg, who scored 13 + 14 in the play-offs, was named the winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy as the Most Valuable Player of the postseason, and fellow-Swede and defenseman Nicklas Lidström became the first European captain to lift the Stanley Cup aloft.
Valtteri Filppula, who joined the Red Wings in 2005 from Helsinki Jokerit, was playing in his first Stanley Cup final.
The 24-year-old scored 19 +17 during the regular NHL season in 78 appearances, and 5 + 6 in the play-offs.
Whichever side had won the final, there would have been a Finnish name inscribed on the trophy for 2007-2008.
Among the Pittsburgh squad was a bitterly disappointed Jarkko Ruutu, who had seen his side claw their way back from a disastrous start (they lost the first two games comprehensively, 0-3 and 0-4) to the point where a win on home ice would have left the final poised at three games apiece.
Filppula joins the 2007 Stanley Cup winner Teemu Selänne (Anaheim Ducks) as the owner of a winner’s ring, along with previous Finnish victors Jari Kurri (Edmonton Oilers 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1990), Jere Lehtinen (Dallas Stars 1999), Ville Nieminen (Colorado Avalanche 2001), Reijo Ruotsalainen (Edmonton Oilers 1987, 1990), and Esa Tikkanen (Edmonton Oilers 1985, 1987, 1988, 1990 and with the New York Rangers in 1994).
Helsingin Sanomat