Red Wings try to clinch Cup tonight

~ Pittsburgh will try to stave off elimination on its home ice.

PITTSBURGH -- The Detroit Red Wings skated into Pittsburgh for this very game last year, outplayed the Penguins in their building and, in the final indignity, paraded with the Stanley Cup on the same ice where Mario Lemieux once played.

Do you think Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Marc-Andre Fleury don't remember the emptiness and frustration they felt after that Game 6?

"We don't want that image in our heads again," Penguins forward Max Talbot said Monday.

If the Red Wings win this Game 6 today, a year and five days after winning their last one here, it will be more than an image to the Penguins. It will be an instant replay.

Not since Montreal clinched in Boston in 1977 and 1978 has a team won the Stanley Cup in the same opponent's building two seasons in a row, but the Red Wings gladly will take another clincher in Pittsburgh if it means avoiding an ever-dangerous Game 7.

"It's obviously a special night when you know you have a chance to win the Cup in one single hockey game," Detroit goalie Chris Osgood.

The Penguins have heard for two days how they lost the Stanley Cup with a more-than-miserable 5-0 loss in Game 5 on Saturday. Even if they win Game 6 before an all-in-white home crowd, they must go back to Detroit and inhospitable Joe Louis Arena, where they have been outscored 10-2 while losing three games and, at times, their tempers.

No, the Penguins don't need to be told what many outside their dressing room are thinking: This one's over.

Penguins forward Ruslan Fedotenko is certain it's not.

Five years ago, his Tampa Bay Lightning were down 3-2 to the Flames going into a road Game 6, with seemingly half of Alberta filling Calgary's Red Mile entertainment district to celebrate. Instead, Tampa Bay won in overtime, and the Lightning also took Game 7 at home as Fedotenko scored both goals during their 2-1 victory.