Penguin Fans Can’t Read All About It : NHL playoffs: Both Pittsburgh newspapers on strike, so sweep of Blackhawks in Stanley Cup finals goes undocumented in Steel City.

‘ ‘Penguins Sweep Blackhawks for Second Consecutive Stanley Cup.”

It was a headline for the archives on a banner day for the city of Pittsburgh. But it never made it into print. Not in the town’s major newspapers.

The champagne may have been flowing in Chicago Monday after the Penguins beat the Blackhawks to win the Stanley Cup finals, but the ink was dry in Pittsburgh, where both major newspapers are on strike.

A walkout by 600 drivers left the Pittsburgh Press and the Post-Gazette without a means of distributing their product. So the two newspapers were forced to stop the presses at a time when they figured to enjoy a massive boost in circulation because of the Penguins’ success. The drivers have been out since May 17, striking over a new delivery system that could eliminate as many as 450 jobs.

Editorial personnel have been told they will receive paychecks for at least five weeks. Should the strike drag on, however, their fate is uncertain.

The Post-Gazette did publish a one-page fax, with straight news on one side and sports on the other. The fax was available, free of charge, at convenience stores and other spots around town.

The paper also installed a 900 number featuring Penguin beat writer Tom McMillan conducting interviews with players.

Smaller suburban papers and USA Today tried to fill the breach. But they couldn’t make up for the empty racks of the Press and the Post-Gazette, stretching for mile after mile throughout the city.

In what may be a first in player-media relations, Penguin players were bemoaning the lack of a paper at such a crucial time in their history. Some were phoning relatives in other cities to have stories from those papers read to them.

“It’s tough,” Pittsburgh wing Kevin Stevens said. “Sometimes, after a bad game, you hope there’s not a paper. But you sure wish there was one now.”

A player anguishing over stories that weren’t written? Now there’s a headline.