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The Red Wings are Stanley Cup champions once again. Six was the magic number. Six years after winning a third Cup in a decade over the Hurricanes in five games, the Original Six franchise defeated the Penguins in six games taking Game Six 3-2 at Mellon Arena last night in Pittsburgh to capture a fourth championship in the last 11 years.

Their superior display of skating, puck possession and team defense won out against the younger skilled Pens who truthfully were dominated despite winning twice and making for an entertaining and frantic conclusion before legions of supporters. Pittsburgh’s determination to make it a series benefited the NHL as a whole garnering their best ratings on network TV since the Wings’ last Cup triumph in 2002. Max Talbot’s tying goal with 34 ticks left in Game Five allowed Petr Sykora’s triple overtime winner to extend the series bringing it back to Pittsburgh where anything was possible.

However, the Pens couldn’t duplicate that miraculous victory despite a late Marian Hossa power play goal which put them within one with 87 seconds left Wednesday night. Even though the Wings outplayed them by a ton getting a fluky Henrik Zetterberg goal to go up a pair earlier in the stanza, Pittsburgh still had a last second chance to stun Detroit with another wild comeback. But following Hossa’s PPG with Marc-Andre Fleury pulled for an extra attacker, the Pens fell just short of that miracle when Chris Osgood denied Sidney Crosby’s last second backhander and then sticked the rebound aside before Hossa could put it home. By the time his backhand steered across the crease, the buzzer had sounded making the Wings victorious.

It was about as riveting a finish as ever seen in Cup history. How often does a runner-up come that close to forcing sudden death in the waning seconds? I can’t remember ever seeing that before. It made for a cool ending to what turned out to be a very good Final which did wonders for the NHL and for NBC. Does anyone else find it ironic that the first two games stunk on Versus before reaching network TV where every remaining game was competitive despite Detroit’s superiority?

With their fourth Cup in 11 years, the Red Wings are the closest thing to a dynasty in this modern salary cap era. Sure. They hadn’t won in six years and could’ve beaten the Ducks a year ago. Still, to win that many championships in essentially a decade is a pretty great accomplishment. What makes it more special is that year after year, the experts write them off only to be proven wrong.

An integral part of that winning tradition still is now the first ever European born player to captain a Cup winning team in Mr. Norris Nick Lidstrom. The ageless Swede who should once again win the honor for the league’s top defenseman has now been around for all four championships. He truly is something to behold in how he plays his position on a nightly basis. Whether it’s flawless D or jumping into a rush, Lidstrom has been one of the staples on that Detroit blueline dominating the game like few others who have played. It’s only right that he became the first ever European captain to lead a team to Lord Stanley.

What keeps the Wings competitive is their penchant for drafting great players. The Conn Smythe winner for playoff MVP Zetterberg is ample proof of that discovered by the organization in the seventh round nearly a decade prior. With the fortuitous Cup clinching goal and a helper, the Swede finished with 27 points (13-14-27) this postseason and was very deserving of the hardware. He dominated shift after shift with his remarkable skating and stickhandling skills along with the uncanny ability to create offense even out of nearly zilch as he did a few times during Detroit’s run. He and Pavel Datsyuk dominated out there almost having the puck glued to their magical sticks.

This was an awesome display by a couple of great players. But they were far from alone as Lidstrom and former Devil blueline anchor Brian Rafalski teamed extremely well to form a dominant top pair which the other 29 teams could only dream of. Niklas Kronwall and Brad Stuart crunched every opposing player in sight. Young role players such as Jiri Hudler and Darren Helm skated extremely well and were involved offensively proving again how bright the Red Wings’ future is.

The best aspect was the comeback story of Chris Osgood going from vet backup to legit MVP candidate even though Zetterberg won the Smythe. After Mike Babcock replaced Dominik Hasek during the first round against Nashville, Ozzie was brilliant winning 14 of 18 starts posting a 1.55 GAA, .930 save percentage and three shutouts. He was razor sharp all postseason in backstopping his original club to a second Cup a decade later. Pretty awesome stuff which proves you can go back home again.

In the end, the Pens had nothing to be ashamed of. Their future remains extremely bright with Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and possibly Hossa still around if the club re-signs the gifted Slovak. On the greatest stage, Marc-Andre Fleury came of age performing like a former No.1 pick who now looks like a franchise goalie. His 55 stops in Game Five was heroic and gave his team an opportunity to force another game and maybe comeback. It’s unfortunate that the last image we’ll see is the 23 year-old French Canadian accidentally sitting on the puck and watching it helplessly go in for Zetterberg’s winner. It was a tough break but he and the Pens will be back.

Congrats to both participants on an outstanding series. Now it’s onto the offseason.