Awesome game

The Penguins rang in a new era tonight, winning the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1992 and the third time in franchise history.

A year after the Red Wings won the Cup at Mellon Arena, the Penguins knocked off defending champion Detroit, 2-1, in a winner-take-all Game 7 of the final at Joe Louis Arena.

Goals by Max Talbot staked the Penguins to a 2-0 lead after two periods and they held on to win the 2009 NHL championship.

The Penguins played most of the second half of the game without star center Sidney Crosby, who got an apparent knee injury. He returned for the third period but played very sparingly.

Crosby left the ice at around 5:35 of the second period. He and Detroit's Johan Franzen were chasing the puck along the boards. Crosby ended up riding Franzen's back briefly, and his knee got pinned along the boards as Franzen checked him.

He slowly made his way to the Penguins bench favoring his left leg and went to the locker room.

The Penguins outshot the Red Wings, 10-6, and did not score on the only power play in the first period.

Talbot got the game's first goal at 1:13 of the second period. Evgeni Malkin forced a turnover by Detroit defenseman Brad Stuart in the right corner and got the puck out to Talbot, who scored from the lower right circle.

Talbot finished off a two-on-one break with Tyler Kennedy against Red Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall by lifting the puck past goaltender Chris Osgood's glove to make it 2-0 at 10:07 of the second period.

Kronwall spoiled the shutout bid by Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury at 13:53 of the third period. He took a cross-ice feed from defense partner Nicklas Lidstrom and put the puck off Fleury's arm from the right point to make it 2-1.