DET vs PIT

PITTSBURGH – It's going to take more than one Stanley Cup and a few hundred other big playoff saves before Marc-Andre Fleury deserves comparison to Patrick Roy as a money goaltender.

Saint Patrick no doubt would be insulted at having Fleury's name mentioned with his based on one triple-overtime Cup final win. Roy not only made 63 saves in a triple-OT win in Game 4 of the 1996 finals to win the Cup against Florida, he won the Cup as a rookie in hockey's ultimate pressure cooker, Montreal.

But, what Fleury did Monday night (and into early Tuesday morning) in Detroit for his Pittsburgh Penguins no doubt would get a nice "Atta boy" from Roy (but that would probably be it from him. Roy dished out praise like Mr. Bumble dished out the gruel to Oliver Twist).

Fleury's 55 saves was the dominant statistic from Pittsburgh's improbable Game 5 win, and now he has a chance to take the series back to Detroit for a seventh game with another win Wednesday here at Mellon Arena.

Pittsburgh coach Michel Therrien played with Roy with Montreal's top farm team, Sherbrooke, in 1984-85. Therrien was asked about any similarities between the two he's noticed. But Therrien, showing more media savvy as this series has gone along, wouldn't put that kind of pressure on his 23-year-old. Therrien did allow, though, that without Fleury, he would likely have been making plans for the rest of the summer on Tuesday.

"What are you going to say about it? He made some key saves after key save in overtime, giving us a chance to hang in there. They were pushing the envelope pretty big in the third period. And a few times in overtime. And he gave us a chance to win. He was just phenomenal," Therrien said.

When you win, the knights of the keyboard say more good things about you. After some harsh early-series criticism, most of it deserved for his gripes about the officiating, Therrien has been more composed on the press podium, and it seems to be translating some to his team. That was a real character win in Game 5, and Therrien won kudos for some of his line matchups and defensive substitutions.

Therrien will gladly take the praise instead of brickbats, but he isn't getting carried away.

"You know what, it's not about me. It's about my team. It's about my players, and it's about our plan," he said. "So I respect opinions from people. I've got my own, and we've got our plan, and we're going to stick to our plan."

Gonchar probable

Sergei Gonchar, who pulled a Willis Reed/Kirk Gibson/Bela Lugosi rise from the dead in the third OT, is likely to play in Game 6, Therrien said.

Gonchar certainly will see his stock as a "gamer" rise from what he did. Gonchar has had a fine reputation over the years, but was seen as soft by some critics. No, playing the point on a four-minute power play isn't quite Bobby Baun territory, but it certainly was an inspiration to his team.

"After the hit to the boards, he was not in a position to compete five on five. He had some back spasms," Therrien said. "And the medical staff worked on him the rest of the game, and they came to see us before the third overtime that he felt pretty good."

Therrien also said Ryan Malone should play, despite a possible broken nose.

Babcock still positive

Detroit coach Mike Babcock said it was certainly a disappointment to come within 35 seconds of his first championship, but that he'd rather be in his shoes right now than Therrien's.

"We're up 3-2 in the series. We have to win a game. I think it's a great thing to be on the road right now. We've closed out every series so far on the road," he said.

Said Wings three-time Cup winner Kris Draper: "We're a confident team. We're a confident group. We feel that we can come into another team's building and be successful. And obviously, all three times when we closed opponents out, it's been in another team's building. And I think that's a great, great characteristic to have.

"So here we go again. We would have loved to have been able to wrap things up, but that wasn't the case. And we got another crack at it. Like Raf said, we're still up 3 2 in the series, and we have another opportunity to close Pittsburgh out."

Said Nick Lidstrom: "I think the mood of the team was fairly good today coming over here on the flight. And guys know that we have to be prepared. And I think everybody didn't get a whole lot of sleep last night. It was a late game. We were up fairly early, too. So it will be a good day today to rest, get a good night's sleep and be ready to go tomorrow again."

OT good for ratings

Game 5 did one of the highest ratings in the U.S. in history. The game pulled a 4.3 overnight rating on NBC, a 79 per cent increase from Game 5 last year.

Quit whining

There was some predictable whining this morning in the Detroit media about a penalty deciding the outcome. It's always a no-win situation for the NHL on this matter; If Paul Devorski doesn't blow his whistle at what was an obvious high-stick by Jiri Hudler on Rob Scuderi in the third OT, the NHL would be ripped for "not making the calls consistently." But when the call was made and the Penguins scored, at least one Detroit columnist today cried foul.

"The problem was that special teams should never determine the outcome of a battle as spirited as Game 5. The referees should never dictate an overtime game, but that's precisely what happened Monday night, uh, rather Tuesday morning," Drew Sharp wrote in the Detroit Free Press.

In other words, throw out the rulebook in an overtime game and let any goon do what he wants to anybody. Makes sense to us.