DETROIT (AP) - Maxime Talbot is known as the jokester in the Pittsburgh Penguins' dressing room, a low-round draft pick on a team filled with first-round big names who doesn't complain when he's asked to take on a difficult role.

Now the journeyman in a little-noticed career has helped win game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals for a team that looked to be out of playoff contention four months ago.

With Sidney Crosby limping and Conn Smythe winner Evgeni Malkin not finding much open ice, Talbot played a game worthy of franchise icon Mario Lemieux by scoring both goals as the Penguins became the first team in 38 years to win a finals game 7 on the road, holding off reigning champion Detroit 2-1.

Talbot says he was "in the right place" at the right time to score two goals in less than nine minutes of the second period. Talbot says: "every day I wake up and say this is the best day of my life. But this is the best day of my life."

(Copyright 2009 By The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)