PITTSBURGH — No player has ever come from further away than Henrik Zetterberg to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.

The Detroit Red Wings didn't select the Swede until late in the seventh round of the 1999 NHL draft and that decision has never looked better than right now.

Zetterberg led his team in scoring on the way to capturing the Stanley Cup for the first time Wednesday and received the Conn Smythe Trophy from commissioner Gary Bettman afterward. His 27 points also set a new playoff scoring record for the Red Wings and tied him for the post-season lead with Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby.

However, it was his defensive play more than anything that earned him the award.

“1 think all the great players that end up playing at this time of trie year (have to be good defensively),” said Red Wings coach Mike Babcock. “They have to be because your team doesn't get (this far) — in order for you to set something like Hank just did, your team has to play a long time. In order to play a long time, you have to be good without the puck.”

If anyone at that 1999 draft in Boston believed Zetterberg would become half the player he is now, they surely would have selected him well before 210th overall.

The only other Conn Smythe winner to be selected outside the top 100 is Ron Hextall, who was drafted 119th by Philadelphia in 1982 before being named playoff MVP in a losing cause for the Flyers five years later.

He was named MVP despite scoring just once in six games during the Stanley Cup final. That didn't stop him from making a mark. One of the turning points in the series was the 5-on-3 disadvantage that Detroit was able to weather in the third period of Game 4 and Zetterberg displayed all of his skill on that penalty kill.

He tied up Crosby at the side of the net before carrying the puck and killing about 15 seconds on his own.

Zetterberg was on the ice for the majority of another long two-man disadvantage Wednesday and the Penguins were again kept from scoring. Those efforts didn't go unnoticed by his teammates.

“He's so determined,” said defenceman Niklas Kronwall, who has known Zetterberg since they were teenagers. “Anything he does, he does it-full on.

Added veteran forward Kris Draper: “He made a big statement during these playoffs.”

By CHRIS JOHNSTON
The Canadian Press