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E-mailRed Wings' Samuelsson steals stars' thunder
Video: Pens lose Game 1
Mike Prisuta analyzes 4-0 loss
Video: Stanley Cup Game 1
Postgame comments on 4-0 loss
The Detroit Red Wings' coach opened Game 1 on Saturday night at Joe Louis Arena with his top line of Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk and Tomas Holmstrom opposing the Penguins' No. 1 unit of Sidney Crosby, Marian Hossa and Pascal Dupuis.
Those respective threesomes battled repeatedly in the first period.
In the second period, when Penguins coach Michel Therrien loaded up for a shift by playing Evgeni Malkin with Crosby and Hossa, Zetterberg, Datsyuk and Holmstrom were on the ice to greet them.
With the stars canceling each other out, a third-liner stepped up for Babcock and the Red Wings and broke the Stanley Cup ice.
Mikael Samuelsson, who played 22 games for the Penguins in 2002-03, matched his offensive output from his tenure in Pittsburgh by scoring a pair of unassisted goals in the Red Wings' 4-0 triumph.
Game 2 is scheduled for Monday night at the Joe.
The deals involving Samuelsson, a 31-year old Swede, aren't the most well-remembered transactions in Penguins' history.
Samuelsson was acquired, along with Rico Fata, Richard Litner and Joel Bouchard, from the New York Rangers for Alexei Kovalev, Dan LaCouture, Mike Wilson and Janne Laukkanen on Feb. 10, 2003.
That June, Samuelsson was sent to Florida along with a first-round pick (third overall) and a second-round pick for the Panthers' first-round pick (first overall selection) and their third-round choice.
The Penguins turned the No. 1 pick into goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.
Samuelsson turned Fleury inside-out in leading the Red Wings to a 1-0 lead in the series.
Samuelsson first struck at 13:01 of the second, intercepting a clearing attempt by Jarkko Ruutu, driving past Rob Scuderi and behind the Penguins' goal and finally beating Fleury to the far post on a wraparound.
"I couldn't get in front of the net, so I just tried the back," Samuelsson said between periods.
Samuelsson struck again at 2:16 of the third, hammering Hal Gill behind the Penguins' net and then collecting the puck in the slot after an attempted pass from Fleury to Malkin had been flubbed.
Samuelsson's goals were his third and fourth of the playoffs and the sixth and seventh of his postseason career.
He also contributed two assists, a takeaway and a blocked shot in front of the shutout goaltending of Chris Osgood.
"We try to keep them to the outside," Samuelsson said of the Penguins. "It's like every other game."
