PITTSBURGH — Every kid growing up with a hockey stick and a notion of being an NHL player wants to be in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals.

Sidney Crosby always did. Tyler Kennedy estimates he played a thousand Game 7s in his driveway.

The Detroit Red Wings insist they can’t wait for this one on Friday night, back in the arena where they rarely lose and the Pittsburgh Penguins appear hesitant and a bit intimidated.

They’re not entirely convincing when they say it.

No doubt the Red Wings didn’t want to take it this far after dominating three of the first five games, yet Pittsburgh’s desperation 2-1 victory last night in Game 6 extended a flighty finals in which almost no game resembles the one before it.

That’s what must worry the Red Wings more than a little, despite their 11-2 scoring edge against Pittsburgh at home and the 11 Stanley Cup championship banners that already hang from the Joe Louis Arena rafters.

Nothing seems to being going as scripted, such as third-line forwards Jordan Staal and Tyler Kennedy scoring Pittsburgh’s only goals in Game 6, so who’s to say what will happen in Game 7?

“We’ve got an amazing opportunity here,” Crosby said after the Penguins took a 2-0 lead early in the third, then held off surge after surge from Detroit.

A year ago, the Red Wings paraded with the Stanley Cup in Mellon Arena after winning 3-2 in Game 6. This time, with the Cup in the building again, the Penguins made certain the silver trophy wasn’t handed out on the silver anniversary of franchise icon Mario Lemieux being drafted in 1984.

“We weren’t thinking about last year at all,” Crosby said. “But we found a way to survive. And now it’s anyone’s game. It’s going to be a great challenge.”

For both teams. The Red Wings can win their fifth championship in the last dozen seasons, a wave of success that no other team in the four major American pro sports leagues has duplicated during that time span.

“Going back at home, I think we feel pretty comfortable,” Darren Helm said.

And the Red Wings should, given their 11-1 record there in these playoffs. Also, the home team has won each of the last six finals Game 7s dating to 1987, and no road team has raised the Cup following a Game 7 since Montreal in Chicago in 1971. That’s the last time that a team lost the first two games on the road, as the Penguins did, and recovered to win the Stanley Cup.

Still, there’s this for the Red Wings to think about: Two rounds ago, Pittsburgh also lost the first two games on the road, then went into Washington for Game 7 and won 6-2.

“Game 7 is a one-game, winner takes the trophy home,” Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said. “Who can put the other guy back on their heels? Who can capitalize on the power play? ... I don’t have a lot of experience, but we just gave ourselves an opportunity that we didn’t have before. That’s one game for the Stanley Cup.”