Game Four: Power and the Glory

"I'll fight forever, I won't surrender,
And I will always...
Hunt...you...down!"
Saliva: "Hunt You Down"

Oh, hell, yeah.

One quick goal (from Geno Malkin, who else?) and a three-goal second period, with the third of those (Tyler Kennedy's) looking so beautiful that if it were possible, you'd make love to it until next July, and suddenly, with the Wings reeling on the ropes, we have a best of three.

Not only that, but the "best team in hockey" look shaky, especially on the penalty-kill-of the eight goals scored by the Pens in games 3 and 4, three of them, or nearly half, came on the powerplay. If you include Jordan Staal's shortie, the Wings special teams have been on the ice for half of the Pens goals in the past two games, and four of the ten Pens goals in the series have been scored with the man advantage.

By contrast, the Wings have scored only one powerplay goal in the series, despite getting ten themselves...

Special teams win games, and winning games wins championships. If you'd asked me after game two whether I thought the Pens could be returning to the Mellon on June 9th with a chance to lift the Stanley Cup, I'd have said "no way-they'll be trying to take it to a game 7 for sure". Now, I genuinely think a game 5 win is not only possible, but probable...Chris Osgood has been proven to be vulnerable, the vaunted hitting of the Red Wings defence (particularly Nicklas Kronwall) is failing spectacularly to intimidate (watch Malkin's goal from last night-the powerplay comes from a Kronwall hit that goes slightly wrong, on Geno himself...he hops up, stays on the ice and bangs home a rebound off the boards...a rebound which, by the way, makes up for the horrific Brad Stuart goal in game 1...

Oh yes, and there is the small matter of Sidney Crosby finally appearing to catch fire in the goalscoring department, too.

On Tuesday morning, the hope was just that the Pens could avoid falling into a deep hole. Now, as the series heads back to the Joe Louis, there's a real possibility that, far from just climbing out, they can go on and chuck the Wings into that same hole before they come back on Tuesday.

Watch out, Hockeytown. This summer, you have serious competition...