DET vs PIT

Pittsburgh - The verbal posturing between Mike Babcock and Michel Therrien over officiating in these Cup Finals continued this morning at Mellon Arena.

Red Wings coach Babcock had stayed silent about the officials prior to Game 5, no doubt because his team was up 3-1. Winning has a funny way of making coaches content with the state of all things, including the refs.

But now that his team has blown a clinching game, one in which two goalie-interference calls were made against his team, Babcock started to chirp more about the refs on Tuesday. He also took a swipe at Pittsburgh's Therrien, musing aloud that maybe he should start talking more about the refs, like Therrien did earlier in the series, to buy
more calls in future games.

Today, Therrien responded:

"There's two different things. Mike's complaining about calls. And we've complained about the non-calls. So that's two different things," Therrien said. "And we've been told at the beginning of the series that they're going to protect the goalie. Obviously, you know, he didn't have any complaint when (Chris) Osgood got bumped and he fell
down on Ryan Malone, I think it was Game 1 or Game 2, I can't remember. Didn't hear any complaint.

"We're complaining about obstruction, and we're complaining about interference. It's two different things. And you have to go with the book. And this is what was supposed to be called, and there's times where we thought they were non-calls. And we believe that we were right. So it's part of the frustration, I guess."

Babcock probably has a beef on the goalie interference call on Henrik Zetterberg in Game 5. Zetterberg just clipped Marc-Andre Fleury slightly, and had a Penguins defender riding his back. The call on Daniel Cleary was more justified, though. True, Cleary was just driving hard to the net from the side, but the fact is he did make
some pretty good contact with Fleury in the crease, and teams have been warned that protection of the goalies is a league priority now.

Injury updates

Therrien said defenceman Sergei Gonchar (back?) and Ryan Malone (broken nose) should play tonight.

He said no changes from Monday's lineup would be made. The Red Wings reported no new injuries.

Liquor laws

If the Penguins pull out the series and champagne flows in the dressing room, Sidney Crosby and Jordan Staal, by law, wouldn't be able to drink any, at least not in public.

Would there be an exception made for the two underage Penguins?

"I don't know. We'll worry about it if the time comes. But we've still got a ways to go yet," Crosby said.

Tiger Woods: No NHL fan

Golf superstar Tiger Woods certainly has gotten the backs up of hockey fans everywhere, over his comment Monday that "I don't think anybody really watches hockey anymore."

So, what's Tiger's explanation of recent PGA ratings in the U.S.? Last month's Wachovia Championship did a horrible 1.3 national rating on CBS in the Saturday round, and a 1.8 in the final round. Game 5 of the Cup Finals Monday, by comparison, did a 4.3 on NBC.

Woods didn't participate in the Wachovia this year, but he did the year before. And in the final round of a tournament he won, the highest rating on CBS was a 3.8.