Fleury, Pens Blank Rangers

(NEWSER) - With the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins to decide the Stanley Cup finals tonight, David Schoenfield takes a look at the best Game 7s in NHL championship history for ESPN. Some highlights:

• 1950: Red Wings 4, Rangers 3 (2 OT). Pete Babando’s goal 8½ minutes into the second overtime capped a series that saw the last four games decided by one goal, three of them OT.
• 1994: Rangers 3, Canucks 2. New York hangs on in front of a delirious crowd to end the franchise’s 54-year Cup drought.

(NEWSER) - It may not have the audience or star power of the other big-sport championships, but the Red Wings and Penguins are plugging away in a great Stanley Cup finals. Pittsburgh eked out a 2-1 win tonight to tie the series at 3 and set up those two words so beloved by hockey fans: Game Seven. Detroit will host it on Friday night for all the marbles. More»

Alex Ovechkin faces Sidney Crosby in 'nail-biting playoff'... but no one's watching

(NEWSER) - The Capitals-Penguins playoff series, with its two budding superstars, is what the beleaguered NHL has been waiting for, writes Reed Albergotti in the Wall Street Journal. In contrast to the disciplined play of Sidney "Wayne Gretzky" Crosby, Russian phenom Alex Ovechkin is both a firebrand and a goofball. But the matchup, which is only being shown on the Versus cable network, may slip by relatively unseen. More»

Former NHL star finds 'real freedom' playing (for big money) in outpost of Omsk

(NEWSER) - Jaromir Jagr is far from New York, playing hockey in Siberia, yet he tells the Atlantic he’s happy in the outpost of Omsk. Indeed, his $11 million salary helps cushion the blow of not being re-signed by the Rangers. And "in Russia, you have the real freedom, which is not like US freedom,” he says. “Back there you have so many rules.” More»

Detroit's Stanley Cup didn't simply come from mining European talent

(NEWSER) - Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom and Finals MVP Henrik Zetterberg both learned their hockey skills in Sweden, but it's not Detroit's strategy of drawing European talent that secured them this year's Stanley Cup. The team's success, writes Scot Burnside for ESPN, is due to management's willingness to gamble on older mainstays of the Hockeytown franchise. More»